For the past 15 years, the Alliance for Water Efficiency has recognized the outstanding achievements and impacts of our members through the presentation of annual member awards. The 2024 awardees were recognized during an Awards Reception hosted on the morning of August 8th, during AWE's 2nd Annual Water Efficiency & Conservation Symposium in Chicago, Illinois. Our Board of Directors, CEO, and staff were thrilled to honor the hard work, leadership, and dedicated service of several of our individual members and member organizations through these awards. Join us in celebrating our 2024 award winners!

Member-Nominated Awards

The following awards were selected from organizations and individuals nominated by AWE members.

Excellence in Equity Award: Tucson Water

The Excellence in Equity Award recognizes an AWE member organization for significant success in advancing equity through their work with diverse populations. This may include practices or programs geared towards equitably serving BIPOC communities, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ persons, veterans, and low-to-moderate-income households.

Since implementing the first Tucson Water conservation programs in 1990, the department has offered parallel low-income services and mapped conservation program data to design programs that increase participation across neighborhoods with lower incomes. Tucson Water has partnered with the Community Home Repair Projects of Arizona for the past 15 years to provide over 9,000 free toilet installations and, in 2019, launched an Emergency Plumbing Repairs program (inspired by San Antonio Water System) that has helped over 800 households.

Another innovative program is a partnership with Sonora Environmental Research Institute to offer qualifying low-income customers design consultations and installation services for rainwater harvesting. These customers are eligible for grants, zero-interest loans, and rebates. In the last year, SERI has also started offering discounted clothes washers and gray water grants and loans.

Looking ahead, the city’s Equity Office and Tucson Water staff recently completed a report titled “Tucson Water’s Racial Equity Evolution: A Starting Point” that includes forty-three recommendations for additional progress.

Innovation in Business Award: Yoppify

The Innovation Award recognizes technological advances, research breakthroughs, and innovative practices of a current member organization that champions the adoption, implementation, or public acceptance of water efficiency and sustainability.

Yoppify's technology solutions enable water utilities to communicate directly with customers via text, email, phone calls, or mailers. Unlike traditional engagement tools, Yoppify's platform ensures higher customer reach and effectiveness. Their data-driven messaging, leveraging water use insights and targeted conservation recommendations, drives behavior change. This approach fosters greater awareness of water use and conservation, ultimately resulting in water and cost savings.

In response to Utah's legislation mandating statewide water metering by 2030, Yoppify recognized that the success of this initiative hinged on agencies' ability to communicate with water users before, during, and after meter installations. Yoppify secured grant funding to assist agencies with their metering projects, ensuring new meters lead to tangible water savings by making water use insights readily accessible and actionable for residents—no login required.

Up & Comer Award: Rachael Belisle-Toler

The Up and Comer Award recognizes an individual employee of a current AWE organizational member with less than five years in the water efficiency, conservation, and sustainability field for their leadership and commitment to pursuing water efficiency as a career path.

Rachael Belisle-Toler is this year's Up & Comer Awardee! Despite being new to her role as Water Resources Manager with Ipswich Utilities, Rachael has quickly developed a broad knowledge base and taken the initiative to spearhead many innovative efficiency and conservation projects. Some of those include:

Securing grants, such as for rainwater harvesting workshops, drought-friendly landscape education, and related supplies to 13 multi-family buildings within the Ipswich Housing Authority
Starting a Water Use Assessment Program that performs landscape surveys to help incorporate rainwater harvesting.
She helped to conceptualize and participate on a state-level Water Efficiency Advisory Committee.
Developing a new native plant palette app, a program that has been recognized as innovative by the state’s Environmental Secretariat.
Rachael is eager to get involved and make an impact at a local and regional scale. Her passion for infrastructure, sustainability, justice, and resource governance is motivated by kindness. Her enthusiasm for all things water efficiency is made very clear by her constantly going above and beyond in terms of participation, new and creative approaches, and overall joyful demeanor.

Water Star Award: Deirdre Irwin

The Water Star Award recognizes individual excellence in water efficiency and celebrates a water conservation practitioner who is making a difference through dedication and passion. This individual has made a significant impact in the water efficiency, conservation, and sustainability field.

Deirdre Irwin is the Water Conservation Coordinator for St. John’s River Water Management District in Florida. The District covers an 18-county region in northeast and east-central Florida. Dierdre has worked at the District for 32 years and has focused on water conservation for the last 12 years while greatly expanding the District's conservation programs.

Dierdre is well known throughout Florida as one of the state's top conservation professionals, a leader, and a mentor. She does inspector and irrigation professional training in multiple venues and holds quarterly meetings for conservation professionals in her region. She has also been instrumental in developing new water efficiency codes and standards in the region. She worked on expanding the breadth and scope of the Florida WaterStar Program for her district, expanded the program statewide, and now serves as its statewide coordinator. The program certifies homes and commercial buildings that use less water in landscapes, irrigation systems, and indoors. Thousands of Florida homes across the state have been certified, and each is saving up to 50,000 gallons of water annually. Additionally, she has worked on utility conservation plan reviews for the district’s regulatory program, and these plans increasingly focus on aspects of the Florida WaterStar Program.

She is active with the UF Florida Friendly Landscaping Program and the District’s cooperative funding program that makes grant money available for conservation projects. Deirdre has chaired and been a vital member of the Water Use Efficiency Division for the Florida Section of the AWWA. She also serves on the statewide Florida-Friendly Landscaping Advisory Committee and on the Board of the Florida Green Building Coalition.

Colleagues say Deirdre is very outgoing, has a warm and engaging personality, and has a penchant for helping others (it’s in her Irish blood!). Her efforts have helped her region and the entire state of Florida be leaders in water efficiency innovation.

Click here to learn about previous Water Star Awardees

Staff & Board-Nominated Awards

These awards are chosen by the AWE staff and Board of Directors. They honor individuals and organizations whose contributions to the Alliance have significantly impacted AWE as an organization.

Member of the Year Awards

The Member of the Year Award is an award intended to recognize an organizational member of the Alliance for Water Efficiency serving as a leader in the water efficiency and conservation community. An organizational member who has demonstrated consistent commitment to and support for the work of the Alliance for Water Efficiency--in recognition of their outstanding support and dedication to the Alliance for Water Efficiency and its mission to promote the efficient and sustainable use of water.

Affiliate Member of the Year: Colorado Water Conservation Board

The Colorado Water Conservation Board spearheads the development of the Colorado Water Plan - which includes robust goals for water efficiency and conservation, water reuse, and land use integration - and initiatives to facilitate implementation, such as the Colorado Water and Land Use Planning Alliance and the CO Water Loss Initiative.

They also provide financial assistance to water providers, local governments and other stakeholders to implement the plan. In the 2023-24 fiscal year, the CWCB awarded 83 grants totaling $25.2 million. This includes grants supporting two AWE research projects, Evaluating & Optimizing Large-Scale Landscape Irrigation Management and Transformation Strategies, and another to evaluate options for improving water efficiency at mobile homes parks, including direct installation of efficient fixtures. Congratulations to the Colorado Water Conservation Board!

Business & Industry Member of the Year: LIXIL

LIXIL is an AWE Charter Sponsor and has collaborated with AWE in numerous ways over the past 16 years. LIXIL is a key state and federal policy partner to us. LIXIL’s CJ Lagan co-chairs our Water Sense and Water Efficiency Products Committee, and Troy Benavidez serves on the AWE board, as well as on the board’s Policy Committee and the AWE Corporate Advisory Council. LIXIL has also donated plumbing fixtures for low-income direct installation pilot projects and has been a Gold Level Symposium sponsor in 2023 and 2024. Thank you, Team LIXIL!

Water Supplier Member of the Year: East Bay Municipal Utility District

The East Bay Municipal Utility District is a water efficiency leader among utilities with innovative incentive programs, leak identification notification tools, and creative outreach and social media campaigns. They have supported AWE from the very beginning as a Charter Sponsor in 2008 and continue to be active stakeholders in our committees to this day.

Water Conservation Supervisor Whitney Ray is a co-chair on the AWE Research Committee and Water Conservation Supervisor Geneva Gondak participates in the AWE Education and Outreach Committee. Additionally, EBMUD has participated in multiple AWE research projects, including the ongoing Large Landscape Transformation and Irrigation study.

EBMUD’s commitment goes beyond its support for AWE by being a charter member of CalWEP. Water Conservation Manager Charles Bohlig is the chair of CalWEP’s Board, and Water Conservation Representative Jolene Bertetto is the Vice Chair of CalWEP's Program Committee. EBMUD is also funding a new CalWEP initiative on a plumber leak detection training program. Congrats, EBMUD!

Volunteer of the Year Award: Drew Blackwell

The Volunteer of the Year Award is given to an employee of a current organizational member who served AWE in an expanded role over the past year, such as being a board member, committee chair/co-chair/vice-chair, and volunteering in other ways.

Drew Blackwell is the Director of Water Efficiency for Cavanaugh and serves on the AWE Board of Directors and our Board Development Committee. His presence has brought so much energy to the organization. He intentionally engages with staff and shares opportunities for us to participate in state water loss regulatory proposals by submitting formal comments. He consistently finds ways to leverage his expertise on behalf of the organization, including the identification of grant opportunities for AWE. Additionally, Drew has advocated for and secured Cavanaugh’s sponsorship of the Symposium for two years running and consistently shares our work on social media. We appreciate how Drew champions AWE and our mission as a board member, as well as through his job leading Water Efficiency for Cavanaugh. Thank you, Drew, for your support!

Outgoing AWE Board Member

During the Awards Ceremony, we also took a minute to honor one of our longtime board members, Jennifer Walker, for her nine years of dedicated service to our Board of Directors. Jennifer has been on the board since 2016 and the board secretary since 2020.

She has supported AWE in so many ways, through her job as Director of the Texas Coast and Water Program at the National Wildlife Federation and as a board member, where she has helped recruit new members to AWE, connected staff with key stakeholders in Texas, and provided insightful policy and management advice. Jennifer, we cannot thank you enough.

AWE believes the federal government has a unique opportunity to help make water affordable for more low-income households. This new policy white paper outlines our proposal that Congress create and generously fund a new federal program covering plumbing repairs and water efficiency improvements for low-income households in states, tribes, and territories. Addressing high usage and inefficiency will permanently reduce water and sewer bills for participating households. AWE calls this concept the Plumbing Repair and Efficiency Assistance Program (PREAP). This policy white paper outlines the growing affordability challenge, some precedent for federal support of efficiency from the energy sector, and the potential water savings and other benefits to low-income households.

