Municipal Workgroup

Follow Municipal BMP Development Here.

The Water Conservation Advisory Council (Council) is initiating an effort to invite municipal stakeholders to participate in activities and discussions in the following areas:

• Evaluating and defining metrics for municipal water uses,
• Improving resource information such as developing municipal Best Management Practices (BMPs),
• Improving awareness and recognition for municipal water conservation, and
• Identifying case studies and trends in municipal water conservation efforts

The Council would like to engage the municipal sectors that use the greatest volumes of water. Reducing water use benefits municipalities, water users, and creates a more stable economic and natural environment with greater certainty and long term stability. Water conservation and reuse are identified in the 2007 State Water Plan as accounting for nearly one quarter of the State’s water supplies by 2060; therefore, it is crucial to build a stakeholder network to provide input on standardizing how water use is measured over time and compared across the State to ensure implementation of successful water conservation strategies.

2008 Municipal Water Use by Sector

The data presented here represents a 68% response rate of Municipal Water Systems that submitted a Water Uses Survey in 2008 (82% of all systems). Approximately 76% of systems that submitted a survey subdivided water use into these three categories.

Evaluation of Water Use Metrics

The Council would like to host discussions with municipal stakeholder groups in order to evaluate current metrics for measuring water use. To better understand municipal water use it is necessary to use consistent terminology and methodologies to compute water use data. The single universally used metric for municipal water use is gallons per capita daily (GPCD). The specifics regarding how GPCD should be calculated and compared across the State requires discussion and consensus among stakeholders.

One of the goals of this workgroup is to get various stakeholders involved in municipal water use to help define consistent parameters for GPCD metrics and encourage municipal water users to incorporate this metric into water conservation programs. Consistency in the application of the metrics will allow for better understanding and reporting of water use which in turn will provide a measure by which water conservation successes can be understood and shared. The Council would like to invite key stakeholder groups to be involved in the discussion of refining metrics and implementing the use of these metrics in water conservation programs across the State.

Because municipal water demand is projected to steadily increase over the next 50 years, it is very important that we improve our understanding of how that water is used so that water conservation plans can be designed to mitigate the economic impact and insure that the water is available to meet the needs.

Residential GPCD is a widely used method for evaluating residential water use. It is calculated by dividing the total residential water use by the population served.

Residential Water Use / Population Served = Residential GPCD

This methodology presents challenges when it comes to accurately determining residential water use as well as population served.

Water Conservation Best Management Practices

The Best Management Practices Guide currently has 22 municipal BMPs. These BMPs were originally prepared as general examples of how BMPs should be structured. The Council intends to expand the Guide to include other BMPs related to the municipal sector. The Council is currently considering some specific updates and modifications to the BMP Guide that will better provide guidance and information to users.

For example one enhancement that is expected to be made to the guide is to incorporate some information on the Determination of the Impact on Other Resources. Because we have learned that water conservation often has other important resource impacts such as infrastructure costs, operating and maintenance cost savings, energy savings and personnel issues. We believe it is important to recognize the impacts associated with water conservation practices. For additional enhancements, the Council would like to supplement the guide with actual case studies. Case studies will serve to identify and document practices used by water providers to achieve and measure of conservation success. These case studies are an example for others to follow and allow other water users to identify possible expertise as a resource for those wishing to implement a water conservation practices.

Public Awareness

A public awareness campaign that incorporates media, outreach, and resources for water users is a good first step to achieve a measure of success in water conservation. Lasting water conservation will be achieved through the involvement of every person in Texas by helping individuals understand the importance of reducing water use at home and at work to make the most of this precious resource. We must encourage water users to take a close look at their water use by conducting water audits and identifying every opportunity to conserve water through increased efficiency and reduced waste. Every stakeholder group is invited to share information across their sector to educate and engage water users in the statewide effort to conserve water for future generations.