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Brazos Valley Conservation Symposium

Mark A. Peterson

Project Coordinator - Conservation

Water Conservation:

The SAWS Way

June 21, 2012

Page 2

SAWS at a Glance

• Water System

Over 440,000 Customer Connections

Over 5,000 Miles of Distribution Mains

Water Sources – Edwards, Trinity, Carrizo,

Canyon Lake, Recycle, and Aquifer Storage

and Recovery

Wastewater System

Over 450,000 Customer Connections

Over 6,000 Miles of Collection Mains

Water Recycling Centers – Dos Rios, Leon

Creek and Medio Creek

2

Page 3

New Sources…

Aquifer Storage & Recovery

Recycled Water

Brackish

Desalinization

Page 4

Today San Antonio is Fully Committed

to Conservation

• Serving 60% more people with the same

amount of water (mid-1980’s to today)

• Conservation Goals Fully Integrated into

the SAWS Water Resource Plan

Page 5

…… But that Wasn’t Always the Case

Limits on pumping

established

Page 6

San Antonio Responds

• SAWS is faced with developing alternative water sources

• Leaders identified Conservation as the first water resource program developed to address water needs

• 1993: SAWS adopts first Conservation and Reuse Plan

Page 7

Formula For Success in San Antonio

• Customer Programs

• Effective Regulation

• Conservation Considered a Source of Water

• Dedicated Funding with

Supporting Rate Structure

Source

of Water

Dedicated

Funding

Customer

Programs

Effective

Regulation

Page 8

Formula for Success: Customer Programs

• Broad range of programs for residential and commercial customers

• Gives all users an opportunity to conserve

• A customer that has benefited from a conservation program will support conservation – On the Conservation Team!

Rebates, Services, Distribution

Page 9

Customer Programs

• One decision, one time,

ongoing, month to month

savings

• Decision to use or not to

use are made daily

Equipment Change vs. Behavior Change

Page 10

Formula for Success: Effective Regulation

• Year Round Rules

• Drought Restrictions as needed

• Public overwhelmingly supports enforcement – Recent Survey - 85% support citation model

Page 11

Year Round Regulation

• Created to meet long-term water management goals

• Design & maintenance standards to promote conservation year round

• Applies to residential, commercial, & reclaim water users

• Requires innovation, analysis, evaluation, and change

Page 12

Drought Regulation

Drought Management is:

• In response to special conditions

to obtain immediate cut-back

• Focused on discretionary usage

• Staged to reflect severity of

situation

• Often inconvenient for

customers

• Mandatory but temporary

Page 13

Drought Restrictions

Edwards Supply City & ETJ Restrictions Edwards Stage

660 ft msl

Stage I Loss of 20% Water 1X/Week

650 ft msl

Stage II Loss of 30%

Water 1X/Week

Reduced Hours

640 ft msl

Stage III Loss of 35%

Water 1X Every OTHER Wk

Reduced Hours

630 ft msl

Stage IV Loss of 40%

All Above Plus

Surcharge Excess Usage

Other rules apply for car washing, power washing, pools,

decorative fountains, and hotel linen programs

Page 14

28,588 AF Saved

From drought restrictions

Page 15

Formula for Success: Conservation

is a Source of Water

• Conservation concept fully integrated into

SAWS Water Resource Management Plan.

• Program costs assessed against other water

resource options

Page 16

Conservation: Cheaper Alternative

• Since 1994, SAWS conservation savings from

programs have exceeded 19 billion gallons (59,621 AF)

of water - $24 million spent on direct program costs

to 2007

• Developing the same quantity of supplies today from

“available” supplies would cost between $313 million

and $1.2 billion

to Replace to Replace

121,297 Acre-Feet 59,621 Acre-Feet

Edwards Aquifer Supplies 636,809,250$ 313,010,250$

Groundwater Desalination 1,475,699,676$ 725,349,270$

Surface Water Alternatives 2,492,418,784$ 1,225,096,254$

Page 17

Deferred alternative supplies would have cost

up to $3.3 billion

Additional Edwards

$0.7 billion saved

Groundwater

Desalination

$1.9 billion saved

Ocean Desalination

$3.3 billion saved

1980s 2008 121,000 ac-ft saved

The Value Proposition

Water Supply Savings

OR OR

Page 18

Additional treatment capacity would have

cost

up to $1.1 billion

$3.90 Per Gallon

$348 million saved

$7 Per Gallon

$625 million saved

$12 Per Gallon

$1,071 million saved

1980s 2008 89.3 MGD Treatment

Capacity Savings

The Value Proposition Part II

Wastewater Treatment Savings

OR OR

Page 19

Formula for Success: Dedicated Funding for

Conservation

• June 1994: San Antonio passes residential 4

tier rate structure with dedicated conservation

funding from the 4th tier use

• January 1998: San Antonio passes commercial

meter fee based on meter size to fund

commercial conservation

Page 20

Conservation Based Rate Structure

• The true cost of water must be

reflected in rate structures – “cost of

service”

