A Tale of Three Cities: New Water Infrastructure in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego
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The POLIS Project investigated water supply contexts and water conservation programs in California.
Tag:
Water Utilities
Village of Lumby Water-Use Efficiency Program
In keeping with its newly adopted Water Conservation and Drought Contingency Plan, the Village of Lumby introduced a Stage-1 Water Conservation threshold that instituted water sprinkling regulations, a public education awareness program, and increased water-level monitoring for village wells.
Automation in Lake Country saves money and operator time
Over the last few years, upgrades to intake screening facilities and pressure reducing stations in the District of Lake Country have increased efficiency and safety, which has allowed operators to meet the new demands with no net increase in staff. To continue this trend, the district has begun a program of integrating and automating operation facilities.
Planning for a water future in Williams Lake
Water is a precious thing. Williams Lake is blessed with an abundant source of fresh, clean water that’s relatively easy to extract and distribute. Unfortunately, like any good thing, our water supply is not infinite. During the past two years, the City of Williams Lake has worked hard to determine just how much water there is, and how to best manage it to ensure adequate supplies for future generations.
Partnering for water conservation in Williams Lake
In last year’s Water Conservation Plan, the City of Williams Lake committed itself to following a three-step program for water conservation.
BMID optimizes water quality through watershed management
The Black Mountain Irrigation District (BMID) provides domestic water to 20,000 people and irrigation water to 4,100 acres of agriculture on the east benchlands of Kelowna. BMID draws from Mission Creek, which is the most significant creek feeding Okanagan Lake.
The principles of risk communication: Ignoring them can be hazardous to your health!
Before interacting with the media, water system professionals should learn and practice a few rules for effectively communicating risk to the public.
Measuring fairness: Assessing the equity of municipal water rates
Equity has long been an important principle of utility rate design, but until now no measure of rate equity has been developed and applied systematically to municipal water rate structures.
Public affairs as a strategic management function
Most water utility managers don’t classify public outreach as an integral part of utility management. But, that’s an “unfortunate attitude because experience clearly demonstrates the value of devoting public outreach resources on major issues and projects early on instead of after the fact.”
Beyond greater efficiency: The concept of water soft paths
Even in “water-rich” Canada, many jurisdictions are having trouble providing adequate, clean fresh water as their populations not only grow, but also exhibit higher expectations for water availability and water safety. The conventional approach to such problems accepted the history of constantly growing demand for water and responded by extending pipelines, constructing more dams and drilling deeper.