Agenda - Council - 07/28/2015 - Laserfiche WebLink

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26 Increased water efficiency and conservation may help avoid the expensive cost of adding new storage or treatment capacity. Every gallon saved is water that does not have to be pumped, treated, and delivered - and the saved water can then be reallocated to accommodate new growth or business need. In addition, water conservation may reduce the amount of wastewater that requires treatment. Setting measurable regional goals for water conservation is useful for implementation and evaluation purposes. For example, while a challenging goal, the region could reduce its total municipal (residential, commercial and industrial) per capita water use to 90 gallons per day. This change means that the region's total 2040 water demand could be met with no regional increase in water use above 2010 amounts - existing water use could be managed to meet the region's needs. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, in partnership with the Metropolitan Council, already recommends a community goal for one part of the municipal demand: residential use of less than 75 gallons per person per day. In most communities, reducing the growth in outdoor water use is perhaps the most valuable approach. Water systems are sized to meet maximum demand, so summer water use can drive substantial investments in infrastructure that is extraneous the rest of the year. In the metro area, a typical community will use up to 2.3 times more water in one summer month than during a winter month. And summer use is growing; between 1990 and 1994, the summer use was 1.6 times the winter use. The region could reduce its total water use by over 15% by simply returning to outdoor watering practices of this time period. This would conserve 16.8 billion gallons per year. Figure 12. Seasonal municipal water use in a typical metro area community, 2010. Million Gallons 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 Typical Twin Cities Community Monthly Water Use (2010 data) mLf— } C.b LLJ Private industrial and commercial A recent survey of private industrial water users in the eleven county metropolitan area by the Minnesota Technical Assistance Program indicates that the three biggest water supply concerns, as they related to industrial water -use processes, include: water discharge regulations, water use regulations, and incoming water quality (Metropolitan Council, 2013a). The same survey indicated that approximately 40% of industrial groundwater users do not routinely monitor water use through separate processes; only total facility use is monitored. In this situation, water audits can identify a variety of opportunities for water and cost savings. When industry and commerce do implement conservation, the benefits can be significant. For example, a small project with the Minnesota Technical Assistance Program in 2012 conducted 7 one - day site assessments that identified opportunities to save 71.9 million gallons per year. At three of WATER SUPPLY MASTER PLAN- Draft June 2015