Originally published July 26, 2006
“It pays to plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.” Unknown Author
In many parts of the country, the drought of 2002 was the most severe since the days of the infamous Dust Bowl. The total economic effects may never be fully known, but estimates of the drought's damages to business and the environment run well into the billions of dollars.
Farmers suffered losses in crop yield and quality, livestock producers were forced to liquidate herds, and land prices in drought-affected regions fell. Lurking just beneath the surface of the all the arid turmoil was the struggle many rural water systems faced as they worked to keep a valuable commodity, water, flowing to their parched customers.
Whether as a result of inadequate and outdated water systems, or simply because there wasn't enough water to go around when the proverbial well ran dry, many systems soon realized that the best way to combat drought in the future is by planning today.
This year is already proving to be a scorcher for many parts of the country. Down in Lubbock, TX this week city officials are expected to adopt a resolution asking local residents to both fast and pray for rain. Officials in Lubbock have relied on the power or prayer in the past, and say that their prayers were answered. In January 2004, after a year of drought, the city and county set aside a Sunday to pray for rain and were rewarded with the second-wettest year since records have been kept.
It's important for every water system to remember that during the good times, and the bad, customers count on their water system for a scarce but essential human need-a safe, affordable, and reliable supply of drinking water. While meeting this need can be especially difficult during prolonged periods of drought, the work you do today can have a large impact on your community's future.
In this issue of the Safe Drinking Water Trust eBulletin we will take a look at drought planning and other practical steps that your system can take to ensure that the water keeps flowing even when the rainy days are few and far between.
Additional Resources
Online Drought Monitor
www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html [1]
Making the Best Out of the Worst Situations
By doing a little planning now, you are simply bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it today. While there is clearly no way to prepare for every situation, water systems large and small need to take the time to map out the steps they will take if suddenly faced with a drought or other water shortage emergency.
In a nutshell, your very own Water Shortage Response Plan will help your system establish a set of unique "triggers" or weak links, in your system that can be used as a signal for initiating a specific drought response. The plan will also show you ways to make the most of the water you treat and will set you down the road to educating your customers on how to responsibly conserve water.
As with any good plan, a comprehensive Water Shortage Response Plan should not only look at how to identify when a crisis is looming, but how to respond before, and even after a crisis has occurred.
The planning process involved in preparing a thorough Water Shortage Response Plan can be broken down into four distinct phases of action:
1. Preparation: Preparing for droughts before they occur (ex. exploring alternative and emergency water sources, establishing drought triggers, evaluating your rates, putting your drought plan in writing, educating your staff and customers, and reducing water loss).
2. Response: Taking action as a drought begins to put a strain on your system and your community (ex. determining if demand reduction or supply augmentation (using less or finding more water) offers your best bet, implementing water-use restrictions, notifying the public, and activating alternative water sources).
3. Enforcement: Enforcing water-use restrictions during a drought. (ex. fines, water-use surcharges, and ultimately, termination of water service for those customers who simply refuse to do their part).
4. And last, but certainly not least, Return to Normal: Ending water
use-restrictions once the crisis has passed. It is important that your system emerge from a drought in the same measured stages that you followed when initiating the action (ex. notifying customers and reducing then eliminating restrictions). Remember, droughts rarely end over night. Returning things to normal will generally be completed in stages.
Tip: A public water supply drought "emergency" is commonly identified as the point when the loss of supply will result in normal operating conditions of less than 35 psi through out the entire distribution system (for example, your well goes dry!)
Additional Resources
Washington State Department of Health's Guidance Document on Preparing Water
Shortage Response Plans
www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/dw/Publications/331-316_water_shortage_response_plans.htm [2]
Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail
By the time a water system first recognizes a looming water shortage, it is generally too late to simply increase the supply. There are long lead times involved in drilling a new well, adding plant capacity, or desilting a reservoir. Advanced preparation is the key to properly handling a drought.
One of the most affordable sources of additional water that you can tap into is the water that your system loses on a daily basis. It is very important that every system initiate a leak-detection and a preventative maintenance program long before it begins to feel the heat of a drought.
You don't have to feel like the Lone Ranger when it comes to unaccounted for water loss. All water systems experience some percentage of water loss due to line breaks, improperly maintained valves, non-working water meters, and simple theft. While a water loss of between 10 and 15 percent is generally considered acceptable, if your system is regularly losing in excess of 15 percent of the water it treats each month, then it's time that you pinpoint where you are losing water (and money). Most systems can accomplish this task either with the help of sonic leak-detection equipment or other devices that are designed to pinpoint leaks.
However, as with just about any situation, it is also important that you use a little common sense. If you suddenly notice a large jump in usage in a particular area of town, the chances are that either the local swimming pool company is offering a really great deal on new pools, or you have a water leak somewhere along the line. To calculate how much water your system is losing each month simply fill in the blanks:
A. Total gallons pumped for the month: ___________________________________
B. Total gallons billed to customers for the month: ___________________________
(Remember: B should always be smaller than A unless you have discovered an alternative delivery system!)