Following the launch of this initiative at AWE's 2024 Water Efficiency and Conservation Symposium, AWE's next steps are:

• First, AWE will convene a coalition to help with further policy development and advocacy. We will invite a wide range of organizations interested in water affordability, including water sector associations, water utilities, water and plumbing industry partners, and environmental and poverty prevention nonprofits.
• Second, the coalition will work to develop any additional details needed before legislation can be written. This could include things like determining which federal agency will be responsible for implementation, adjusting the scope of the program, considering whether to use efficiency levels beyond the minimum levels needed to qualify for WaterSense and EnergyStar, refining costs and benefits estimates, determining any desired connections to LIHWAP, and addressing questions and comments from coalition members and potential Congressional sponsors.
• Third, the coalition will seek out affiliations beyond the water sector to seek unity whenever possible in efforts that benefit low-income households in paying their utility bills, becoming more efficient, and doing so in a way that expands the total federal funding available for both water and energy efficiency and bill pay assistance programs.
• Fourth, the coalition will work to identify and work with sponsors in Congress with a goal of bicameral, bipartisan legislation being introduced in 2025.

For organizations interested in getting involved in these next steps, please contact Andrew Morris.

Submitted by Ron Burke, President and CEO

In May and July of 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed bills (H.R.6192 and H.R. 7700) that threaten to block or weaken federal water and energy efficiency product standards. The Alliance for Water Efficiency opposes these bills, which are inconsistent with more than 35 years of congressional support for laws that help families afford utility bills by ensuring that appliances, plumbing fixtures, and other products are water and energy efficient.

As efficiency standards have been gradually strengthened, manufacturers have implemented innovations that enable products to not only meet the standards but to also perform at a high level. Proponents of this recent legislation, as well as states that have filed lawsuits to block efficiency standards, cite anecdotal reports as evidence that efficiency measures undermine product performance. However, comprehensive product testing demonstrates that efficient products generally perform better than older, less efficient models.

For example, in a February 2024 press release, Consumer Reports referred to new clothes washer and dryer standards as a “win-win for consumers,” noting that "[t]here are washers and dryers available today that already meet these new standards, and they are highly rated for their cleaning and drying performance in our recent testing.”

Today, families save money, water supplies go further, and the air is cleaner thanks to federal efficiency standards that have resulted in cost-effective product improvements. Given the track record of success, it’s not surprising that the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers supports federal efficiency standards adopted this year that some state officials and members of Congress oppose.

To help ensure affordable utility bills and reliable water supplies, the Alliance for Water Efficiency urges states and Congress to oppose legislation and lawsuits that would undermine federal product efficiency standards.

Submitted by Liesel Hans, Director of Programs

I was invited to present at the Getches-Wilkinson Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder Conference on the Colorado River, co-convened with the Water & Tribes Initiative. The event brings together thought leaders across the Colorado River Basin, and the 2024 theme was “Next Chapters on the Colorado River: Short-Term Coping, Post-2026 Operations, and Beyond”.

My task was to share a vision for sustainable Colorado River cities – no small feat or topic. A water-smart city is data-informed, continuously learning, committed to collaboration, and taking action. When we embrace, exemplify, and empower and abundance mindset, we are no longer stuck in a zero-sum game – we can celebrate the abundance of solutions. We can amplify and grow our collective impact through implementation, innovation, peer learning and sharing. In this blog, I share how you can help support water-smart communities and links to the various examples I referenced in my talk.

What can support water-smart communities? 

• Increase local, state, and federal funding
• Improve accessibility to funding
• Enable and encourage more experimental pilots and research to help communities advance more innovative and impactful practices to save water
• Improve demand forecasting practices
• Improve coordination between water and land use planners
• Development of collaborative partnerships to achieve multiple benefits
• Design and implement through an equity lens
• Implementation foundational water utility practices, including smart water rates, water loss control, transformation to digital and data-informed operations, and more
• Reach out to continue the conversation!

Resources from my presentation:

Demand forecasting, utility-scale benefits of sustained water conservation.

• Water efficiency and conservation are typically the fastest and least expensive ways to help ensure that communities and agriculture have access to affordable, sustainable water supplies. Making every drop of water count is especially important today, with climate change fueling hotter, dryer weather. Nearly every state experienced drought in 2022, including the worst drought in hundreds of years in the western U.S. Water efficiency and conservation offer multiple sustainability benefits beyond addressing water supply challenges.
• Integrating Water Efficiency into Long-Term Demand Forecasting (2018), Water Research Foundation Project No. 4495. Per capita water demand is declining due, in part, to water conservation and efficiency improvements resulting from standards and codes, as well as active demand management programs and polices. Long-range demand forecasts should account for the impacts of efficiency to more accurately predict future water demand.
• Lower Water Bills: The City of Los Angeles Shows How Water Conservation and Efficient Water Rates Produce Affordable and Sustainable Use. (2018). This study showed that between 1990 and 2016, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power were able to avoid $11 billion dollars in water supply, treatment and pumping costs. Without sustained conservation, customer bills would have been 36% higher.
• The City of Phoenix 2021 Water Resources Plan (near bottom of their website) shows how they are taking a data-informed approach to project future demands, moving away from the historical and no longer applicable approach of assuming water demands will grow with population.
• AWE’s Good Question: Why Are My Water Rates Going Up? video is an animated video that seeks to communicate the impact of water conservation on rates, by explaining how conservation can help keep utility costs and customer water rates lower over time. This short video explains how conservation is a win-win - keeping utility costs down and money in customers' wallets - by avoiding unnecessary costs and keeping rates lower in the long term.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) by and among Colorado River Basin Municipal and Public Water Providers (2022): This MOU highlights the progress made my communities to reduce municipal water use and commits to various actions. “Much of this savings has been achieved through indoor and outdoor water use efficiencies. Recognizing that a clean, reliable water supply is critical to our communities, we can and must do more to reduce water consumption and increase reuse and recycling within our service areas. We pledge to be part of the solution.”

The MOU has five areas of commitment: 

1. Continue and expand our programs to increase indoor and outdoor water use efficiency.  

While communities are growing the impact of more traditional incentive-based programs, they are also increasing their impact through a multitude of other avenues, including new or enhancing informational services. These efforts combine and translate diverse data sources to deliver actionable insights to customers.

• Advanced metering infrastructure and proactive notifications: The City of Westminster, CO among many others across the CRB have moved to AMI or “smart meters” and are able to proactively let customers know when they may have a leak or other abnormal use. AMI and related technology and data offer many benefits to both utilities and customers. Learn more in the AWE study (2023): Smart Practices to Save Water: An Evaluation of AMI-enabled Proactive Leak Notification Programs
• Water Wise Gilbert Program combines landscape, weather and water data to delivers informational landscape water budgets to create a circle of accountability among property owners, property managers, community managers and landscape and irrigation contractors. Check out this story map summarizing progress as of 2021.

2. Introduce a program to reduce the quantity of non-functional turf (NFT) grass by 30% through replacement with drought- and climate-resilient landscaping while maintaining vital urban landscapes and tree canopies that benefit our communities, wildlife, and the environment. 

• This item is more unique in that it has a specific target associated with it. AWE convened signatories of the MOU who have been working to map and quantify how much high-water use turfgrass is in their communities, to define NFT, and explore both policies and programs for achieving this commitment. Check out this summary report including examples of policies, projects and programs from various communities across the CRB.
• Communities are encouraging landscapes that serve multiple purposes. For example, the County of San Diego’s Waterscape Rebate Program (WRP) offers incentives for residential, commercial, and agricultural customers to implement projects that upgrade properties, save money, and improve water quality. Funding comes from multiple organizations, including both watershed protection (stormwater) and water utilities.
• Communities are thinking expansively about what constitutes a water wise landscape. A group of stakeholders in Colorado is actively learning together to better understand how native grasses can be a sustainable, functional, and water-wise groundcover – plus a cost-effective option for NFT replacement.

3. Increase water reuse and recycling programs where feasible, contingent on the dependability and security of our existing Colorado River supplies, which are essential to supporting these efforts. 

• Water utilities are shifting from the linear concept of water to one that considers how to reduce, reuse, recycle, reclaim and restore – which is aligned with the circular economy framework. Communities are certainly focused on strategies that reduces water consumption, but also ways to reuse and recycle water and wastewater, and recover materials, including heat and other materials from water and wastewater to enhance resilience to climate change.
• The One Water framework is a related resource which approaches management of all water—whether from the tap, a stream, a storm, an aquifer, or a sewer—in a collaborative, integrated, inclusive, and holistic manner.

4. Implement best practices and share lessons learned to help one another accelerate our efficiency strategies. Water providers will select from the following approaches those tactics best tailored to preserve thriving communities, environmental health, and strong economies.  

The MOU further details multiple actions within this item, highlighting the varied nature of this work and how water is foundational to our communities. Successful demand management must consider and support efficient use across all customers.

• Integrating water and land use planning: Where and how we build impacts water demand and the quality of water that nourishes our ecosystems and replenishes our supplies. Historically, planning for water resources and planning for land use development have been conducted in silos–yet the two areas profoundly impact one another. Bringing them together can help ensure water resources meet the demands of both people and nature to simultaneously support healthy watersheds and prosperous communities across the Colorado River Basin. Over 140 cities, counties and towns have participated in the Growing Water Smart workshops, a joint program of the Sonoran Institute and the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy, a center of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
• Reimaging water efficiency and conservation programs to both save water and support residents with water affordability challenges. When low-income or otherwise vulnerable households live in older housing with inefficient, leaky, or broken plumbing, appliances and fixtures, this puts them at risk of high bills and inability to pay bills. Conservation and efficiency can address systemic reasons for their high bills and help improve their quality of life. AWE’s assessment on water affordability in Long Beach, CA found that indoor conservation programs alone can help reduce bills by 13 percent, on average.  They piloted a direct install program (in partnership with local gas and electric agencies!) to retrofit low-income homes to be more water and energy efficient – stay tuned for an upcoming report celebrating the success of this pilot.
• Water Loss Control: Providing safe drinking water in an efficient manner is critical to a sustainable future for water utilities that are challenged by aging infrastructure and a rapidly changing climate. High levels of water and revenue loss exist in many North American water systems. Knowing the extent of losses and their cost impacts is vital to the efforts of utilities to control losses to economical levels. This work helps reduce the waste of significant resources to capture, transport, treat, and distribute water. The Colorado Water Loss Initiative is an example of how a state can help its many and diverse water providers with this challenging task.

5. Collaborate with other water users in the Colorado River basin to balance the river's supply and use. A robust agricultural economy, healthy watersheds, opportunities to recreate, and vibrant communities are all vital to our Western way of life. No one sector nor one state can achieve sufficient use reductions independently. For current and future generations' sake, we must work together to balance supply and use and preserve a functioning and healthy river system. 

Submitted by Liesel Hans, Director of Programs

I am nothing if not competitive. Every spring, I engage in an unspoken game of chicken to see how long I can go before activating my automatic sprinkler system without impacting our much-used, outdoor living room (aka, our yard).

The games continue with my irrigation controller. I challenge it by adjusting settings and skipping as many watering cycles as I can depending on landscape conditions, recent rainfall, expected rainfall in the forecast.

While out and about, I play “I Spy”: my head on a swivel to spot broken irrigation heads, blatant run-off from over irrigation, or the occasional geyser. I happily report what I find to our local water waste hotline, though I doubt there are enough irrigation vigilantes to start a rec league. (Note to self: How to channel Pickleball-level passion into water conservation?)

