Spokane leaders are contemplating how to encourage conservation in a city that uses more water per capita than 98% of the United States.
On Thursday, the city’s Water Resource Collaboration Group
outlined an ambitious plan to cut water use by 25%, a goal described as “both
ambitious and achievable” by Kara Odegard, the city’s manager of sustainable
initiatives.
Even if that goal is met, Spokanites already use so much
water that the plan would still leave the city in the 96th percentile
nationally, based on 2015 United States Geological Survey data.
It’s with that in mind that the group set a 25% conservation
target, which is a notable increase from the more modest 5% reduction target
for the next decade laid out in a conservation plan adopted by the City Council
last year.
Just a 5% cut would save 500 million gallons of water in
Spokane over the next decade.
City leaders agree Spokane needs to conserve water but face
a conundrum in how best to do so. The city could incentivize reductions with
rewards, like a rebate on utility bills. Or, it could take a firmer approach by
raising rates on prodigious water users and implementing mandatory irrigation
standards on new development.
The city could also aim for a blend of both: the proverbial
carrot and the stick.
The Water Resource Collaboration Group introduced its first
set of recommendations to the Spokane City Council during a study session on
Thursday.
The recommendations include a prohibition on watering lawns
during the daytime through summer and potentially requiring the city’s highest
water users to participate in a free audit. The city could also set
environmentally friendlier standards for irrigation systems installed in new
developments or during substantial renovations.
“There have been plenty of reports out there that show
voluntary measures don’t work very well, and they cause a lot of confusion when
we actually go into droughts,” Odegard said.
The recommendations focused on limiting water use not just
by city residents but businesses as well.
The Water Resource Collaboration Group was formed following
the city’s adoption of its new water conservation plan in 2020. That plan only
called for a water use reduction of 5%, but the collaboration group is dreaming
bigger.
A study conducted by the city last year found that a
majority of Spokane residents were willing to take measures like limiting water
use during the daytime in the summer months.
The group hopes to encourage water conservation through
myriad measures.
The city could provide free audits to high-using businesses
and homeowners. It could designate funds to a program to help low-income
residents fix leaks.
“Some folks can’t afford to fix plumbing in their home, so
additional research and attention to low-income programs would be helpful,”
Odegard said.
Education efforts about conservation aren’t getting through
to every resident, according to Odegard. The group is also recommending that
the city make water use more clear on ratepayers’ utility bills, particularly
those who receive them electronically. The city could take steps to allow
ratepayers to download data about their water use.
Giacobbe Byrd, a member of the group and City Councilwoman
Lori Kinnear’s legislative assistant, said the city should also focus its
efforts on informing people about water waste.
“We use a lot of water that is unnecessary and might take a
long time to get back into our ecosystem, into our aquifer,” Byrd said.
The city should also increase staffing dedicated to water
conservation, Odegard argued. The city currently has two such full-time
employees, but two additional efficiency technicians could help with on-site
assessments, and an education and outreach specialist would help the city with
messaging.
Kinnear sought to “dispel the myth” that Spokane sits atop
an unlimited water supply in the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer.
“It would take just a couple of drought years and we would
be really in a bad way,” Kinnear said.
Kinnear argued that water is cheap – “probably too cheap” –
but it is not plentiful.
Councilman Michael Cathcart argued the best way to get
residents to reduce water consumption is to provide incentives and even
“gamify” the effort by allowing neighborhoods to compare their water savings
against one another.
“I don’t know how you would enforce no daytime use. Would
you send enforcement out and look for sprinklers that are active and give
people fines? There’s a point where it’s not necessarily so practical,”
Cathcart said.
Council President Breean Beggs said it’s important to
implement real-time water meters, which would enable the city to calculate the
real cost of providing water to different areas of the city at different times
of day. The city could “charge people accordingly and then give people
incentives if they water overnight and things like that.”
When the city pumps water out of the aquifer during peak
summer months, it’s drawing water that would normally be returned to the
Spokane River and impacting the ecosystem, Odegard said.
“This is part of the problem. We’ve been under the
impression that we have unlimited water supply, and with a changing climate and
our growing community that is no longer really the case,” Odegard said.
