Water Use & Conservation

During the next quarter century, water utilities in North America will face a number of developments that will put pressure on their resources, spur them to develop alternative supplies, and necessitate new approaches to how they conduct business. This article in the August edition of the AWWA “Journal”, the second in a series, highlights two of these trends—population growth and climate change.

The increasing pressure on water utilities to meet growing regulatory expectations is well known. Customers are also clamoring for utilities' attention, demanding service, safety, and taste, and creating pressure from a different direction. Utilities' primary competition is the bottled water industry because of a public perception of greater safety and better taste.

This article, from the October 2005 edition of the AWWA “Journal”, takes a timely look at “Scenario planning: A tool to manage future water utility uncertainty.” This powerful tool can be used by strategic planners to frame the future, and is useful in guiding representatives of the public water supply community when planning for future uncertainty.

In 2004, the City of Williams Lake undertook a major review of its water utility and associated management practices. The resulting documents—the “Williams Lake Water Conservation Plan” and the “Waterworks Bylaw”—identify water management and water conservation strategies that will protect and preserve our valuable water resource well into the future.

Included in the November 2005 edition of the AWWA “Journal”, “Envisioning the future water utility” presents the findings of a Malcolm Pirnie Inc. 2004 national survey of 71 water utility industry experts, regarding their views on the future issues facing U.S. utilities. (While the survey was conducted in the U.S., many of the findings reflect the current and potential future states of the water industry in Canada.)

As noted in the 5th Edition of “Maximum Performance Testing of Popular Toilet Models”, “virtually all toilet models sold in Canada and the U.S. meet both flush volume and performance requirements of the Canadian Standards Association and the American National Standards Institute/American Society of Mechanical Engineers.” However, “there remains some question as to whether models that meet the minimum certification requirements meet the expectations of the consumer.”

The revised B.C. Water Conservation (Plumbing) Regulation, which took effect September 30th, 2005, requires that all new toilets installed in the areas specified below must be six-litre, low-consumption models.

The following hints will help both residents and growers assess their watering practices over the last growing season and consider improvements for next year.

A water bailiff was hired for the summer of 2005 to help enforce Peachland’s watering restrictions, and to gain a better understanding of how water is used by both residents and growers. This will help the district make sound water management decisions now and in the future.

The City of Salmon Arm’s WaterWise program manager, Eugene Lalonde, can now say with certainty that “residents favour wise water use.” Findings from in-home water audits conducted during the summer of 2005 show conclusively that residents are becoming more aware of the need for water-use efficiency, and are more prepared to take the necessary steps to achieve it.