How can we motivate households to rethink their outdoor water usage habits and embrace more sustainable practices? 

In many communities, outdoor water use is between 30-60 percent of all residential water use, and according to US EPA WaterSense, homes with automatic irrigation systems use 50 percent more water than homes without them. With a changing climate and increasing frequency and severity of drought conditions, water providers and companies alike have invested serious resources and brainpower to encourage, incentivize, and even require smarter irrigation practices. Yet, there’s still a segment of customers who over irrigate.

The Water Research Foundation’s 2016 Residential End Uses of Water Study found that 13 percent of households were over-irrigators. Further, AWE’s 2019 Residential Landscape Transformation Study found that homeowners are generally disconnected from their outdoor water use, most estimating outdoor water use is only 10-30 percent of total household water use.

While there has been much research on irrigation controllers, equipment, watering restrictions, there is more to be discovered around the importance of understanding how residents make decisions about their outdoor water use irrigation and why they make them, in order to target interventions more effectively.

Behavior-based strategies as a tool for utilities to drive water conservation outdoors.

Recognizing this widespread challenge and opportunity, the Alliance for Water Efficiency, in partnership with Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation, is exploring how behavioral science and behavior-based strategies could help over-irrigators right-size their watering – to save water, reduce run-off, and ultimately foster healthier and more sustainable landscapes. Behavior-based tactics might include commitments and goal-setting, water use comparisons to neighbors, gamification, competitions, recognitions, youth engagement, and more!

This project aims to: 

• Collect and synthesize current knowledge of behavior-based strategies and previously researched efforts to help residential households save water outdoors.
• Test out behavior-based strategies through real-world pilot projects.
• Create a guide on behavior-based strategies.
• Deliver a full research report.
• Distribute education and insights to the industry broadly.

Join us! We are seeking organizations interested in this research to: 

• Contribute research insights or stakeholder perspectives.
• Serve on a project advisory committee.
• Host the real-world pilot studies in your community.

We need a diverse set of experiences to inform this project. If you are interested, email me to learn more.

This survey is seeking input on landscapes beyond single-family homes.

What matters most to you when making decisions about outdoor landscapes? Have you been involved in a landscape transformation or irrigation optimization project in your community? What barriers and challenges exist to creating water resilient outdoor spaces?

We invite you to share your insights and experiences with us if you:

• Are a commercial business and multi-family property owner, manager, or landscape and irrigation professional.
• Work on commercial, institutional, and industrial (CII) properties and large landscapes.
• Build water resilient landscapes in your community.

Why Should You Participate?

The Alliance for Water Efficiency is conducting a study to evaluate landscape transformation and irrigation optimization programs that aim to conserve water on commercial, industrial, and institutional (CII) properties. Your feedback will directly influence how water conservation and efficiency programs are implemented across your region. Make your voice heard!

Survey Details:

• Duration: The survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete.
• Confidentiality: All responses will be kept strictly confidential and will be used only for the purposes of this study
• Access: The Survey is available in English & Spanish
• Complete the survey by June 15, 2024, to be entered to win a $100 gift card.

Take The Survey - Survey is Closed

Everyone has a right to a safe and affordable water supply. However, many communities are experiencing rising water costs due to factors such as aging infrastructure, climate change and extreme weather events, inflation, and population declines. As water becomes more expensive, not all community members are impacted in the same way. Low-income households, senior or fixed-income households, renters, and people of color, among other historically marginalized communities, are disproportionately impacted by increases in water and wastewater rates, changes to water quality, and water shortages.

Water affordability is an environmental justice and equity issue. To ensure that rising water costs do not exacerbate environmental justice issues, the responsibility of water utilities is two-fold:

1. Understand how rising costs impact community members across demographics,
2. ​Ensure that actions taken to address water affordability challenges are tailored to the needs of the most vulnerable.

In the Alliance for Water Efficiency’s latest water affordability assessment, we partnered with the City of Santa Barbara to address these questions and understand the role that water conservation and efficiency can play to improve both water affordability and equity outcomes in the City.  

And who better to ask than the community itself? Building from a previous Water Vision Community Engagement Campaign in the City of Santa Barbara in 2020, AWE and the City hosted a series of community engagement opportunities to better understand the local perspective on what water affordability challenges residents are facing as well as what kind of solutions are in line with community values and needs.

Here’s what we learned from community members in Santa Barbara:

Water affordability is one piece of the larger cost of living challenges faced by residents. Individuals are juggling monthly water bills alongside other expenses from daily life, including other utility bills, rent, groceries, childcare, and more. Water bills, while contributing to the challenge, might not be top of mind for many. Community members and customers need clear and consistent education on water affordability, water conservation, and the resources available to them so they are better equipped to manage their bills and water use.

Community members feel concerned about how water supply challenges from extended droughts, population growth, and future climate change impacts may increase their water bills and their ability to access water resources.

When asked what solutions could help improve water affordability, the community places significant emphasis on increasing outreach and education to ensure that residents, particularly those who are vulnerable, have improved access to and understanding of water bills and usage information.

Community members feel that water bills seem high despite their efforts to conserve, and that their monthly bill does not seem reflective of individual household use.

How to utilize this kind of community feedback?

1. To inform policies, programs, and initiatives. While every individual’s lived experience is unique, it is likely that those facing water affordability challenges have similar perspectives and concerns. Understanding the barriers and solutions that are top of mind to residents in this way serves as a decision-making framework for your organization to effectively manage and address water affordability challenges.
2. As a starting point to improve future community engagement and outreach efforts. The engagement strategies used within this project’s timeline were successful in gathering feedback from older residents on fixed incomes but, despite significant outreach efforts, were not successful in generating input from Spanish-speaking populations or multi-family/renter populations. As the City continues engaging with community members on this topic, they can evaluate the outcomes from this project to adjust and tailor future strategies.

Thinking about engaging your community on water affordability? Here are some lessons learned:

Start from the ground up. Working with a stakeholder group network comprised of local organizations and community representatives can be an effective way to reach individual residents as they help build trust with historically marginalized communities, advocate for those who may not have the capacity to represent themselves, and serve as information liaisons to individual residents.

Achieving the sweet spot where words turn to action. Translating outreach materials is a good first step to improving language accessibility, but access may not always translate to engagement. For example, where some communities are active online, others may prefer face-to-face interactions or to work through a trusted community partner. Exploring how specific communities receive information and relate to the issue topic can help organizations craft messages that not only reach residents but resonate with them well.

Meet people where they are...but then walk together to where you want to go. When residents feel recognized as partners and fellow experts, they may be more likely to get involved, advocate for solutions, and be stewards of their water use and bills. Building this level of trust with historically marginalized communities will require dedicated staff time and intention. This may look like compensating residents for their time and input; being mindful of work schedules, childcare, and transportation access when planning community meetings; finding opportunities to collaborate on existing community activities; and more.

Submitted by Amanda Christophe, Project Coordinator

Last week, AWE kicked off our latest research study, “Evaluating Changes in Peak Demand and How That May Affect the Choice, Design, Management, and Evaluation of Demand Management Strategies,” in partnership with the Water Research Foundation and six participating utilities. The utilities include San Antonio Water System; New Jersey American Water; Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District; Region of Peel Public Works, Ontario, Canada; California Water Service; and the City of Westminster, CO.

What will we learn?

This project will evaluate peak demand management strategies from the six participants to understand their costs and benefits, as well as which water efficiency and conservation strategies are most useful to reduce peak demands – including when, where, and how to deploy them. Our goal through this research is to help water utilities across North America:

What is peak demand?

We are all creatures of habit and routine. Whether it is a morning shower for a fresh start to the day, watering your lawn on a sunny afternoon, or washing the dishes after dinner, we all tend to use water at similar times on an hourly, daily, and yearly basis. Peak demands refer to these patterns of increased water use and account for the highest water demand in a community or water system. In this way, peak demands are a lot like rush hour.

However, no one likes to get stuck in rush-hour traffic or waste gas idling. Meeting the peak often requires using more electricity for water pumping and treatment (at times when electricity demands and costs are highest) and can cause damage to infrastructure. Water utilities must, therefore, ensure that there is enough water supply and infrastructure capacity to accommodate large demands of water during peak usage times, even if average water demands are significantly lower.

Given these challenges, water utilities have a strong incentive to manage and reduce peak demands so that they can build a resilient water supply without having to expand existing infrastructure or face significant costs. This is done through a variety of programmatic, policy, and regulatory strategies, such as:

• Time-of-use restrictions and watering schedules
• Smart metering and irrigation systems
• Timed conservation education programs
• Water rates and pricing
• Water supply augmentation

A Changing Climate Demands our Attention

As temperature and weather patterns change, the way we use and manage our water resources is changing, too. Climate change impacts - such as extreme heat, precipitation, and drought - along with population growth are altering water use behavior patterns. This creates additional challenges for water utilities to forecast water demands accurately, plan capital improvement projects, and respond to extreme weather events. For this reason, it is more important than ever for water utilities to consider more deeply the trends in their peak demands, possible management strategies, and how this affects their daily operations and long-term planning.

Does this topic peak your interest? Stay tuned!

Upon project completion in 2025, you can expect the following resources:

Acknowledgments

This research effort was identified as a priority for the Alliance for Water Efficiency’s Water Efficiency Research Committee (WERC). Thank you to WERC committee members, the Water Research Foundation, and our participating utilities for supporting AWE’s research!

Submitted by Liesel Hans, Director of Programs

As we celebrate Black History Month, Valentine's Day, and Social Justice Day this February, let us channel the spirit of love and justice toward creating a sustainable and equitable water future. AWE recognizes that water affordability is a social justice issue, which disproportionately affects marginalized communities. We are committed to helping our members advance their water conservation and efficiency efforts through an equity lens.

Are you wanting to make a difference in your community but don’t know where to start? 

Collect Data: You cannot manage what you do not measure. Start by gathering what you know about your organization and your community. Examples of data can be found in the Alliance for Water Efficiency affordability assessment reports. The data is likely to live across many different departments; consider building a team of folks to regularly start discussing the topic of water affordability and exploring the data together. Strategies will be most successful through organizational alignment and transparency.

Commit to Equity:  Thinking about how to ground your process and programs in a customer-centric, equity-focused lens is critical. This visual from a recent AWE presentation offers a few high-level questions your organization might ask yourself. This work is a journey, not a destination, so be bold and take the first step. You don’t have to have it all figured out to start making progress.

Listen to Your Community: Community engagement is essential because it empowers individuals to actively participate in decision-making that directly impact their lives. When communities are engaged, diverse perspectives, experiences, and insights come to the forefront, enriching the process. This inclusivity fosters a sense of ownership, ensuring that projects align more closely with the unique needs and values of the community. Moreover, active engagement builds trust between community members and decision-makers, promoting transparency and accountability. By involving residents in discussions about issues such as water affordability, there is a greater likelihood of identifying innovative solutions that are culturally sensitive, sustainable, and well-received by the community.

