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Water Efficiency

Rapidly growing demand for water by urban and suburban populations is the principal new threat to aquatic and riparian habitat in our region’s rivers, exacerbating problems from already heavy use by agriculture. Recent drought conditions worsen the problem, further taxing finite water resources and increasing the call from some for large new storage facilities. New municipal diversions often are trans-basin projects that divert high-quality water from high in the watershed, so impacts on small streams can be very great. The goal of the Water Efficiency Project is to improve water use efficiency in the region, thereby reducing stress on aquatic habitat.

Structuring Water Rates to Promote Conservation

In the West, rivers, streams, and aquifers sustain cities and towns by feeding our urban water supply systems. With this finite supply, we must maintain the delicate balance between providing water that flows through our faucets and keeping water in our rivers to maintain healthy ecosystems. Westerners place a high value on both.

Water rate structures play an essential role in communicating the value of water to customers, promoting long-term efficient use. Increasing block rate structures (picture a staircase) most effectively encourage efficient water use. Customers who use low or average amounts of water are rewarded for conservation; those using excessive volumes pay higher unit prices.

WRA’s Smart Water study of regional water use found a correlation between cities with dramatically increasing block rates and those with the lowest per capita consumption levels. Along with other conservation and efficiency programs, effective rate structures can help stretch existing water supplies further and avoid much of the cost and controversy that result from large new water development projects. If designed appropriately, increasing block rates:

• Provide water at low prices for basic and essential needs, so all customers can afford it;
• Reward conserving customers with lower unit rates for water;
• Assign water supply and development costs proportionately to the customers who place the highest burden on the supply system, and on the rivers that feed the supplies; and
• Do all of the above while still maintaining a stable revenue flow to the utility.

Throughout our region, a variety of water rate structures exist, ranging from progressive, efficiency-based designs to rate structures that actually promote inefficient water use. Although many municipalities have come a long way in instituting efficiency-based rate structures, many still have room for improvement. This is precisely why WRA’s Water Program is accelerating its efforts to promote efficiency-based rate structures throughout the Southwest.

We have already begun assisting various Colorado municipal governments, water utilities, and environmental organizations in assessing the most effective rate structure options in each community.

Water Rate Structures in Colorado: How Colorado Cities Compare in Using this Important Water Use Efficiency Tool

Water rate structures are becoming an important tool for encouraging the most efficient use of precious water in the arid West. This report offers a guide to the various pricing options that urban water managers and policymakers can use. It explains which options generate the strongest incentive for efficient water use and yield the fairest billing for consumers who place different levels of strain (demand) on water supply systems. It then compares water rate structures in communities along Colorado's Front Range and on Colorado's Western Slope.
View the report (310kb)

SMART WATER: A Comparative Study of Urban Water Use Efficiency Across the Southwest

Smart Water provides an in-depth comparison on the efficiency of urban water use by over a dozen cities in the arid southwest. It describes how unchecked growth in urban water use threatens nearby river systems, such as Colorado’s Gunnison Basin, and New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande. The report also summarizes current state-of-the-art practices in conserving water and in using existing water supplies more efficiently, highlighting areas where there is room for improvement.

Smart Water makes it clear there are many tools, not fully tapped, that can dramatically improve urban water management. One avenue is to reduce urban demand for water by planting drought-resistant lawns and installing drip irrigation systems. Upgrading toilets and appliances with water-saving devices offers additional savings. Such conservation measures alone could make up for a water shortfall projected for the Denver metropolitan area by 2045. It appears that one of the clearest paths to improved efficiency is through water rate structures that make use expensive for water wasters while offering discounts to low water users. Water conservation would also be fostered through incentives such as rebate programs.

View the report

The Last Straw: Water Use by Power Plants in the Arid West

Fossil-fueled power plants are widely recognized as major sources of air pollutants that damage human health and the environment. But they also have a significant impact on water, both as large users and polluters. Water has always been scarce in the West, resulting in fierce competition between various users, such as irrigators, industries and cities. Due to widespread drought conditions, water is becoming increasingly valuable and its use increasingly contentious. As a result, Western communities are now reassessing how best to use this vital resource.

The Last Straw, co-authored by WRA and Clean Air Task Force describes practical opportunities to reduce both water use and water quality impacts from power generation. It examines the close relationship between power generation and water, including water use effects on competing uses, water quality and power system reliability.

The report sets out an action agenda that covers fossil-fuel generation, renewable energy, and energy efficiency. If implemented, this agenda will minimize the impacts from water used for power generation, while ensuring power system reliability, conserving scarce water resources, and protecting rivers, streams and groundwater from unnecessary discharges.
View the report (509kb)