san antonio: a conservation success story

Central Texas Water Conserva/on Symposium

Karen Guz Director / Conserva/on

San Antonio: A Conserva/on Success Story

February 26, 2013

February 26, 2013


San Antonio Water Challenge

•  SAWS provides water and waste water services to 1.6 million people

•  Project 20,000 people/year growth rate •  May lose between 20-‐40% of supply due to drought

regula/ons and lack of rain to replenish •  New water supplies are all expensive and challenging to

acquire

February 26, 2013


| Driest 24 months on record | Jan 2007

68 days of 100 degree temperature

Wettest First 8 Months of

Any Year

44.6” in 8 mos 24.8” in 24 mos 58.6” in 13 mos

3rd Wettest 13 month period

on record

Sep 2007 Aug 2009 Sep 2010 Sep 2011

7.6” in 11 mos

Least rain since recording began

in 1871

Extreme Weather Ques/on: How to Supply During all Times?

February 26, 2013


Ques/on: How Bad Could it Get? Drought of Record Planning

600

610

620

630

640

650

660

670

680

J-17 Level ('msl)

% Edwards Supply Available

100%

80%

70%

65%

56%

Year 189.81%

Year 274%

Year 368.87%

Year 469.19%

Year 564.34%

Year 660.2%

Year 757.57%

Year 864.18%

Year 995.64%

February 26, 2013


Demand Reduc/on Strategy

•  Long Term Conserva/on –  Reduce per capita usage each year –  Lessens the need for new water to meet growth needs

•  Short-‐Term Demand Reduc/on –  During drought periods –  Staged drought plans reduce the need for new supplies

Minimize New Supply Costs

February 26, 2013


Drought Restric/ons Ques/on: What to do During Drought?

Edwards Supply City Restrictions Edwards Stage

660 ft msl Stage I Loss of 20% Water 1X/Week

650 ft msl Stage II Loss of 30% Water 1X/Week

Reduced Hours

640 ft msl Stage III Loss of 35% Water 1X Every Other Week

Reduced Hours

630 ft msl Stage IV Loss of 40% All Above Plus

Surcharge Excess Usage

Other rules apply for car washing, power washing, pools, decora/ve fountains, and hotel linen programs

February 26, 2013


Water Management Issues

•  Given DOR scenario & available supplies, what is our specific challenge?

•  GPCD target & /meline? Why? •  Dry-‐year challenge or year-‐round? •  What policies, ordinance, programs and strategies do we need to contemplate to succeed in reaching our target on /me?

Ques/on: What is the Problem We Need to Solve?

February 26, 2013


Not so long ago… The crisis that did not go to waste; conservation ethic started and then thrived.

February 26, 2013


Successful Conserva/on Program

•  Educa/on & Outreach Partnerships, events, workshops, site visits, e-‐newsleWer, performance contracts, adver/sing, PR

•  Reasonable Regula/on Addresses efficiencies in MANY uses of water

•  Financial Investment Capital program, /ered rate structure, rebate programs, free products and customer consulta/ons

Common Themes that Seem to Work

February 26, 2013


Customer Programs Equipment Change vs. Behavior Change •  One decision, one /me, ongoing, month to month savings

•  Decision to use water or not needs to be made daily

February 26, 2013


Behavior Change Programs

•  Landscape Rebates •  Home and Irriga/on Check-‐ups for homeowners •  Workshops and Events for the public •  Demonstra/on Gardens •  WaterSaver eNewsleWer

February 26, 2013


Equipment Change Programs •  Toilet Distribu/on: HET & Urinals •  Restaurant Retrofit: spray nozzles •  Plumbers to People: plumbing repairs •  Wash Right: washing machine rebate •  Custom Retrofits: for unique projects

February 26, 2013


Stakeholder Partnerships

February 26, 2013


Conserva/on = Con/nuous Improvement Conserva/on is: •  Set in place to meet long-‐term water management goals •  Addresses all water end use categories •  Year-‐round •  Measures begin as voluntary (can become rules over /me) •  Oben provides improvements in quality of life •  Requires innova/on, analysis, evalua/on, and change

February 26, 2013


Drought = Mandatory Temporary Rules Drought Management is: •  In response to special condi/ons to

obtain immediate cut-‐back •  Focused on discre/onary usage •  Mandatory •  Staged to reflect severity of situa/on •  Oben inconvenient for customers •  Temporary

February 26, 2013


Extreme Droughts

•  Each u/lity should know how much of total use is “discre/onary” and could be eliminated if drought worsens?

•  Drought plans can include phases that reduce discre/onary without a ban on it –  Stage Three: s/ll allows hand-‐watering –  Stage Four: applies surcharge on high use –  Ban: not needed based on analysis, but actual implementa/on will the test

How Low Can a Community Go in an Emergency?

