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City of Rifle Water Conservation Plan Final Report -July 2008 6.0 Evaluation and Selection of Conservation Measures and Programs The project team evaluated the Top 17 water conservation measures and programs identified in Section 5 using both quantitative and qualitative criteria. The quantitative analysis estimated: • Implementation costs • Peak day demand reduction • Water demand reduction-related cost savings (energy, chemicals, water supply, water infrastructure) • Benefit-cost ratio The qualitative analysis scored measures and programs against the following: • Customer acceptability • Ease of implementation • Consultant preference • City staff/council preference While there is a large body of information and experience with municipal water conservation programs in the United States and in Colorado, it must be recognized that there is significant uncertainty in water conservation measure/program evaluations, such as the one performed herein. There are several reasons for this: • Estimating benefits and costs of water conservation measures and programs lies at the nexus of engineering, economics, and human behavior, the last of which can be considerably variable and site-specific. • The vast majority of water conservation experience, especially that which has been documented, is applicable to very large water utilities. These often have considerably more resources both internally and within their communities to implement water conservation. • Most of the Colorado water conservation experience has been on the Front Range, which has very different drivers (primarily, reduction of total annual water use due to high water supply costs), and again, much greater communitylorganizational resources. • There is relatively little published data available on exactly how much water demand reduction, especially on peak day, can be achieved for a given water conservation measure or program. This is even more true for those focusing on outdoor water use reduction (indoor measures are more readily quantified), education, and water rate changes, which comprise the bulk of the overall recommended program for Rifle. That being said, the project team developed this analysis using a number of references, including: • Water conservation texts (Water Use and Conservation, Vickers, 2001 was especially useful) ~ American Water Works Association (AWWA) reports and manuals ~ CWCB-sponsored water conservation workshop presentations ~ CWCB-approved water conservation plans for other Colorado water utilities ~ Engineering analyses using Rifle-specific infrastructure planning information, energy and chemical costs, water supply plans and costs, etc. A list of references is included at the rear of this report. SGM # 99055A-388 33 Evaluation and Selection of Conservation Measures and Programs