Collaborate: Residents who have trouble paying their water and wastewater bills are likely to struggle with other costs of living. Consider partnering with relevant City and community organizations and their staff on a coordinated and streamlined approach for addressing a range of affordability challenges folks may face. Simple cross-promoting programs are an easy first step, and aligning eligibility requirements or applications can make a meaningful difference for struggling households.

Partners might include organizations focused on any of these topics: social services, housing services, energy services, transportation services, employment services, health services, and more. Think beyond city or county agencies and reach out to community-based organizations, coalitions, and non-profits, too.

Think Broadly: There’s no one solution to “fix” water affordability. Think broadly about the many ways to help your community, both directly and indirectly, in the short and long term. Here are just a few ideas:

We’re here to help!

Water affordability programs are evolving, demonstrating the transformative power of innovative approaches. From streamlined application processes to proactive outreach and the use of advanced technologies, these programs are making a tangible difference in the lives of vulnerable communities. As states continue to learn from each other's successes, the future holds promise for more inclusive and effective water affordability initiatives nationwide.

To ensure your next steps are data-informed and community-informed, AWE offers technical, consulting, facilitation, and community engagement services to communities exploring household water affordability and potential for water conservation and other affordability and assistance programs to provide meaningful and impactful support to vulnerable households.

Please email our team to learn more about how an AWE membership can support you in your water affordability work.

Need some inspiration?

Check out these impactful examples across other communities.

Submitted by Ron Burke, President and CEO

At the Colorado River Water Users Association (CRWUA) conference in December, I had the opportunity to hear first-hand from many of the stakeholders dealing with the Colorado River crisis. The crux of the problem is that a tangled mess of laws, court cases, and rules allocates more water from the Colorado River Basin (CBR) than is actually available. Moreover, there is less and less water to go around because of climate change.

CRB water users have leveraged massive investments in water infrastructure to literally and figuratively put down roots in the desert with farms, industry, and communities. Now, there is understandably concern that it’s all at risk.

What makes this problem more vexing is that it can’t be fixed by reigning in rogue water users. That’s because, with very few exceptions, everyone is playing by the rules created to manage this precious resource. However, the rules don’t work to align water use with available CRB water supplies, and the way that water has been allocated is often inequitable and not necessarily tied to its highest and best uses.

Which begs the question explored at CRWUA – which uses should be prioritized for reduction, and how do we persuade CRB water rights holders to use less than they are allocated when the rules of the game don’t require it? The short answer that emerged for me is that additional funding will be needed to support voluntary water use reductions from all sectors.

Many water rights holders already use less than their allocations, such as Tribal Nations (who are finally getting seats at the key negotiation tables – this was a major theme at CRWUA), communities in the upper basin states, and farms and irrigation districts. These have been voluntary reductions with no financial compensation, voluntary with compensation, or communities systemically using less than their full allocation because of advancements and investments in water efficiency and conservation.

Nonetheless, CRB water remains overallocated overall, and in 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) called for as much as a one-third reduction in usage. CRB states, in coordination with many stakeholders, have stepped up with plans to achieve reduction goals through 2026, relying heavily on Reclamation funding from the federal Inflation Reduction Act to pay farmers and cities to temporarily forego water use.

At CRWUA, I was encouraged to hear acknowledgements that these temporary measures aren’t enough. We need lasting reductions. And despite headline-grabbing proposals to build cost-ineffective desalination plants in Mexico or pipelines to the Mississippi River, the conversations at CRWUA focused on efficiency, conservation, reuse, and stormwater capture versus traditional supply side strategies.

This represents a paradigm shift for water engineers and planners long enamored with building canals, dams, plants, and pipes. The focus is increasingly on how to use every drop available in the CRB more efficiently for people, agriculture, business, and the environment versus putting more straws into the same cup.

Ideally, laws and regulations will be fundamentally changed to enable sustainable, long-term CRB water management. However, it’s unclear when and whether we will get there. In the meantime, more communities, farmers, and irrigation districts will need to voluntarily make long-term commitments to take less water from the CRB.

For example, thirty local water providers signed an MOU in 2022 to take additional steps to conserve CRB water in the system, including limiting irrigation of nonfunctional turf. The Imperial Irrigation District, which serves vast agriculture operations in Southern California, recently signed agreements along with urban water agencies and tribal nations to temporarily conserve CRB water.

From replacing non-functional turf with climate resilient landscaping and using water efficient equipment and fixtures in homes and businesses, to plugging leaky pipes and canals and helping farmers switch to more efficient irrigation systems or less water-intensive crops, opportunities abound to save CRB water. However, additional funding is needed to support efforts like these to achieve long-term water use reduction commensurate with what the Colorado River can realistically supply given the new normal of hotter, drier weather.

For example, it’s encouraging to see CRB states and local water providers increasing their investments in demand management and reuse, and that trend will need to continue. Federal Inflation Reduction Act funding for Western Drought Response expires in 2026, and Congress needs to make this a standing program with annual appropriations. We also need sustained and increased funding for Reclamation’s WaterSMART Water and Energy Efficiency Grants.

We have spent billions of dollars to deliver water to the Southwest, and because of climate change and population growth, it will take billions more to sufficiently save and manage that water. To paraphrase a comment I heard from Adel Hagekhalil, general manager and chief executive officer for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California: to tackle this crisis, the reality is that we need reservoirs of money in addition to reservoirs of water.

Submitted by Liesel Hans, Director of Programs

As we embrace a new year, let this be the year you commit to taking a step (baby or big, it all makes progress) toward tackling water affordability and equity challenges in your community. Resolving to champion these issues isn't just a goal; it's a promise to turn the tide toward a more inclusive, sustainable water future.

Need some inspiration and ideas for other affordability strategies? Check out these innovative examples I learned about at the recent U.S. Water Alliance Summit, including AWE's Summit presentation about our work with the City of Houston, TX.

• Houston Water and AWE Assess Affordability Challenges
  AWE partnered with Houston Water to complete an  Assessment of Water Affordability & Conservation Potential in Houston, Texas. The study found that under the much-needed rate increases planned for Houston, the most impacted households will go from paying about 13 percent of yearly income on water and sewer bills to over 21 percent.AWE worked with Houston to identify ways to improve water affordability, including water efficiency and conservation strategies that could result in an average of 15 percent bill savings, with some customers saving up to 34 percent. Further, Houston Water is developing a direct install pilot to help low-income households replace old plumbing fixtures and appliances with new, high-efficiency models, generously supported by donations from LIXIL and Whirlpool.  Conservation strategies build trust and show you care about your customers. A direct-install program model addresses the resource and time constraints that are common barriers for low-income households to access water efficiency through traditional rebate programs.
• Promise Pay Steps in to Effectively Roll out LIHWAP in Virginia and Florida  
  Virginia and Florida both faced the risk of losing unspent funds allocated for the federally-funded Low Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP). However, the introduction of the Promise Program turned that around. Promise administered over $20 million to more than 30,000 households across Virginia and helped Florida distribute over $48 million to 50,000 households in less than five months. Further, the innovative customer-first approach helped Virginia distribute over 75% of its federal allocation, earning additional funding and was recognized for their incredibly successful program implementation. Promise’s outreach approach takes the onus off of the customer to find and participate in the program.  Promise partnered with utilities and used targeted text messaging to eligible customers with a simple application flow and immediate phone support for those needing additional assistance. The use of categorical eligibility to approved state programs greatly reduced the need for document upload removing complexity and fall off during the application process. Categorical eligibility means they leveraged eligibility for other programs to determine eligibility for LIHWAP. Residents simply had to attest that they were already eligible for programs like LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) or SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).  Residents didn’t need to upload documents or attend an in-person appointment to complete applications. The outreach approach reaches those unaware of the program, and the elimination of appointments allows folks who live in rural settings equitable access to benefits.
• Pittsburgh Launches New Service Line Repair and Water Conservation Pilot Program to Help Low-income Households 
  In September 2023, Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) launched the Line Repair and Water Conservation Pilot Program. This program provides income-qualified customers with in-home plumbing repairs, water-saving device installations, and enrollment in the Customer Advantage portal. The portal allows PWSA customers to set leak and usage alerts and to view their water use in real-time. The initiative aims to empower customers to control their water usage, resulting in lower bills and more efficient water use at home. Low-income advocates proposed this new effort in a rate case proceeding with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), and PWSA petitioned the PUC to explore a pilot program. PWSA has dedicated $324,000 of rate-payer dollars towards the Line Repair and Water Conservation Pilot Program, which is expected to assist about 239 income-eligible customers. PWSA will evaluate the success of this pilot program and, in collaboration with regulators, will determine opportunities to make it a permanent part of their suite of Customer Assistance Programs. In 2021, PWSA formed the PGH20 Cares team, which is a group of education and outreach professionals dedicated to proactively working directly with their most vulnerable customers to bolster enrollment in their customer assistance programs and identify ways to reduce water usage.
• St. Paul Grant Advances Smart Meters and Swaps Leaky Toilets to Lower Customer Water Bills 
  Saint Paul Regional Water Services secured a $250,000 grant from the Metropolitan Council to address water conservation and affordability. These funds support the rollout of automated metering infrastructure (AMI) and the replacement of inefficient toilets – both focused on areas of concentrated poverty. The $150,000 for the AMI supported installing 12 collectors, now collecting live meter reads for over 20,000 homes. AMI allows customers to access near real-time data and information about their water use, which can empower them to take actions to reduce water use and lower their water bills. Further, AMI systems can enable proactive leak-notification programs which can alert households to abnormal water use before they get surprised with high water bills or expensive property damage. The $100,000 for toilets supported the replacement of 242 toilets (parts + labor) at no cost to the customers. These toilet replacements are showing an average savings of 40 gallons per day per toilet, which equates to about $84/year for each of these customers.

Reviewing these examples, you may wonder, "Are water affordability and utility financial stability at odds with one another? Are they friends or foes? Utility bills often impact the financial bottom line for both residents and the utilities themselves. As customer assistance and affordability programs are growing in popularity and adoption rates, utilities may be concerned about how these programs will pencil out.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the National Consumer Law Center developed the Water Affordability Advocacy Toolkit, a series of modules about affordability topics and strategies to help advocate change to policymakers, including water conservation and plumbing repair services. As a follow-on effort, NRDC worked with technical experts to develop the Water Affordability Business Case Tool. This tool helps utilities assess the business case for specifically implementing a discount program for low-income customers. “The Tool accounts for offsetting revenue increases and avoided costs resulting from making bills more affordable to customers currently struggling to pay. For example, households receiving affordable bills are far more likely to pay those bills consistently and on time, while utilities save on the cost of collecting unpaid bills.”

These are just a sampling of the myriad water affordability strategies and programs that communities nationwide utilize to serve their customers' needs better and meet demands equitably. AWE is here to help support your organization as you tackle these challenges. To learn more about how AWE can work with you to advance water affordability in your community, email Liesel.