• Rate structure can promote efficient

water usage while still providing

revenue stability for utilities and

ability to recover annual costs

• Equitable to all customer types /

classes

Guiding Principles

Page 21

Conservation Based Rate Structure

• Process – include key

community stakeholders at

every step! – Rates Advisory Committee

• 14 members – balanced by ethnicity,

gender, & geography

• Served 16 months

– Community Conservation Committee

& Citizen Advisory Panel

– Presentations

• Civic organizations, Neighborhood, HOA,

Professional organizations,

Business/Chambers, city & county staff

Page 22

SAWS Rate Structure

• Sends a price signal so customers become more conscious of their lawn and landscape water use – Our consultations become “teachable moments”.

• Rewards those who conserve water with lower water bills

• Not fair to ask all customers to pay more for the lawn watering demands of a few

• More fair to ask those who demand large amounts of water for irrigation purposes to pay for a higher cost of service

A Water Conservation Tool

Page 23

Fiscal Soundness with Conservation?

• SAWS Current Bond Ratings – Aa1, AA, AA+

• SAWS continues to meet all the demands of a

municipal owned utility as well as initiating

aggressive programs for new water sources and

system wide sewer renovations

• Conservation can be considered a water

resource in the event of future deprivation

Page 24

In Summary…

SAWS uses multiple conservation components, i.e., programs, regulation, conserved water as a source, dedicated

funding and conservation rate structure.

Conservation needs to be viewed as a source of

water supply

Cheaper to conserve than acquire new water supplies

Rate structure can be a simple and effective

method to promote conservation.

Use a stakeholder process to ensure equitable and full

input by all segments of community

Page 25

In Summary…

SAWS views conservation as a fiscally sound

component of our business plan and Water

Management Plan!

Page 26

Contact Information

Mark A. Peterson – Project Coordinator

Mark.Peterson@saws.org

210-233-3081

Karen Guz – Director of Conservation

Karen.Guz@saws.org

210-233-3671

Brazos Valley Conservation Symposium

Mark A. Peterson

Project Coordinator - Conservation

March 2, 2012

Water Conservation:

Better, Cheaper, Faster

Page 28

Residential Rate Structure

Combined Water Delivery & Tiered Water Supply – Standard ICL

Rate/100 Gallons

Inclining Block Structure

2011 2012

$.1940

$.2807

$.6930

$.3958

$.2002

$.2903

$.7151

$.4085

Page 29

Rate Structure Changes

Residential Water Rate Structure - Prior

* Standard ICL

Meter Charge + Tiered Water Delivery* + Flat Water Supply Fee

Meter

Charge

Water

Delivery

Water Supply

Fee

Rate

/100 G

allo

ns

Page 30

Rate Structure Changes

Residential Water Delivery Rate Structure

Standard ICL

ALL Water Delivery Rates Decrease

Prior Current

Rate

/100 G

allo

ns

Page 31

Rate Structure Changes

Residential Water Supply Rate Structure

Tiered Water Supply Fee

Prior Current

Rate

/100 G

allo

ns

Page 32

Rate Structure Changes

Residential Water Rate Structure*

Combined Water Delivery & Tiered Water Supply – Seasonal ICL

Seasonal Rates (May – Sep)

$.8099

$.2923

$.4233

$.1940

$.5775

$.2952

$.3746

$.2435

*Effective November 1, 2010

Prior

2011

Rate

S

tru

ctu

re

C

ha

ng

es

Page 33

Commercial Rate Structure

Seasonal Rate and Water Supply Fee

• Commercial customer use is non-discretionary

– No seasonal rate

– Water Supply Fee will continue to be a flat rate

• Discretionary water use is billed through an

Irrigation Meter

– Seasonal rate and tiered Water Supply Fee will apply

Page 34

Rate Structure Changes

Commercial Rate Structure

Combined Water Delivery & Flat Water Supply – Standard ICL

Block 5 Eliminated, Water Supply Fee Still Flat

Rate

/100 G

allo

ns

*The commercial rate structure is individualized, utilizing each customer’s prior year annual consumption to determine the base that serves as the basis for

the various block cut-offs

2011 Prior

Page 35

Combined Water Delivery & Tiered Water Supply – Standard ICL

Rate Structure Changes

Irrigation Rate Structure*

Blocks Altered, Seasonal Rates Adopted, & WS Fee Tiered

$0.468917,205

12,717 $0.3819

6,732 $0.3055

Block 1 has Zero Consumption

Current Rate/100 Gallons New

$0.3133

$0.4259

$0.8459

Gall

on

s

*Effective November 1, 2010

Prior 2011

Rate

/100 G

allo

ns

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