Laserfiche WebLink
Conservation measures then can be expected to save 1,406 of of the water. This represents a <br />production savings of 44 %. <br />In 2005 our total production was 844,848,200 gallons. Of that residential customers were billed <br />for 43 5,23 4,000 gallons (51.5%) and commercial customers were billed for 3 64,15 6,000 gallons <br />(43.1%). The remaining 45,458,200 gallons (5.4 %), went to City parks and buildings which are <br />metered but have not been entered into the billing system, and unaccounted for water. This is a <br />major improvement over the data collected from 2000, 2001, and 2002 which reflect an 18% <br />unaccounted (not billed) water as reflected in appendix 3, Preliminary Engineering Report <br />completed by Arber and Associates in May of 2005. Much of this improvement can be <br />attributed to the fact that we no longer estimate winter water use, but rather read meters year <br />round. Data accuracy will also improve with the well meters installed in 2007. We found that <br />the old mechanical type well meters were under - reading by an average of 8 %, a problem that <br />should be eliminated with the new electronic flow meters. A similar problem exists with <br />customer meters. We had never had a structured repair or replacement program, and as meters <br />age, they tend to under -read the use. We started replacing all meters larger than one inch in 2005 <br />and are approximately 85% complete with this program. In 2008 we will start a systematic <br />customer meter replacement at 5% replacement per year. <br />We will be able to further refine that data as we restructure our customer service codes. The City <br />acquired a new billing system in 2006 which is still being refined. As mentioned earlier, we <br />have only been tracking usage by residential and commercial customer classes. We will be <br />expanding these codes in the summer of 2007 to include residential, commercial, industrial, and <br />institutional users. Our industrial use base, except for the two car washes, is minor, including <br />automotive and equipment service facilities, one machine shop, and some trucking companies, <br />all of which have limited uses and none of which are in our top twenty users. Our institutional <br />base however is substantial, including the Alamosa School District, Adams State College, <br />Alamosa Parks and Recreation Department, and the San Luis Regional Medical Center, all of <br />which are on our top twenty user list. More than half of the water use of these institutional users, <br />except for the hospital, is irrigation use. <br />Measuring the effectiveness of the City's water conservation efforts will not be easy — we <br />routinely have 10% - 20% variations in the mean water production of from year to year, <br />depending primarily on weather patterns for that year. Domestic water use does not vary as <br />much, making it easier to see and measure the effectiveness of our conservation program <br />elements aimed at that segment of use. Irrigation use will have to be measured over time, <br />perhaps with a three year rolling average compared to the baseline. In both cases however, <br />immediate feedback may not be possible and the five year review can be expected to be more <br />accurate than the annual review. <br />Some of our other measurement tools will also have to be improved. Currently we track only <br />two general customer classes, commercial and residential. While we do have subclasses within <br />these two categories, they are not really useful in determining where and how the water is being <br />used. This makes it very difficult to sort user types and see the affects of various conservation <br />City of Alamosa I Water Conservation Plan I May 2007 1 Page 10 of 29 <br />