*This is part one of a two-part blog series. Click here for part two. 

Join us in February for our Regional Member Roundtables! These two-hour gatherings will allow members to connect about some of the most pressing challenges and exciting opportunities facing water efficiency practitioners. Hear what's new with AWE, participate in meaningful conversations about important topics, and connect with other members local to your region.

Register by region below:

American Southwest
Thursday, February 1 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM MST
​Topic: Landscape Transformation & Non-Functional Turf
Presenters: Diana Denwood, City of Aurora; Krista Guerrero, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California; Kelly Kopp, Utah State University, Center for Water Efficient Landscaping

American Northwest
Thursday, February 8 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM PST​
​Topic: Landscape Transformation & Non-Functional Turf
Presenters: Dan Denning, City of Bend; Darren Nowels, Northern Water; Amanda Strack, Central Utah Water Conservancy District

American Southeast
Thursday, February 15, from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM EST​
​Topic: Landscape Transformation & Non-Functional Turf
Presenters: Deirdre Irwin, St. John's River Management; Brian Schwartz, University of Georgia, Turfgrass Innovations

American Great Lakes and Northeast
Thursday, February 22, from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM EST
​Topic: The Role of Water Conservation in Managing Infrastructure and Affordability Amidst Population Decline
Presenters: to be announced

Canada
Thursday, February 29, from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM MST
​Topic: The Role of Water Conservation in Managing Population Growth
Presenters: to be announced

Meetings will be held virtually. Members are encouraged to attend their respective regional meetings but are also welcome to participate in other regional meetings based on the topic of discussion.

California members are welcome to participate; note that CalWEP, an AWE chapter, offers a variety of excellent meetings and events specifically catered to CalWEP members. Learn more.

This meeting is free for members and $50.00 for non-members.

The Alliance for Water Efficiency is seeking proposals from well-qualified firms or individuals (consultants) to conduct a Market Readiness Assessment as a component of our Landscape Transformation study. Click here  to download the RFP.

The Assessment will evaluate:  

1. the willingness and ability of water provider customers to implement landscape transformations, which should include both decision makers within the customer’s organizations and the professionals responsible for implementation and management of the new landscapes,  
2. what factors are important to them in making these decisions, and  
3. what factors facilitate or delay the market’s transformation to water-efficient landscapes across market stakeholders.  

This Market Readiness Assessment is a component of a larger research project focused on quantifying the water savings of “large” landscape transformation and irrigation optimization programs (i.e., not single-family residential landscapes) and evaluating program structures and features. The property/customer types may include commercial, industrial, institutional, multi-family common space, HOA common space, and municipal/government properties. This research will focus on both landscape transformations, which are often referred to as “cash for grass” or xeriscaping programs, and irrigation optimization strategies such as irrigation audits, landscape water budgets, technology or equipment incentives/rebates, report services, repair/upgrade services, and more.    

This research is especially timely and important because many utilities are considering or actively investing in large-scale landscape transformation programs. States have allocated additional funding for turf replacement programs, 30 cities in the Colorado River Basin signed an MOU to reduce non-essential turfgrass by 30%, and some have banned irrigation of non-essential turf.  

Proposal Schedule and Deadline 

• RFP Issuance: November 13, 2023 
• Opportunity to Submit Questions & Clarifications: November 28, 2023 
• Responses to Questions Posted: December 1, 2023 
• Proposal Due Date: December 19, 2023 
• Anticipated Notice of Award: January 10, 2024 
• Contract Negotiation and Execution: January 31, 2024 
• Project Launch: February 1, 2024 

Proposal packages should be submitted as a single PDF file via email to Jeffrey Hughes of the Alliance for Water Efficiency. You will receive an email back confirming receipt.  

RFP Contact 

If you have questions about this Request for Proposal, please contact Amanda Christophe.  

Earlier this fall, the Alliance for Water Efficiency had the pleasure of accepting an Excellence Award for Strategic Collaboration from EPA WaterSense®. We were proud to accept this award alongside so many of our member organizations at the 2023 WaterSmart Innovation Conference hosted in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Of the 47 awards presented by EPA WaterSense, 33 were presented to AWE organizational members, including:

Athens-Clarke County Public Utilities Department Water Conservation Office, The City of Charlottesville, City of Durham Water Management, City of Plano, City of Sacramento Department of Utilities, Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District, Kohler, Harris-Galveston Subsidence District, Houston Public Works, Rancho Water, Valley Water, Tarrant Regional Water District, Vallecitos Water District, Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership, Niagara, City of Big Bear Lake Department of Water and Power, Irvine Ranch Water District, Monte Vista Water District, San Diego County Water Authority, Sacramento Suburban Water District, Cobb County Water System, Alameda County Water District; California Water Service; City of Flagstaff, Water Conservation Program; City of Tucson, Marin Water, San Dieguito Water District,  Tampa Bay Water, Hunter Industries, SCV Water, and Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

Congratulations to all of the awardees on a job well done. Learn more about all the 2023 Award winners by visiting the WaterSense website.

2023 AWE Member Awards

Since 2009, the Alliance for Water Efficiency has recognized the outstanding achievement and impact of individual water conservation practitioners through our Water Star Award. In 2021, we began annually recognizing outstanding organizational members through a Member of the Year Award. In 2023, several new awards were added, and for the first time, winners for several of our awards were chosen from nominations submitted by our members.

The 2023 awardees were recognized during an Awards Reception hosted on the evening of August 2nd, during AWE's 1st Annual Water Efficiency & Conservation Symposium in Chicago, Illinois. Our Board of Directors, CEO, and staff were thrilled to honor the hard work, leadership, and dedicated service of several of our individual members and member organizations through these awards. Join us in celebrating our 2023 award winners!

Member-Nominated Awards

Excellence in Equity Award: Colorado Springs Utilities

(Ron Burke presents the award to Julia Galucci on behalf of Colorado Springs Utilities)

The Excellence in Equity Award recognizes an AWE member organization for significant success in advancing equity through their work with diverse populations. This may include practices or programs geared towards equitably serving BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ persons, veterans, and low-to-moderate-income households. 

We are excited to honor the work Colorado Springs Utilities has engaged in to advance equity. After their team recognized that their lower-income customers had a lower participation rate in their programs and that fixtures in lower-income housing were more likely to be inefficient and leaking, Colorado Springs developed retrofit programs for affordable single-family, multi-family, and mobile homes and for affordable housing agencies. In addition, Colorado Springs Utilities also repaired leaks in affordable mobile home parks and provided HELP kits to HEAP-qualifying and other low-income customers. For these reasons, AWE was proud to present the 2023 Equity in Excellence Award to Colorado Springs Utilities. 

Innovation Award

The Innovation Award recognizes technological advances, research breakthroughs, and innovative practices of a current member organization that champions the adoption, implementation, or public acceptance of water efficiency and sustainability.

– Business Innovation Award: Flume

(Ron Burke presents the award to Ric Miles on behalf of Flume)

The Innovative Flume Smart Home Water Monitor has been a game changer in multiple ways.  For example, it gives homeowners a DIY tool to track and reduce water use, and Flume reports an average reduction of around 2O%.  Moreover, Flume shares the collective data from its monitors with water providers and others through its free quarterly webinars, enabling access to data that, historically, has been difficult and expensive to come by. Flume is helping water providers across the US understand how water is being used and how water use is changing. 

– Utility Innovation Award: San Diego County Water Authority

(Ron Burke presents the award to Lisa Prus and Debby Dunn on behalf of San Diego County Water Authority)

San Diego County Water Authority has developed and implemented one of the first and most comprehensive multi-benefit stacked incentive programs in the Country in partnership with the County of San Diego. This partnership brings together a regional water agency and stormwater department that has co-funded incentive programs producing supply and water quality benefits. The County of San Diego has invested $4 million in turf replacement, irrigation controllers, cisterns, rain barrels, and agricultural efficiency.  

The partnership also includes a technical assistance program, the Landscape Optimization Service, that helps large landscape owners replace turf grass with sustainable landscaping. In addition, the Water Authority launched the “Multi-Benefit Stacked Incentives Learning Network” to bring together the region’s 24 water agencies and 21 stormwater agencies to foster investments with multiple benefits.  

Up & Comer Award: Chris Garcia

(Ron Burke presents the award to Chris Garcia)

The Up and Comer Award recognizes an individual employee of a current AWE organizational member with less than five years in the water efficiency, conservation, and sustainability field for their leadership and commitment to pursuing water efficiency as a career path.  

Chris currently serves as the Environmental Resources Planner with Inland Empire Utilities Agency. At the start of his career, Chris had been working as a part-time intern when, unexpectedly, he had to assume leadership of  IEUA's $1.6 million/year regional WUE program, coordinating with seven retail water agencies and the Metropolitan Water District. Today, he oversees the work of half a dozen contractors and consultants and two interns of his own. Chris implemented a "Core + Flex" regional program design that better fits the region's needs. He has also taken steps to enhance access to funding and transparency of IEUA program spending and water savings.  

Chris' personal integrity and commitment to effective collaboration and collegiality have engendered trust, respect and appreciation. He is also attending school in the evenings in pursuit of a Master of Public Administration degree.  

Water Star Award: Christine Chavez

(Ron Burke presents the award to Christine Chavez)

The Water Star Award recognizes individual excellence in water efficiency and celebrates a water conservation practitioner making a difference through their dedication and passion. This individual is someone whose contributions and achievements have made a significant impact in the water efficiency, conservation, and sustainability field. The 2023 Water Star awardee is Christine Chavez, Water Conservation Manager for the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Christine has made her mark advancing water conservation and sustainability while working for the city of Los Cruces, Los Alamos County, and as an Adjunct Professor at New Mexico State University and Santa Fe Community College. She became Santa Fe’s Water Conservation Program Manager in 2016, which has been a model for the Southwest under her leadership. 

For example, the City's WaterWise program goes beyond traditional conservation to provide training for at-risk youth to perform water audits and implement pilot projects on the City's behalf. The City also sponsors the Next Generation Water Summit, which connects national and international experts that help keep the City ahead of the game. 

Christine has facilitated an annual water conservation scorecard that outlines goals with annual input from the city’s water conservation advisory committee and the general public. She utilizes the committee and strong public, private, and community partnerships to build multi-layered programs. She also serves as the President of the New Mexico Water Conservation Alliance. 

– Click here to learn about previous Water Star Awardees

AWE Staff & Board-Nominated Awards

Member of the Year Awards

The Member of the Year Award is an award intended to recognize an organizational member of the Alliance for Water Efficiency serving as a leader in the water efficiency and conservation community. An organizational member that has demonstrated consistent commitment to and support for the work of the Alliance for Water Efficiency–in recognition of their outstanding support and dedication to the Alliance for Water Efficiency and its mission to promote the efficient and sustainable use of water.