February 26, 2013


Long Term Targets & Evalua/on

•  Top Down: –  Reaching target requires an average drop of ___ in total GPCD/year

–  Trends watched each year against weather •  BoWoms Up:

–  __ GPCD = ____ acre feet of savings/ year –  Adding up each program has yielded 2000 acre feet/ year (using available budget)

–  Customer educa/on saves more from behavior changes

Top Down and Bo\oms Up are Both Important

February 26, 2013


Water Use Per Bill Trends All Residen/al, Commercial, Industrial, Apartment

•  Trend line drop appears to be 15% reduction over ten years

•  Dry year drop is about 9% reduction over ten years

Gal

lons

February 26, 2013


Are Programs Affec/ng Trends?

•  Program evalua/ons demonstrate reduc/ons in individual customer use from educa/on, incen/ves & retrofits

•  Billed water averages are declining over /me as more customers use less water

•  New programs will have to target outdoor irriga/on to offset trend of higher use in summers from automa/c irriga/on

Programs Target Billed Water Trends

February 26, 2013


What About Water Losses?

•  Misconcep/on is that nearly all “Non Revenue Water” is from main breaks or leaks

•  Large por/ons can be water used, but not billed –  Older meters, water theb, fire prepara/ons, line flushing and other factors are significant

All Systems Need Programs to Minimize Losses

February 26, 2013


Water Loss Audit Models Iden/fy Opportuni/es and Realis/c Goals for Long Term

• System Input Volume

(corrected for known errors)

• Authorized Consump/on

• Billed Authorized Consump/on

• Billed Metered Consump/on (including water exported) • Revenue

Water • Billed Unmetered Consump/on

• Unbilled Authorized Consump/on

• Unbilled Metered Consump/on

• Non-‐Revenue

Water (NRW)

• Unbilled Unmetered Consump/on

• Water Losses

• Apparent Losses

• Unauthorized Consump/on

• Customer Metering Inaccuracies

• Data Handling Errors

• Real Losses

• Leakage on Transmission and Distribu/on Mains

• Leakage and Overflows at U/lity's Storage Tanks

• Leakage on Service Connec/ons up to point of Customer metering

February 26, 2013


The Keys to Conserva/on Success •  Treat water conserva/on as a supply •  Every customer can be part of the solu/on •  Analyze trends in usage, water losses, and program impact every year

February 26, 2013


History of San Antonio Conserva/on

May 1992

San Antonio City Council creates the San Antonio Water System through consolidation of the City Water Board, the City Wastewater Department, and the Alamo Water Conservation and Reuse District. Conservation department strategically located in the Planning and Water Resources department to emphasize water conservation as a viable method of addressing water resource challenges.

1991

Sierra Club files a lawsuit against the Department of Interior alleging violations of the Endangered Species Act at San Marcos and Comal Springs.

Nov 1993

Jun 1994

SAWS adopts its first Conservation and Reuse Plan.

Nov 1994

City Council approves a residential water rate structure that encourages conservation and establishes dedicated funding for water conservation programs.

SAWS institutes its first direct program: Plumbers to People. This program provides leak repair services to low-income households.

1996

SAWS Community Conservation Committee (CCC) is established. This advisory group provides staff and the Board of Trustees with citizen feedback on conservation policies and programs.

1997

SAWS holds the first WaterSaver Awards, recognizing local companies who have taken a leadership role in water conservation efforts.

February 26, 2013



Mar 1998

Jan 1998

Oct 1998

Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) appoints SAWS representative to the South Central Texas Regional Water Planning Group (Region L). Region L is one of 16 regional planning groups in Texas, tasked with the development of a 50-year water plan for inclusion in the state water plan.

Jan 2001

Dec 2001

San Antonio City Council approves a fee on all commercial water accounts in support of commercial conservation programs.

SAWS Board of Trustees approves the first Water Resource Plan, titled “Securing our Water Future Together.” This plan identified methods for meeting future water needs through diversification of our water resources.

Water use reduction goals established in the 1993 Conservation and Reuse Plan for 2008 are achieved a full 7 years in advance.

With input from Region L and regional planning groups throughout the state, TWDB adopts the first state water plan. In this plan, the San Antonio region is the only area in the state that adopts “advanced conservation” as a significant resource option.

Jan 2002

SAWS per capita consumption drops to 143 gallons per person per day.

February 26, 2013



August 2005

2005

2006

SAWS Board of Trustees approves an updated Water Resource Plan that establishes even more aggressive water use reduction goals: SAWS will reduce normal-year per capita consumption to 116 gallons per person per day by 2016.

Jan 2007

San Antonio City Council approves a comprehensive water conservation ordinance with the full support of all stakeholders affected by the provisions, including homeowners, the irrigation industry, and developers.

SAWS celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Community Conservation Committee.

San Antonio City Council approves updates to the drought management provisions of the water conservation ordinance.

2008

2009

Mission Verde – City ordinance requirement for WaterSaver fixtures in new construction. This will require HET toilets, efficient faucets, showerheads and urinals in all new construction starting 2010. Also limits total size of irrigation for residential and requires annual irrigation maintenance checks on large properties or those that use over one million gallons of water for irrigation.

Central Texas Water Conserva/on Symposium

Karen Guz Director / Conserva/on


February 26, 2013

san antonio: a conservation success story

Education

mos page

test page

daily page

new supplies page

water ongoing

new water supplies

customers temporary

customer consultaons