ATLANTA -- Even
Georgia's top bureaucrat in charge of water conservation admits he's
not setting the best example.
"When I shave every morning, it's convenient for me to have my
water running,'' said Lonice Barrett, the state's natural resources
commissioner and supervisor of Georgia's newly hired conservation
coordinator.
"That
doesn't sound like much, but you multiply that by millions of places
in Georgia, and that's a heck of a lot of water running down the
drain. ... We need to change habits.''
Conservation represents a cheaper, more environmentally friendly
alternative for coping with the growing demand for water in the
South compared to building multimillion-dollar reservoirs and
desalinization plants.
Three of the most populous and fastest-growing states in the
region -- Florida, Texas and North Carolina -- have a jump on
Georgia.
The regional water-management plans mandated by the Florida
Legislature in 1997 call for a variety of conservation measures, and
the state's Department of Environmental Protection launched a
statewide conservation initiative last spring.
Conservation is given a key role in the state water plans of both
Texas and North Carolina. In fact, Texas planners are counting on
successful conservation to limit the rise in municipal water demand
to 67 percent during the next 50 years, despite a projected
population increase of 90 percent.
Good examples
But conservation as a demand-side weapon in the fight to maintain
adequate water supplies originated in the West, particularly
fast-growing states like California and Colorado, with a dry climate
where water is perennially scarce.
In 1991, a combination of water-management districts, water
utilities and environmental groups responded to a severe drought by
forming the California Urban Water Conservation Council.
| Conservation
suggestions
Here are the 14 "best-management practices'' for water
conservation developed by the California Urban Water
Conservation Council, suggestions aimed at water managers,
water utilities and residential and business customers:
1. Offer residential customers voluntary water-use audits
2. Retrofit residential plumbing with low-flow fixtures
3. System water audits, leak detection and repair
4. Metering for all new and existing connections, to allow
pricing based on usage
5. Large landscape conservation programs and incentives
6. Rebates for high-efficiency washing machines
7. Public information programs
8. School education programs
9. Conservation programs for commercial, industrial and
institutional customers
10. Advise wholesale water-supply agencies and retail
suppliers
11. Set rates to encourage conservation
12. Hire conservation coordinators
13. Set regulations prohibiting water waste
14. Residential ultra-low-flush toilet replacement programs
(1.6 gallons or less)
Source: California Urban Water Conservation Council
|
Mary Ann
Dickinson, the council's executive director, said the goal was to
avoid new government regulations by developing a set of voluntary
water conservation measures.
"Some very serious drought-enforcement measures were being
considered,'' she said. "The water districts didn't want to get into
that. ... So, all of the parties got together to negotiate
demand-reduction practices.''
The council, which has grown to nearly 300 members, subscribes to
a set of 14 "best-management practices'' for conservation.
Much of the checklist is aimed at water utilities, including
suggestions to set rates that encourage conservation, improve
monitoring to detect leaks in water mains and institute metering to
keep track of use.
But the list also calls on homeowners to do their part. Inside
the home, the checklist recommends low-flow plumbing fixtures.
Outdoors, it prescribes landscaping that reduces reliance on
watering.
Individually, businesses and factories use a lot more water than
homeowners. But Dickinson said residential neighborhoods can make a
vital contribution to conservation.
She cites studies that have found that just retrofitting homes
with low-flow plumbing fixtures reduces water use up to 30 percent.
"We find that most water utilities deliver 50 to 60 percent of
their water to residential customers,'' she said. "If these people
can conserve 10 to 25 percent of their water, that's a significant
reduction.''
Georgia efforts
In Georgia, which still is working on a statewide
water-management plan and only recently hired a conservation
coordinator, the only conservation successes to date are occurring
at the local level.
Savannah has run a grant-funded program giving low-flow toilets
to single-family homeowners and residents of public housing.
Two of Georgia's largest water utilities, serving two counties in
Atlanta's northern suburbs, use rate structures that encourage
conservation during the summer months, when use is highest.
In Gwinnett County, a homeowner who uses more than 20,000 gallons
in a month pays about $3.60 for each 1,000 gallons over that limit,
25 percent higher than the standard rate of $2.90 per 1,000 gallons.
"Twenty thousand gallons is enough for household usage and maybe
an inch a week of outdoor watering,'' said Frank Stephens, deputy
director of engineering for the county's Department of Public
Utilities.
While the Cobb County Water System also levies a
water-conservation surcharge, it's achieving most of its savings by
strict enforcement of outdoor watering restrictions in effect
throughout the Atlanta region, said Ken Harris, manager of the
utility's Customer Service Division.
Watering restrictions have become a fact of life across much of
the South in the wake of a persistent drought that began more than
four years ago.
In some areas, curbs on sprinkling go back even farther. Since
1991, homeowners across Northeast Florida have been prohibited from
watering their lawns between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
In portions of the 19-county St. Johns River Water Management
District, including Volusia County, the restrictions are much more
severe. In the wake of an extreme lack of rainfall in 2000, the
district board voted in January 2001 to limit sprinkling to two days
a week in those areas.
Georgians are permitted to water every other day, under a system
based on addresses, but sprinkling in metro Atlanta is restricted to
fewer hours per day than in the rest of the state.
"We're one of the few places that really patrols for violators,''
Harris said. "Most people take advantage of the warnings and stop.''
Public education campaigns are a common element to all of the
states' conservation efforts.
Education key
Water planners have taken note of the campaigns to stamp out
smoking and littering with massive advertising and education
initiatives in the public schools.
"You don't see people throwing stuff out on the highways like
they used to,'' said Georgia's Barrett.
While Barrett and others would like to translate those successes
to water conservation, being stingy with water isn't an easy sell in
Florida, said Barbara Vergara, director of the St. Johns district's
Division of Water Supply Management.
The district pushes conservation by posting water-saving tips on
its Web site, and district volunteers host periodic workshops on how
to maintain a lush lawn while using less water.
"In a state like Florida, where you see so much water, it's
difficult to realize the need for conservation,'' Vergara said.
But Vergara said the ongoing drought has raised public awareness.
"Dry weather really has helped people focus and pay more
attention to what we're saying,'' she said.
Indeed, water conservation can and is being pursued on a variety
of fronts: from education and pricing to plumbing and landscaping.
But even its most ardent supporters don't see it as a panacea.
Planners in charge of the supply side of the equation will
continue exploring new ways of increasing the amount of water
available to a growing population.
But, when approached aggressively, conservation can make that
search a little less urgent.
"Water conservation's going to buy us some time,'' said Allison
Keefer, Georgia's reservoirs coordinator, a title that doesn't fully
describe her role as point person for the full gamut of the state's
water-supply planning.
"We can put off some of these problems 10 years down the road
with these efforts. But 10 years isn't a long time.''
Staff writer Dave Williams can be reached at
or via e-mail at davemns.