– Affiliate Member of the Year: International Association of Plumbing & Mechanical Officials (IAPMO)

(Ron Burke presents the award to Dain Hansen and Peter DeMarco on behalf of IAPMO)

IAPMO was an AWE Charter Sponsor, contributing both time and money to launch AWE more than 15 years ago.  They have consistently served on the board of directors, including our past Chair, Pete DeMarco. IAPMO has been a regular event, program and research supporter, and they are one of our most important policy partners in DC and state capitals advocating for additional water efficiency funding, incentives, and research.  

Our partnership with IAPMO highlights one of the things that makes AWE unique and powerful: we are water agencies, yes, but also businesses like Kohler, Whirlpool, PandG and Eagle Aerial; plumbers and contractors like PHCC, consulting firms like Cavanaugh, and codes officials like IAPMO. AWE brings together different perspectives and expertise. Together, we are much more than the sum of our parts, supporting each other to advance water efficiency in a variety of ways.   

We are immensely thankful to IAPMO for being one of our most important partners and supporters for more than 15 years.

– Business & Industry Member of the Year: The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company

(Ron Burke presents the award to Brian Herrington, Katherine Dickens, and Michael Diamond on behalf of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company)

Scotts has been AWE’s most generous funder of critical outdoor landscapes and watering research over the past six years, including the Sustainable Landscapes Utility Program Guide and our study on the Use and Effectiveness of Municipal Irrigation Restrictions During Drought. Their support currently funds research between AWE and Utah State University evaluating the resource impacts of different landscapes.  

Our partnership with Scotts also made possible the creation of the Learning Landscapes Outdoor Water Efficiency and Conservation Lessons for grades 3-8 and Learning Landscapes grants for 13 communities to support building or improving an educational outdoor space at schools, gardens, or other community locals that allow school-age children to experience hands-on, applied learning about water efficiency in outdoor landscapes. 

In addition, Scotts has hosted AWE at its annual partners conference, which has led to a number of fruitful connections with other nonprofits with a passion for water.  For these reasons and more, we present the 2023 Business and Industry Member of the Year to The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company.  

– Water Supplier Member of the Year: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California 

(Ron Burke presents the award to Bill McDonnell on behalf of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California)

Metropolitan is a Charter Sponsor of AWE, having contributed substantial seed funding in addition to donating years’ worth of salary for our founding President and CEO, Mary Ann Dickinson.  

Metropolitan is a continual supporter of AWE, having been an annual member since Day 1, an event and program sponsor, a significant research supporter, and a strategic champion serving on AWE’s Board of Directors…Metropolitan’s representatives on the AWE Board of Directors include past Met Board Chair and Director Tim Brick, Assistant General Manager and COO Deven Upadhyay, and currently Bill McDonnell, Water Efficiency Manager—who is in the midst of his 5th year serving as AWE’s Board Treasurer.  

– Click here to learn about previous Member of the Year Awardees

Volunteer of the Year Award: Jill Greiner

(Jill was unable to attend the Symposium, but we honored her in absentia.)

The Volunteer of the Year Award is given to an employee of a current organizational member who served AWE in an expanded role over the past year, such as being a board member, committee chair/co-chair/vice-chair, and volunteering in other ways. The 2023 Volunteer of the Year awardee is Jill Greiner, Water Efficiency Program Coordinator for the city of Charlottesville, VA.  

Jill is the co-chair of the E&O committee and is a Communications Resource Library Subcommittee member. Jill is always well-prepared for these meetings, consistently delivers creative ideas, engages thoughtfully with the group, and is quick to problem-solve. She’s a one-woman department in her city of Charlottesville, VA but manages to be actively engaged with AWE and several other state, regional, and national entities. 

Congratulations, 2023 awardees! 

June 2023 Update: Earlier this year, AWE’s President & CEO, Ron Burke, published a blog post about the multiple benefits of water efficiency and conservation. Since then, our team has transformed the high points from the blog and transformed it into a one-page fact sheet. There are two versions of the fact sheet with the same content but with different titles. One is entitled “Water Efficiency and Conservation: Important Even When Water is Abundant,” which may be best suited for communities where water supplies are or are perceived to be ample.  The other is entitled “The Multiple Benefits of Water Efficiency and Conservation,” which can be useful anywhere, particularly in arid regions where benefits beyond water supply reliability may be overlooked.

Please use and share this resource as you see fit! The Water Efficiency and Conservation: Important Even When Water is Abundant version is available here,  and The Multiple Benefits of Water Efficiency & Conservation version is available here. 

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Water efficiency and conservation are typically the fastest and least expensive ways to help ensure that communities and agriculture have access to affordable, sustainable water supplies. Making every drop of water count is especially important today, with climate change fueling hotter, dryer weather. Nearly every state experienced drought in 2022, including the worst drought in hundreds of years in the western U.S. 

However, water efficiency and conservation offer multiple sustainability benefits beyond keeping the water running, just as energy efficiency does more than keep the lights on. As we celebrate Earth Day, it’s an excellent time to de-bunk the common misperception that water efficiency and conservation are only important in arid regions or when drought sets in. 

Here’s a brief summary of water efficiency and conservation’s other benefits:

• Mitigating climate change by reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions associated with heating, pumping, and treating water/wastewater. Water and wastewater treatment plants are typically some of the largest energy consumers in cities. The Electric Power Research Institute estimates that treating, distributing, and heating water accounts for 1.8 percent of U.S. electricity consumption.
• Adapting to climate change by making communities more resilient to weather extremes. Water efficiency and conservation help communities adapt to droughts, which are expected to be more frequent and extreme due to climate change. It can also free up more capacity in sewer systems to manage heavy rain events that are expected to be more frequent and severe.
• Helping communities manage water shortages related to water quality problems. E-coli outbreaks and PFAs contaminants (“forever chemicals”) are just some of the water quality problems communities may face. Water supplies may be limited as communities shift to different supplies and/or ramp up treatment strategies. Recently, supply chain problems have also interrupted supplies. 
• Making water bills more affordable. Water-efficient plumbing products can save an average family hundreds of dollars each year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA); this is especially important for low-income households.
• Reducing water infrastructure costs. Using less water can reduce the need to build or expand expensive drinking water and wastewater systems.
• Reducing costs for businesses and supporting corporate sustainability goals. Water efficiency and conservation can help companies save money and achieve corporate environmental sustainability goals that are increasingly prioritized.
• Supporting the sustainable, natural functioning of water resources and their broader ecosystems. Water efficiency and conservation can make more water available to support healthy stream flows and lake levels for plants and animals.
• Limiting nutrient runoff associated with over-irrigation. Landscape and agriculture water efficiency can help limit the amount of chemicals running off yards and farm fields into rivers, lakes, and oceans. 
• Limiting property damage caused by leaks – a leading cause of real estate loss. Water efficiency strategies and technologies that detect leaks can save water and also help prevent property damage.

Despite these many benefits, water efficiency and conservation continue to be underfunded. State and federal governments leave nearly the entire tab for water efficiency to local water agencies, many of which are cash-strapped because of aging infrastructure, the cost of new environmental and public health protections, and inflation. New federal funding for water infrastructure should help local water providers, but only modest funding was allocated for water efficiency. 

An analysis our staff conducted in May 2021, found that federal spending on energy efficiency and renewable energy outpaced spending on water efficiency and water reuse by approximately 80 to 1 between 2000 and 2020. In addition, AWE’s recent State Policy Scorecard for Water Efficiency and Sustainability found that only 17 states provide water efficiency funding, which is relatively small in most states. 

You can help by asking state and federal lawmakers to invest in water efficiency. And for tips on how to use water wisely at home, check out AWE’s Home Water Works Website and Calculator  to learn more. 

Today the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) released the 2022 U.S. State Policy Scorecard for Water Efficiency and Sustainability (Scorecard), which ranked each U.S. state based on its adoption of laws and policies that advance water efficiency, conservation, sustainability, and affordability. California was the top-ranked state in the nation, followed by Texas, Arizona, Georgia, Washington, New York, Nevada, New Hampshire, Colorado, and Minnesota.

While some states improved since AWE’s previous Scorecard was released in 2017, the analysis found little progress overall, even as droughts and other climate change impacts increasingly undermine affordable, reliable water services. The average state score was only 23 out of 89 possible points.

Key findings include:

• Connecticut was the only state that reported using its own funds to support customer water bill assistance
• California is the only state that requires water utilities to plan for climate change
• 18 states use their own revenues to fund water efficiency and conservation
• 16 states provide funding for water reuse.
• 13 states require rate structures that encourage water efficiency
• 19 states require coordination between local land use and water planning agencies.

Despite the low scores, there were some bright spots, including ten states adopting point-of-sale plumbing efficiency requirements since 2017 that go beyond federal standards, for a current total of 15 states plus the District of Columbia.

Click here to download the full report and access individual state scorecards.

AWE Recognizes an Unsung Hero and Leader in the Water Efficiency and Conservation Community

Water Star Award

The Water Star Award celebrates the “unsung hero”, the quiet water conservation practitioner working in the trenches who makes a huge difference by their dedication, passion, and progressive approaches to move forward our field. Water Star award winners receive this recognition not because they apply for the award, but because their peers around them recognize the value of their significant contribution and achievements over time and their quiet dedication to the cause.

The Alliance for Water Efficiency is proud to present its 2022 Water Star Award to Kevin Reidy of the Colorado Water Conservation Board. Click here to learn more about Kevin’s career accomplishments and to view past winners of the Water Star Award.

Member of the Year Award

The Member of the Year Award is an award intended to recognize an organizational member of the Alliance for Water Efficiency serving as a leader in the water efficiency and conservation community. An organizational member that has demonstrated consistent commitment to and support for the work of the Alliance for Water Efficiency–in recognition of their outstanding support and dedication to the Alliance for Water Efficiency and its mission to promote the efficient and sustainable use of water.

The Alliance for Water Efficiency is proud to present its 2022 Member of the Year Award to the Whirlpool Corporation. Click here to learn more about Whirlpool’s extraordinary support and work surrounding water use efficiency, and to view past winners of the Member of the Year Award.

Last week, AWE sent a letter to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation signed by 35 organizations that encouraged the prioritization of water efficiency and demand reduction when deciding how to spend $4 billion recently approved by Congress for Western drought response as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.  There is pressure on Reclamation to focus spending on the temporary fallowing of crops, and the letter explains that water efficiency and conservation can provide rapid and sustained demand reduction to address both the immediate and long-term water crisis. Congress largely deferred to Reclamation to decide how the money is divided between 1) paying agriculture water users not to use water, 2) water efficiency/demand reduction, and 3) ecosystem restoration. The letter also encourages Reclamation to prioritize water efficiency and demand a reduction in spending funds from the Federal Infrastructure Bill passed last year. 

See the final letter here.

Read the letter written by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in response to our letter here.

See the formal extension notice written by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation here.

AWE is seeking organizations to sign onto a letter to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation encouraging the prioritization of proven water efficiency strategies when deciding how to spend $4 billion recently approved by congress for western drought response as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Congress largely deferred to Reclamation to decide how the money is divided between 1) paying agriculture water users not to use water, 2) water efficiency, and 3) ecosystem restoration.

