8001 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

WATER CONSERVATION AND EFFICIENCY Edward R. Osann Director of Water Resources Program, National Wildlife Federation 1400 16th Street, NW Washington, DC 20036-2266 (202) 797-6830 ABSTRACT Water conservation and efficiency improvements have an increasingly important role to play in the protection and restoration of instream flows in the West. The efficiency/ streamflow nexus is especially strong where reductions in streamflow are associated with out-of-basin transfers, substantial consumptive or irretrievable losses, low-quality return flows, or heavy seasonal use depriving streams of flows during critical periods. Water conservation and efficiency received legislative attention from the 102nd Congress in at least three areas. Congress is expected to approve specific conservation measures as part of the reauthorization of the Central Utah Project and the modification of the Central Valley Project. Water-conservation standards for plumbing products are being considered for enactment as part of new federal energy legislation. And environmental organizations have proposed amendments to the Clean Water Act to increase emphasis on water conservation in the permitting and financing activities under the Act. All these actions seek to tap the potential of new and established technology, operating procedures, and evaluation techniques to squeeze more productivity out of our existing developed water supplies. Any discussion of tools and strategies to improve or protect instream flows should consider the role that water conservation may play. A growing number of water and wastewater-treatment providers are recognizing the emerging potential of conservation as a significant compo- nent of water and wastewater management. Attempting to define "water conservation" has itself been a controversial exercise in the past. For purposes of this paper, water conservation will consist of measures to improve the efficiency of storage, conveyance, distribution, or use of water, generally excluding the construction of new impoundments or wells or the mere retirement of land from irrigation. Under this approach, conservation mea- sures will generally achieve beneficial reductions in water use, be it consumptive or non-consumptive use. The emphasis here is on efficiency improvements, rather than simply doing without water. During the past six years, interest in water conservation has been exploding in communities as diverse as Tampa, Seattle, Boston, and Tucson. The trend was accelerated by the nationwide drought of 1988 and persistent regional droughts since then, but the current interest in conserva- tion has more to do with dollars than dry weather. The simple fact is that water and sewer service are getting more expensive. The reduction in federal subsidies for water supply and wastewater treatment facilities, coupled with increasing requirements for potable-water treatment and wastewater treatment, all point to high costs. Since previous policies have usually served to keep the price of water artificially low, these new costs are likely to be proportionately large and will jar consumers and water- system managers alike to seek out opportunities to reduce waste and improve the efficiency of water use. Manufactur- ers of water-using products and machinery will see new marketing opportunities, as well as new regulatory require- ments. Where Water Conservation Can Help Conservation is, of course, not the answer to every instream flow problem, let alone every water-related problem. But conservation can make a contribution toward resolving many of them. Out-of-basin transfers depleting stream flows present an obvious target for a wide range of efficiency improvements. Reductions in consumptive and non-consumptive uses alike can help augment stream flows in the basin of origin. Heavy seasonal uses, as with irrigation requirements and summertime urban peaks, may keep most of the water withdrawn in its basin of origin but distort the natural hydrograph to the point where flows are critically depleted at certain times. Here, conservation measures may contrib- ute to shaving peak demands and augmenting reservoir supplies, perhaps improving fish survival while leaving average annual flows unchanged. Low-quality discharges or return flows may also be tackled, in part, with conservation measures. Conservation measures that minimize irrigation application rates, even where applied water is recovered by pumping groundwa- ter, can have important water-quality benefits by reducing the amount of water passing through the soil column. Better quality drainwater and streamflow recharge can be the result. A Previous Legislative Failure The Bureau of Reclamation delivers highly subsidized irrigation water to about 20 percent of the irrigated lands in the 17 Western states. Legislation enacted in 1982, Section 210 of the Reclamation Reform Act (RRA), provided the Bureau with the authority to significantly improve the 11