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Section 6 <br />Implementation and Recommendations for Colorado's Water Supply Future <br />for water treatment plant expansions and other 11. <br />utility infrastructure, and reduce financing, <br />operations, and maintenance costs. <br />Water conservation can potentially reduce costs <br />to the water user through reduced water bills, <br />energy savings, and reduced landscape <br />maintenance costs. However, the unit cost for <br />water may have to increase to recover lost <br />revenues in response to overall reduction in water <br />sales if additional customers are not added or <br />utility operating costs reduced. <br />6. The impacts of water conservation must be <br />factored in utility financial planning as it can <br />result in net revenue losses to the utility if <br />operating costs are not reduced, water rates <br />increased, or revenues maintained through new <br />sales to other users. <br />7. Many water conservation implementation <br />concerns are related to cost. As the potential <br />water savings matrix indicates, certain water <br />conservation measures are cost-effective when <br />compared against other options. <br />8. Utility managers and decisionmakers should <br />analyze the overall net financial impact of water <br />conservation on their utility operations. <br />10. Another major implementation issue surrounds <br />citizens' and utilities' willingness to develop and <br />participate in conservation programs. As noted in <br />the Colorado Springs Utilities' water customer <br />survey, the past few years have seen an increase in <br />awareness of the benefits of conservation and, as <br />a result, an increased willingness to engage in <br />conservation. The dialogue bas shifted from <br />whether to conserve to how much conservation is <br />appropriate for a particular community. <br />12. Conservation takes time to implement and verify. <br />It is, this way, different than traditional supply <br />development in that it is truly an incremental <br />process. <br />13. Conservation would benefit from greater <br />coordination inside water utilities' departments <br />and between utilities and city and county <br />governments, as sound decisions involve building <br />and landscape codes and input from the <br />development community, policy makers, and <br />citizens. <br />14. A statewide social marketing campaign to <br />promote the value and importance of sustainable <br />water resources in Colorado for our people, land, <br />environment, and economy will greatly assist <br />conservation efforts and will help implement the <br />conservation levels established in this document. <br />Water is often a divisive issue in Colorado and <br />such a campaign is a way to bring Coloradoans <br />together to achieve common ground on the value <br />of water and the importance of wise stewardship <br />of our precious resources. <br />The Role of Water Conservation in Water <br />Supply Planning and Meeting the Gap <br />By the year 2030, Colorado's population is expected <br />to grow 65 percent, adding about 2.6 million more <br />residents for a total population of 7.1 million people. <br />This represents an increase in M~eI demand of <br />approximately 630,000 AF ofwater. SWSI identified <br />that about 80 percent of this need could be met if <br />M~eI providers projects and plans are successfully <br />implemented. <br />PRELIMINARY DRAFT 6-11 <br />