C. Subtract B from A and you have your system's total water loss in gallons: ________
Next, simply divide C (total water loss) by A (total gallons pumped) and multiply the answer by 100 to calculate your system’s percentage loss (C÷A) x 100= % water loss.
Once you have taken the time to determine how much water your system is losing on a regular basis (hopefully not much), and have taken the necessary steps to fix the problems, it is probably a good time to take a close look at your system's rate structure.
Your rate structure (how you charge customers for the water they use) can be an effective tool to use in controlling the demand on your system and generating revenue for capital improvements. Your water system may want to consider adopting a rate structure that discourages water use and promotes conservation, such as an increasing block rate. With this rate structure, the customers who use more water also pay more per unit.
By implementing a fair and equitable rate structure that promotes conservation and discourages excessive water use and by getting excessive leakage under control long before you experience a drought, you are taking the first steps in preparing for the future.
Tip: Remember that water service meters not only serve as "cash registers" for your system, but are also great water management tools. In terms of water conservation, one recent study found that metered households use an average of 20 percent less water than un-metered households.
Additional Resources
Efficient Water Use for Texas: Policies, Tools, and Management Strategies
http://twri.tamu.edu/reports/2002/tr200/tr200.pdf [3]
Conservation Matters
Preparing for a drought also requires the basic components of public involvement and public education. When you consider that the average indoor water usage for a single-family home in the U.S. is 69.3 gallons per person each and every day it becomes clear that in order to conserve water every one of your customers must do their part.
An educated, well-informed customer is much more likely to comply with voluntary and mandatory water-use restrictions. Especially if your customers clearly understand what they are being asked to do, when they are supposed to do it, and why, they will have a better chance of actually changing their water-use patters. For example, a well thought-out campaign that asks customers to adopt voluntary conservation measures can normally save up to 10 percent of normal water demand. Bill stuffers are a cost-effective way to reach out to each of your rate-payers to spread the word about water conservation.
The good folks over at the EPA also recommend that water suppliers encourage conservation-promoting practices in a number of creative ways, including establishing or encouraging:
-high-volume price disincentives
-system water audits, leak detection and repair
-promoting ultra-low flush toilets, showerheads, and faucet aerator retrofit programs
-landscape irrigation audits
-water waste ordinances and enforcement
Additional Resources
EPA's Water Conservation Page
www.epa.gov/OW/you/chap3.html [4]
Determining Drought Triggers
Unlike most other types of weather-related natural disasters, droughts develop slowly over the course of months and even years. Because of the almost imperceivable nature of a drought, water system decision makers should identify drought triggers that serve as indicators of potential water supply problems. By identifying and monitoring these "triggers" you will allow your system to take a gradual approach to dealing with droughts and avoid over or under-reacting based on the level of available water.
Triggers are generally broken down into two categories, Supply-side and Demand-side triggers.
Basic Supply-side Triggers include:
Well-Depth Levels: How much water is in your well.
Storage Tank Recovery: The ability of your pumps to keep up with customer demand.
Reservoir Storage: How much water is in your lake or pond.
Stream-Flow: The amount of water flowing down the river or into your reservoir.
Basic Demand-side Triggers can include:
Plant Capacity: How much water can you treat in a given day.
Total Daily Demand: How much water can you pump from your supply source.
Pump Hours: A good indicator of how hard your system is working to provide water.
The triggers you identify in your Water Shortage Response Plan should be easy for you to monitor and measure. This will help you establish when and what actions your system should take.
Remember, forecasting the severity or duration of a drought is an inexact science at best. When you notice that one or more of your defined triggers is out of character, in conjunction with the drought information provided by state and federal officials and other indicators, it is often a pretty good indicator that a drought may be on its way. Once you have determined that this is the case, it is time to take action.
Additional Resources
Developing Drought Triggers and Drought Responses: An Application in Georgia
www.tag.washington.edu/papers/papers/Palmer-etal.GA.2002.ASCE-Conf-Proc.pdf [5]
Lights, Cameras, Action!
Once you have recognized that one or more of your identified triggers have occurred, it is time to respond appropriately and begin letting your customers know what is expected of them and what they can expect in the coming days and weeks.
This could include such actions as issuing media alerts requesting that folks use less water, enforcement of outdoor lawn watering restrictions, or even the issuance of rate changes or drought surcharges designed to force customers to restrict their water usage.
However, it is important to make sure that the restrictions that you initiate don't actually cause customers to increase water consumption. This has often been shown to be the case when alternate-day and odd-even watering schedules are enacted. Customers tend to panic and feel compelled to water their lawns even when they don't actually need to.
Once the appropriate response plan has been activated, the next step is to enforce the requirements across the board. Many times a little visible enforcement will go a long way in deterring other customers from flaunting the restrictions. It is very important that your Water Shortage Response Plan clearly spells out how you will deal with customers who won't cooperate with water use restrictions. Remember, enforcement must be consistent and nondiscriminatory.
Additional Resources
Washington State Department of Health's Water Shortage Response Plan for Small Public Drinking Water Systems
www.tag.washington.edu/papers/papers/Palmer-etal.GA.2002.ASCE-Conf-Proc.pdf [5]