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Brazos Valley Conservation Symposium
Mark A. Peterson
Project Coordinator - Conservation
Water Conservation:
The SAWS Way
June 21, 2012
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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
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New Sources…
Aquifer Storage & Recovery
Recycled Water
Brackish
Desalinization
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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
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…… But that Wasn’t Always the Case
Limits on pumping
established
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Formula for Success: Effective Regulation
• Year Round Rules
• Drought Restrictions as needed
• Public overwhelmingly supports enforcement – Recent Survey - 85% support citation model
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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
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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
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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
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28,588 AF Saved
From drought restrictions
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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
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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$
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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In Summary…
SAWS views conservation as a fiscally sound
component of our business plan and Water
Management Plan!
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Contact Information
Mark A. Peterson – Project Coordinator
210-233-3081
Karen Guz – Director of Conservation
210-233-3671
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Brazos Valley Conservation Symposium
Mark A. Peterson
Project Coordinator - Conservation
March 2, 2012
Water Conservation:
Better, Cheaper, Faster
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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
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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
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Rate Structure Changes
Residential Water Delivery Rate Structure
Standard ICL
ALL Water Delivery Rates Decrease
Prior Current
Rate
/100 G
allo
ns
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Rate Structure Changes
Residential Water Supply Rate Structure
Tiered Water Supply Fee
Prior Current
Rate
/100 G
allo
ns
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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
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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
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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
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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