Agenda - Planning Commission - 12/01/2011 - Work Session

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IAA Metropolitan Council AA • Water Supply Regional Benchmarks Measuring Our Progress 2011 Update Goal: To ensure the metropolitan area's water resources are adequate to supply future water demands without adverse impacts. Baseline Input: The Master Water Supply Plan projects future water use based on past water use and identifies water supply sources available to each community. Rainfall in 2010 was above normal for the first time in four years. However, low precipitation during the summer months still resulted in relatively high demand for outdoor watering and an overall municipal water use of 127 gallons per day per capita. Another measure of water availability is a comparison of groundwater recharge to groundwater withdrawals. In 2010, approximately 99,033 million gallons of groundwater were withdrawn from aquifers in the region. This is approximately 25 percent of the estimated annual groundwater recharge. This measure does not consider the local impact of withdrawals or needs for groundwater discharge to surface water features, nor does it consider that much of the water being withdrawn recharged decades earlier, but it does give a general sense of how much of the annual input is being used. Municipal Water Use (Gallons per day per capita) 145 127 132 128 134 139 136 135 127 1 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 160,000 -- 120,000 80,000 40,000 0 Water Supply -- 40% — 30% 20% 10% 0% 0D ff` < co OA 93 Ocb o o o o o o o o o o o 99999999999 Groundwater Withdrawal (MG) +Percentage of recharge estimate withdrawn Source: Metropolitan Council analysis of data from Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Metropolitan Council. 16