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SECTION 5 DEVELOPING A WATER CONSERVATION PLAN A plan should be developed to succeed in sustaining water savings over the long run. The necessary steps in developing a water conservation plan include: o Obtaining historical consumption records. o Identifying and quaniifying allocated water use and conservation opportunities. o Development of a timetable along with attributable goals. o Follow-up OBTAIN HISTORICAL CONSUMPTION RECORDS A good starting point is to ask the local water utility for historical water use records" Up to 3 years should be obtained if possible. This will give facility managers an idea of how water is being used; especially when trying to separate indoor and outdoor water use. A graph should be constructed to determine the water use profile. Look for odd discrepancies between the most current year and previous years and determine why water use either went up or down. Finally, keep up to date with metered water use and track water use indefinitely. IDENTIFY/QUANTIFY WATER USE AND CONSERVATION OPPORTUNITIES Water uses should be identified while touring facilities. Flow rates should be measured or estimated. Refer to Section 2 for identified water uses. Flow rates should be converted to gallons per year and compared to one year's worth of metered records, The goal is to aim for 10% or less unaccounted for water use. Several iterations may be necessary to reach this goal. This builds a good confidence factor when identifying and quantifying conservation opportunities. The next step is to identify conservation opportunities. Based on the differential of existing and water efficient flow rates of water using fixtures and equipment, water savings, can be calculated using typical equations in Section 2" The cost per unit of water, sewer, and energy should be taken into consideration when calculating retum on investment. DEVELOP A TIMETABLE AND ATTRIBUTABLE GOALS Prioritize the facilities that need the most attention. Set goals and expected completion dates for conservation measures. Goals should be aggressive but reasonable to attain. Budgets along with capital expenditures should be considered. Therefore expenditures for conservation measu.res should be included in the process. The sooner a facility completes its conservation goals the quicker conservation measures pay for themselves" FOllOW-UP A monitoring program should be developed to determine a conservation program's success. The following components of the program should be monitored: o Historical and future water consumption o Budget versus expenditures SECTION 4: WATER CONSERVATION 10