presented to CASE, June 15, 2013

outline• Mother Nature’s wakeup call…• What is water conservation?• Why conserve?• How are we doing?• The future…

outline• Mother Nature’s wakeup call…• What is water conservation?• Why conserve?• How are we doing?• The future…

October2011

October2010

June2013

RESERVOIR CONSERVATION STORAGE DATA

Storage for May 29, 2013: 20.944 Million acre-ft (66.5%)Conservation capacity: 31.518 Million acre-ft

+0.5% from last week( )

Reservoir storage in Austin Area

Buchanan: 41% full Georgetown: 60%Stillhouse Hollow: 81% Travis: 37%

ring ring!ring ring!

ring ring!

ring ring!

tree rings

outline• Mother Nature’s wakeup call…• What is water conservation?• Why conserve?• How are we doing?• The future…

?•efficiency• conservation• restriction

outline• Mother Nature’s wakeup call…• What is water conservation?• Why conserve?• How are we doing?• The future…

Thirsty cat is Thirsty

17

HISTORIC AND PROJECTED TEXAS POPULATION GROWTH

3.0 3.9 4.7 5.8 6.4 7.79.6

11.214.2

17.0

20.9

25.4

29.7

33.7

37.7

41.9

46.3

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

35.0

40.0

45.0

50.0

1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 2060

Texa

s Pop

ulati

on (m

illio

ns)

Are we ready for the next drought?

Demand for water

Water we have now

nope…

Acre

-feet

What can we do?

data from the 2011 regional water plans summary

Water Management Strategies for

2060

“It’s the right thing to do.”-Wilford Brimley

outline• Mother Nature’s wakeup call…• What is water conservation?• Why conserve?• How are we doing?• The future…

Alliance forWater Efficiency

Water conservation plans

• Saved 220,000 acre-feet

• 407,000 meters

• 130,000 leaks fixed

71.5 billion gallons

replaced or repaired

~5 percent of municipal use

annual reports for 2010

that’s a lot of leaks!

use

outdoorindoor

outdoor use

indoor use

Texas residential water use

31%

69%

Water lossaudits for 2010

• 16.8 percent loss• 3.1 apparent• 13.7 real

total per capita water use and residential per capita water use for the 40 largest cities in Texas

from 2012 State Water Plan, p. 138

2002 2007 20120

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

1,400,000

1,600,000

state water plan

acre

-feet

of w

ater

municipal conservationagricultural conservationreuse

outline• Mother Nature’s wakeup call…• What is water conservation?• Why conserve?• How are we doing?• The future…

Water in the future…

• The cost of water will go up• Water conservation will become more important– Landscape watering– Water loss– Efficient fixtures

• Water reuse will increase• Other sources of water (desal) will become more

economically viable • Transfers from agriculture to municipal use

Richland-Chambers Engineered WetlandTarrant Regional Water District

Water loss

33 million gallons a year

How low can you go?• Currently folks use 40 to 50 gallons per capita

daily indoors• Indoor use in a new home is ~35 gallons per

capita daily• Vision 2020 for indoor use: goal of 20 gallons

per capita daily

cubist toilets

How low can you go?• Vision 2020 goal for toilets: 1.28 gallons per

flush (ours = 1.1 gallons per flush [average])• Vision 2020 goal for showerheads: 2 gallons per

minute (ours = 2 gallons per minute; current = 1.5 gallons per minute)

• Vision 2020 goal for dishwashers: 5 gallons (ours = 2.95 gallons)

• Vision 2020 goal for washing machines: 4.5 gallons (front loader) (ours = 2.6 gallons)

gallo

ns o

f wat

er

maximum volume of tank(s)

year

Robert’s awesome rainwater system

gallo

ns o

f wat

ermaximum volume of tank(s)

year

Robert’s mega-awesome rainwater system

conclusions• Been dry; improvement coming?• Conservation = using less water• Many reasons to conserve water• We’re doing pretty good!• but we can do more…• theoretically a lot more.• and remember:

presented to CASE, June 15, 2013

Questions?

Robert E. Mace, Ph.D., P.G.

Texas Water Development Board(512)936-0861robert.mace@twdb.texas.govwww.linkedin.com/in/robertemace