National Drinking Water Clearinghouse
West Virginia University
P.O. Box 6064
Morgantown, WV
26506-6064

EPA Publishes Water Conservation Guidelines
for Public Water Systems
Reprinted from Winter 1998 On Tap

Editor's Note: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Conservation Guidelines include more than 200 pages of suggestions for systems of all sizes. This On Tap review concentrates on the Basic Guidelines, which are recommended for public drinking water systems serving 10,000 or fewer people. We suggest that system managers order the guidelines, which include dozens of helpful worksheets.

In August, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published voluntary guidelines for utilities to use when preparing a conservation plan as required by the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) Amendments of 1996. The law required EPA's guidelines to take into account system size, water availability, and climate.

Use of these guidelines is not required by federal laws or regulations; however, beginning in August 1999, states may require public water systems to prepare conservation plans as a condition of qualifying for a loan under the drinking water state revolving loan fund (DWSRF), a financial program authorized as part of the 1996 SDWA Amendments.

These guidelines are written for water system managers; however, managers must comply with their own state, regional, or local regulatory requirements. (View a table of the guidelines and associated conservation measures.)

Ultimately, which guidelines are appropriate and how great the need is for conservation planning depends upon factors and conditions affecting individual water systems. For example, smaller systems with constrained water supplies may want to go beyond basic guideline suggestions and institute EPA's intermediate guidelines.

What is the purpose of the guidelines?
The EPA states that while the guidelines are not a federal requirement, they may "help bring conservation into the mainstream of water utility capital facility planning. The infrastructure needs of the nation's water systems are great. Strategic use of water conservation can help extend the value and life of infrastructure . . ." for both water and wastewater supply facilities. The guidelines state that conservation can extend water supplies, reduce utility operating costs, and reduce energy use for customers and utilities. This in turn reduces greenhouse gas emissions, improves water systems, maintains ecosystems, and protects water resources.

"One of the chief purposes of conservation" the guidelines state, "is that it can help systems avoid, downsize, or postpone, water and wastewater projects."

How are the guidelines organized?
The guidelines are organized into six parts, beginning with an introduction and an overview of the organization. The next three sections constitute a three-leveled structure for water conservation measures—basic, intermediate, and advanced. The final section includes six alphabetical appendices that provide very helpful supporting information, including detailed descriptions of conservation measures, conservation benchmarks, acronyms and a glossary, information resources, funding sources, and state contacts.

What measures does EPA recommend?
The EPA recommends that all water systems, including those serving 10,000 or fewer people consider implementing the following basic guidelines:

• universal metering,
• water accounting and loss control,
• costing and pricing, and
• information and education.

The EPA suggests water systems serving between 10,000 and 100,0000 people consider instituting basic and intermediate guidelines:

• water-use audits,
• retrofits,
• pressure management, and
• landscape efficiency.

The EPA recommends water systems serving more than 100,000 people consider instituting basic, intermediate, and advanced guidelines:

• replacements and promotions,
• reuse and recycling,
• water-use regulation, and
• integrated resource management.

What can very small systems do?
The guidelines encourage all systems to consider the fullest range of planning methods and conservation measures that is practical. The first section includes recommendations for water systems serving 3,300 or fewer people (approximately 1,000 connections). While these very small systems may follow the basic guidelines, there is also a capacity development approach that integrates water conservation assistance with the state's general capacity development program.

States may determine which conservation planning approach to use for small water systems on a statewide or case-by-case basis. States are encouraged to use a capacity development approach to help small systems develop and implement basic conservation measures. States may use funds from the 10 percent DWSRF capacity development set-aside to provide systems with water conservation assistance if the state has identified the systems in its capacity development strategy.

Under the SDWA, in order to avoid having DWSRF funds withheld, by August 2000 each state must develop and implement a strategy to assist public water systems in acquiring and maintaining technical, managerial, and financial capacity.

Several basic conservation practices can be directly linked to the three basic capacity elements. Under the capacity development approach, states encourage and assist small water systems in making a variety of conservation-oriented improvements. According to the guidelines, "States should provide technical assistance to water systems to help them implement at least the basic elements of a conservation program." If a very small system is not capacity-limited or wants to implement more conservation measures, it may use the planning approach in the basic guidelines.

Systems Should Set Conservation Goals
In beginning water conservation planning, each water system needs to state its goals in terms of expected benefits for the water system and its customers. Planning goals might include eliminating, downsizing, or postponing the need for capital projects; extending the life of existing facilities; avoiding new source water development costs; improving drought or emergency preparedness; educating customers about the value of water; or protecting and preserving environmental resources.

The process of developing goals should involve community representation. Involving the community in goal development and implementation also serves an important public education function and can greatly enhance the success of the program.

Modern resource planning emphasizes an open process that gives all affected groups—stakeholders—an opportunity to express interests and concerns.

Develop a Water System Profile
Each water system can begin to develop a profile by taking an inventory of existing resources and conditions. Summarize the service and operating characteristics of the water system, including an overview of conditions and a description of climate, water availability, and other factors that might affect water conservation planning.

The guidelines include a worksheet separated into service characteristics, annual water supply, service connections, water demand, average and peak demand, and pricing. It helps assist managers in summarizing system conditions via questions, such as, is the system in a designated critical water supply area? Does the system have substantial unaccounted-for and lost water? Is the system planning substantial improvements?

Prepare a Demand Forecast
The guidelines recommend that each water system prepare a forecast of anticipated water demand, taking into account variations in demand based on types of water use, such as per capita water use or per-connection or per-household basis. For forecasting purposes, per-connection water use is multiplied by the number of current and projected connections. They suggest preparing forecasts for five-year and ten-year time points. The longer the planning horizon, the greater the uncertainty.

Identify, Evaluate Conservation Measures
Water systems have access to a wide selection of conservation measures, including supply-side and demand-side management techniques for saving water. Each system needs to identify conservation measures and look at whether or not a specific measure is cost effective and whether or not it complies with applicable laws and regulations already, including state and local plumbing codes. Each conservation plan should indicate which measures will be implemented now or in the future and why. If a conservation measure won't be implemented, managers should note the primary reason why not.

All water systems regardless of size should consider universal metering, water accounting and loss control, costing and pricing, and information and education.

Criteria that can be used to select conservation measures may include:

• program costs,
• cost-effectiveness,
• ease of implementation,
• budgetary considerations,
• staff resources and capability,
• environmental impacts,
• rate payer impacts,
• environmental and social justice,
• water rights and permits,
• legal issues or constraints,
• regulatory approvals,
• public acceptance,
• timeliness of savings, and
• consistency with other programs.

For each selection criterion, managers should identify whether, how, and why the factor affects the feasibility of implementing one or more conservation measures. Some factors might be more important than others. Also, since conservation measures can reduce water sales and utility revenues, each plan should briefly address how planned conservation measures will affect water utility revenues.

Present Implementation Strategy
Each water system needs to prepare a strategy and timetable for implementing and assessing conservation measures that includes a plan for monitoring and evaluation. This may include regular communications meetings with community groups. Many systems update plans every five years.

For a discussion of conservation measures recommended for small systems, see the Water Conservation Measures Fact Sheet. To order a copy of EPA's Water Conservation Plan Guidelines, call (800) 490-9198 and request EPA-832-D-98-001. There is no charge for this publication.