We fully expect Reclamation to spend funds on all three categories but believe water efficiency should be prioritized given the severity of the western water crisis and that water efficiency is typically the best way to cost-effectively achieve both rapid and lasting water savings. This has the potential to be the largest-ever federal investment in water efficiency. The letter also encourages Reclamation to prioritize water efficiency in spending funds from the Infrastructure bill passed last year.

CLICK HERE to view a draft of the letter.

Please respond to membership@a4we.org by COB Wednesday, August 31 to sign the letter.  Thank you.

New! This year we’ll be bringing together all AWE members for a day of connecting with and learning from your fellow AWE members at the WSI conference. Historically, the agenda has been meetings for each of the three AWE Advisory Committees. This year, we’ll include this and additional activities, small-group discussions, and opportunities to influence the direction of AWE research and programs. All members are welcome – you do not need to be an active member of a committee to attend. We look forward to seeing you in person. And don’t miss the AWE Annual Member Reception either! Registration link coming soon.  

The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Biden this week, includes $4 billion for drought relief in the western U.S., including the Colorado River Basin (CRB) where the 23rd consecutive year of drought, fueled by climate change, has accelerated the basin’s water crisis, with the federal government recently calling for  a dramatic 17 to 33 percent cut in water usage over the next year.

The drought relief language in the Act is vague, but urban and agricultural water efficiency and conservation projects are listed as eligible expenses. AWE is drafting a letter urging the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to focus funding on projects that can deliver fast and sustained water savings, including water efficiency and conservation. Unfortunately, the bill does not include tax exemption for water conservation rebates as we had hoped it would, but we are optimistic that this will be included in legislation later this year.

Learn more here .

By Aaron Dorman

This article originally appeared in the Shaw Local News Network's Northwest Herald.

The end of an almost two-year drought  in McHenry County hasn’t dampened concerns about municipalities’ drawing down of groundwater.

While planners at the county and local level are aware of the need for sustainable yields from aquifers, some believe conservation and efficiency measures may not be enough to avoid alternative options for water in the long term, such as Lake Michigan.

In fact, the region’s long-term forecast calls for above-average precipitation, said Wes Cattoor, acting chief of engineering studies for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Although a drought in 2012 was statewide and caused significant crop failure, Scott Kuykendall, water resource specialist with the McHenry County Department of Planning and Development, said he asked National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration  scientists why McHenry County had experienced a localized drought.

Their explanation? Bad luck.

When a drought does occur, as was the case for almost two years up until this spring, inputs into the shallow aquifer system such as surface water in streams are significantly less, Cattoor said.

There are 37 active monitoring wells in McHenry County that transmit data to U.S. Geological Survey  satellites, Kuykendall said, adding that the federal agency, in turn, maintains the data for them.

The challenges for McHenry County’s groundwater resources have to do with continued population growth projections, as well as differences in underground geology and hydrology from one municipality to the next, Kuykendall said.

For example, Lake in the Hills has had a much quicker recovery because of sand and gravel in that area, Kuykendall said, while Huntley’s water, which comes from a deep-water aquifer, could take longer to recover.

“There’s a certain amount of sustainability as long as we don’t draw it out faster than it’s being recharged,” Kuykendall said. “These [water] tables can rise and fall.”

Groundwater aquifers, Kuykendall said, are less like underground lakes and more like uneven layers of rock and sediment within which water can fill. How much water can be contained within layers depends on the type of rock and the material between the aquifers, known as aquitards. 

Those layers also determine how easily water can penetrate or replenish, Kuykendall said. Sand and gravel, being composed of smaller particles, provide a layer where water can replenish easily. With limestone – a hard rigid rock that is significantly less porous – water can fill cracks and fissures, but those fissures then also determine when and how the water can flow within that layer.

Private wells within the county tap into the shallower sand and gravel aquifer or in the layer of limestone directly underneath, where water and snowmelt can infiltrate into the ground and fill the spaces in between.

The deep bedrock aquifer within McHenry County, part of the Ironton-Galesville Aquifer that spans several states, is 1,300 feet below the surface in a layer of sandstone, where ancient sands have been pressed into stone but maintain pour spaces, Kuykendall said, adding that sandstone layers often cover a massive area underground.

The benefit of the deep water wells  is that they are not susceptible to short-term fluctuations in water levels. Unfortunately, that also means they recharge on very slow timescales.

Recharge for the deepwater aquifer comes from north-central Wisconsin, Kuykendall said.

“It can take thousands of years for water to make the trip,” Kuykendall said. “As soon as we start pumping water out, we are drawing the water table down. That aquifer is basically being run dry.”

In addition, during drought conditions, municipalities rely on the deepwater sources more heavily, drawing down even faster.

Although the aquifer won’t run out anytime soon, Kuykendall said, he warned that we are “robbing from future generations.”

Crystal Lake uses a combination of various aquifer layers, while Huntley and Harvard use only the deep bedrock aquifer.

In addition, both Huntley and Crystal Lake are planning to drill new deepwater wells this year, officials in those municipalities said.

Huntley Public Works Director Tim Farrell said the county’s uneven geology is partly due to the movement of glaciers thousands of years ago. Those glaciers shaped the region’s valleys and upper bedrock layers on a localized level.

“The glaciers advanced and retreated and left behind gravel bedrock that we use for shallow aquifers,” Farrell said. “For whatever reason, those glaciers missed Huntley.”

All municipalities in the county rely on groundwater for drinking supplies, while the western region depends on wells for agriculture, Kuykendall said.

Kuykendall described state laws restricting groundwater use as “very weak,” noting that municipalities are self-governing in that area.

Farrell confirmed that Huntley, which has five deepwater wells, was “pumping quite a bit” to meet water demands over the past few drought-stricken years.

He said the extra drawdown was “fine” during that time period, but the wells and treatment plants were at full capacity during the drought due to the lack of rainwater that normally supplements well usage.

Huntley does not have the upper level of sand and gravel that other municipalities can use, Farrell said.

Within 20 or 30 years, Farrell said he anticipates Huntley looking into connecting with Lake Michigan water, which likely would be a regional initiative at that point.

Lake Michigan water service goes as far as Hoffman Estates, which is 20 miles east of Huntley, Farrell said.

“No community can do that alone because of the cost,” Farrell said. “It would be too prohibitive. We’re 20 years out from that, but it’s going to take that long to plan for it and get any pipelines out here anyway.”

Crystal Lake Public Works Director Mike Magnuson said city planners are aware of the concern about drawing from the deep well aquifer.

“We are mindful that long term the deepwater aquifer has limited capacity,” Magnuson said. “Looking at water options for McHenry [County] is going to have to happen. We can’t go on forever if the county keeps growing in population.”

Crystal Lake encourages residents to conserve water for uses such as maintaining lawns, and there are restrictions in place for when excessive drought conditions occur, Magnuson said.

Magnuson noted that the shallow aquifer was further affected by surface pollutants or chlorides from oversalting roads during the winter. The deepwater aquifer, on the other hand, wasn’t affected by that factor.

Farrell also said Huntley came close to having to enact water restrictions but ultimately did not.

“I approached the Village Board at one point last summer to let them know we were approaching the point where we needed to implement more aggressive water conservation measures,” Farrell said.

In the future, the local water agencies want to coordinate with municipalities and state agencies and use better models to gauge the effect of population and infrastructure growth, Kuykendall said.

Several cities in the collar counties already have run into problems with growing too fast or overdrawing on limited water resources.

In Will County, Joliet’s rapid growth has caused the city to prepare to connect to Lake Michigan water by 2030; the city’s Lake Michigan water project  will cost the city about $800 million and triple residents’ water rates within the next decade, beginning with a 6.5% increase  in November.

Three villages along the Fox River south of Aurora – Montgomery, Oswego and Yorkville – are working on plans  to switch to Lake Michigan water.

At the moment, Illinois’ allocation of Lake Michigan water affords some amount of future growth, said Joel Brammeier, president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes.

However, municipalities must apply for a permit from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources  and fulfill certain conditions, including conservation of their existing water supply, before the state allows a community to move to Lake Michigan water, Brammeier said.

The process can take a long time, and the infrastructure involved requires decades of planning, Brammeier said.

“Moving to Lake Michigan water is not as simple as saying, ‘Yesterday we used an aquifer, tomorrow we get Lake Michigan,’ ” Brammeier said. “It’s an expensive proposition and deserves a lot of analysis and thought before assuming that option will be available. But Lake Michigan itself won’t inherently be the limiting factor.”

One potential complicating factor, Brammeier said, is that Illinois alone among U.S. states and Canadian provinces is allowed to take Lake Michigan water and transfer it to the Mississippi watershed. That’s instead of returning it to the Great Lakes.

While Illinois still is well under its allotment of water, Brammeier said he couldn’t envision the state getting a larger allocation of water.

“The last thing we need to be talking about is diverting more water from the Great Lakes,” Brammeier said.

Groups such as the Northwest Water Planning Alliance  – an intergovernmental agreement among 80 communities – and the McHenry County Council of Governments  are coordinating on regional issues. Those issues include aquifer drawdown and contamination of water tables from road salts and other contaminants, said Justin Keller, a manager with the Metropolitan Planning Council.  

Essential answers must analyze what constitutes sustainable groundwater yields. The solutions must improve planning around surfaces so water reenters the shallower aquifers, Keller said.

“As we build out further, we put impermeable surfaces on undeveloped land,” Keller said. “But a lot of places are planning so they won’t just be slapping down concrete willy-nilly.”

Liesel Hans, program director for the Alliance for Water Efficiency – an organization that assists communities on water usage – said that municipalities could use a variety of mechanisms, including building and plumbing code updates and regulating landscaping, to make sure they’re growing sustainably.

McHenry County’s future water woes are part of a national trend of communities struggling with managing their groundwater supply, Alliance for Water Efficiency President Ron Burke said.

Burke said he expected cities and towns in McHenry County to ramp up efficiencies well before switching to Lake Michigan water becomes a reality.

“There is a lot that can be done to stop inefficient use of water, including leaks,” Burke said. “That is often the cheapest option available, so you will see the northwest suburbs go that route. It’s cheaper than tapping into Lake Michigan.”

Today, 6 million residents – or two-thirds of the Chicago metropolitan area – rely on Lake Michigan water. The Chicago Metropolitan Planning Council expects major growth in McHenry County as the region becomes a destination for those leaving the urban core.

But population growth does not have to be tied to excessive water drawdown and “aquifer death,” as long as McHenry County planners value sustainability, Kuykendall said.

At the county level, Kuykendall said no planners were considering a potential switch to Lake Michigan because of the distance and cost of such a move. Kuykendall characterized the Joliet decision as a drastic last resort and noted that at present, McHenry County still has ample groundwater resources that, if properly managed, should last well into the future.

“We can have flat water usage,” Kuykendall said. “But only if we do good conservation measures. That’s the key. What we have here is special, but only if we protect it.”

Collaboration between the conservation and operation departments in water utilities is key to improving water conservation, mitigating water loss, and developing programs that will benefit the whole service area of a water utility. A strong relationship between the two departments can greatly bolster the success and lead to better management of the utility’s water and energy resources.

CalWEP and AWE interviewed staff members from the conservation departments of three utilities who have successfully navigated this kind of collaboration in their organizations: Moulton Niguel Water District and East Bay Municipal Utility District in California and Austin Water in Texas. Our findings are summarized in a new report, Advancing Water Resource Management Through Team Collaboration. Click here  to download the report.

CalWEP and AWE will be hosting a webinar on August 23 at 1 p.m. CDT highlighting successful team collaboration at the three spotlighted water agencies in the report. Click here  to learn more and to register.

By Jorge Losoya, Jennifer Walker (AWE Board of Directors), and Jonathan Seefeldt, National Wildlife Federation: Texas Living Waters Project 

The following article originally appeared on the U.S. Water Alliance blog page on June 15, 2022. Reposted with permission.

In the shadow of a snarling interstate exchange just a few blocks south of downtown Minneapolis, a patchwork of gardens grows around a set of colorful buildings. The greenery is, in fact, a rain garden system, capturing and filtering rainwater from the surrounding roofs. 

Built atop a former brownfield site long associated with urban blight, Minneapolis’ Rose Apartments may seem an unusual setting for onsite water reuse—a growing suite of technologies often associated with commercial or niche development projects. Yet localized capture, treatment, and re-deployment of water is simpler and more affordable than it may seem, and its broad benefits have the potential to make a significant positive impact on a critical area many water-reuse advocates have so far overlooked: the nation’s growing affordable housing crisis. 

Onsite reuse is certainly playing a transformative role for the residents of the mixed-income Rose development. Three rain gardens filter up to 26,000 gallons of rainwater captured from the eastern side of the apartments. An underground retention system stores and filters a further 48,500 gallons of stormwater. Captured rainwater is stored in cisterns and used to irrigate a central 5,000 square-foot community garden that offers food production programming on site. Water-efficient fixtures throughout the property help reduce the development’s water footprint even further. 

Residents thus benefit from lowered water bills and access to extensive, productive green space while the city gains popular affordable housing stock, vastly improved runoff filtration from a formerly contaminated site, and an added degree of climate resilience.

Our team at the National Wildlife Federation spent the past year analyzing projects like the Rose in cities across the country. We interviewed developers, housing advocates, and city officials, while also analyzing academic, policy, and funding conversations that touch on this under-explored nexus. 

Our conclusion? Strategic integration of onsite water reuse can provide lasting financial and quality-of-life benefits to affordable housing residents and owners . Reuse can also help spread a degree of climate resilience to urban populations often passed over in commercial water reuse and green infrastructure initiatives. 

In short, affordable housing developments represent an ideal opportunity to put One Water’s equity principles into immediate, productive practice. 

How should cities and developers begin to integrate onsite reuse into their planning and projects? Here are a few key recommendations we’ve gathered from our analysis:

Take advantage of abundant funding opportunities

Federal and state initiatives to help fund and incentivize water reuse are now plentiful. Financing opportunities like CDBG-DR, BRIC, and PACE are just some of the many new avenues of funding that can support integrating resilient water technologies into affordable housing projects. Leveraging these opportunities can help developers address the additional upfront costs of onsite water reuse systems.

Reduce regulatory barriers

Affordable housing projects are often developed with tight timelines and budgets, presenting a unique set of challenges. To encourage the integration of onsite reuse components, cities should consider facilitating co-learning among affordable housing developers and onsite water reuse professionals. Utilities can waive development, processing, and permit fees to lessen the costs associated with affordable housing development. They can further assist by providing technical assistance and a clear pathway for integration and permitting of these systems. 

Integrate One Water into funding criteria

Inclusion of One Water should be incentivized to nudge developers into including onsite water reuse systems in their designs. A prime target for One Water incentives should be states’ Qualified Allocation Plans. These are used for Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and are one of the main sources for subsidizing affordable housing.

Proactively address displacement risk

As with most green infrastructure, building projects incorporating reuse can lead to neighborhood gentrification. Community-based anti-displacement strategies—such as Right to Return policies, property tax freezes, and workforce initiatives that prioritize BIPOC and low-income communities—can lay the groundwork to limit such displacement.

Reconceptualize costs and benefits

We need to recalibrate traditional cost-benefit analyses in order to understand the long-term savings and multiple benefits associated with onsite water reuse systems. From lowered utility bills to expanded green space access to deepened climate resilience, a longer-term perspective provides a far clearer picture of the impressive return on investment that onsite reuse can offer.

Back in Minneapolis, the Rose draws on many of these strategies. For example, the developer—a nonprofit developer, owner, and manager of affordable housing called Aeon—worked with local nonprofit organization Hope Community to leverage a variety of funding sources including Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, energy rebates, private capital, and funding from state and local sources. They also engaged local community members to document concerns over gentrification and sustainability. The process led to a commitment to the Living Building Challenge —a certification that includes commitments to both water conservation and affordability.

Minneapolis is far from unique in this regard. Communities across the country face mounting challenges around both affordable housing access and clean, resilient water supply. Cities, water utilities, and developers need to come together to maximize the capabilities of onsite reuse in the affordable housing space by providing regulatory clarity, increasing incentives, and capitalizing on the many federal and state funding opportunities now available for reuse. For both new and existing affordable housing supplies, One Water strategies have great potential to alleviate financial and environmental pressures burdening vulnerable communities. Our study, Ensuring One Water Works for All: Opportunities for Realizing Water Reuse in Affordable Housing , is a small but important step in this direction. 

Historic, indeed millennial, drought is fast becoming the norm for more than half the country. Housing costs are reaching previously unfathomable levels. Increasing access to affordable, resilient, livable spaces needs to be a driving goal of every community moving forward. Integrating onsite water reuse into affordable housing development can help us get there. Everyone deserves to reap the myriad long-term benefits of the One Water approach. 

The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) and The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation are pleased to announce a new report detailing projects funded by the 2020 Learning Landscape Grants. The AWE Learning Landscape Grant Program, funded by the Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation, helps support building or improving educational outdoor spaces at schools, botanical gardens, and community locations that allow school-age children to experience hands-on learning about water efficiency in outdoor landscapes.

After a competitive application process, AWE awarded grants of $5,000 to the following eight schools and organizations whose project proposals offered the highest educational value and water efficiency benefits:

• Amigos de Los Rios, Altadena, CA
• City of Houston, Houston, TX
• Ciudad Soil and Water Conservation District, Albuquerque, NM
• Denver Urban Gardens/Bradley International School, Denver, CO
• Edwards Aquifer Conservancy, San Antonio, TX
• Oak Grove School District #68, Bartonville, IL
• Pala Environmental Department, Pala Band of Mission Indians, Pala, CA
• Riverside-Corona Resource Conservation District, Riverside, CA

The projects were scheduled for completion in 2020, but the pandemic created delays. Six of the projects were completed in 2021, while two projects are still underway. AWE has released a report detailing the completed projects and demonstrating the positive effects each one has had on their respective communities. Click here to view the report.

“AWE congratulates all of the Learning Landscape grant recipients, and we thank the Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation for making this fantastic program possible.” AWE president and CEO, Ron Burke, said. “A sustainable water future is dependent on fostering the next generation’s passion for water efficiency. All of the projects funded through Learning Landscape Grants do this while also providing their communities with beautiful outdoor spaces.”

Additionally, AWE updated its Learning Landscape Lessons, a curriculum designed for educators of grades 3-8. The new lesson, “Soils: the Dirt on Dirt,” is the fourth lesson developed by the Alliance. The lessons align with the associated Next Generation Science Standards and aim to educate students on the importance of understanding and conserving our water resources outdoors. Click here to view the lessons.

“We are inspired by all of the projects developed by the selected schools and organizations,” said Katherine Dickens, ScottsMiracle-Gro Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility. “It's important for each of us to find inventive ways to use water more efficiently while we enjoy our outdoor spaces, knowing that even small changes make a big impact. We hope these projects will encourage people in their local communities to continue working toward a sustainable water future.”

The grant program is continuing this year with five additional projects underway.

About the Alliance for Water Efficiency

The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) is a North American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the sustainable and efficient use of water. Based in Chicago, AWE works with nearly 400 water utilities, water conservation professionals in business and industry, planners, regulators, and consumers. As the leading voice for water efficiency, AWE’s platform brings together innovative technical resources to facilitate adoption of water conservation programs, cutting-edge research to address pressing challenges, and a collaborative dialogue amongst stakeholders to further adoption of water conservation programs. www.allianceforwaterefficiency.org.

About The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation

The mission of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation is to inspire, connect and cultivate a community of purpose. The Foundation is deeply rooted in helping create healthier communities, empower the next generation, and preserve our planet. The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization that funds non-profit entities that support its core initiatives in the form of grants, endowments and multi-year capital gifts. For more information, visit www.scottsmiraclegrofoundation.org.

Last Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved H.R. 5118, the "Wildfire Response and Drought Resiliency Act," which includes $90 million a year for 5 years for water efficiency and water loss programs. This portion of the Act was pulled from the “Water Efficiency, Conservation and Sustainability Act" that AWE helped write.

This legislation now heads to the Senate for approval. AWE has been a persistent advocate for greater water efficiency and drought management funding at the federal level, and we're pleased about this encouraging development. Click here to view our Legislative Watch page to track the status of this and other pending water efficiency legislation.

The following was posted on May 26, 2022:

AWE Applauds Bicameral Legislation to Incentivize Water Conservation

U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Representative Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.-09) introduced the Water Efficiency, Conservation, and Sustainability Act of 2022, bicameral legislation to incentivize water-efficiency upgrades and to establish programs to identify and repair leaks, especially in areas experiencing severe drought and in low-income communities. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that the installation of water-efficient fixtures and appliances can reduce water use by 20 percent, and new research has shown that leak-reduction in water systems is the most cost-effective urban water management tool, yet federal spending on energy efficiency and renewable energy has outpaced spending on water efficiency and reuse by approximately 80 to 1 since 2000. Meanwhile, U.S. household leaks waste nearly 1 trillion gallons of water annually, and in California, despite intensifying drought conditions and increased calls for conservation, urban water use increased 19 percent in March  — underscoring the need for solutions that will incorporate efficiency and conservation into households and water systems to in order to achieve sustained results.

Click here  to look up contact info for your congressional representatives and voice your support for this important legislation!

“Water efficiency and conservation measures are among the fastest and least expensive ways to save water, lower water bills, and bolster a drought-resilient water supply,” said Senator Padilla. “During this historic mega-drought for California and for the entire southwestern United States, we must work to modernize our water infrastructure and make it more efficient—we all have a stake in this fight.”

“By improving water efficiency, consumers will benefit from a more robust water supply and lower water bills,” said Congressman McNerney. “In addition to increasing our water conservation efforts, this legislation will reduce energy consumption as water and energy are intrinsically related: energy is required to move, treat, and heat water for safe use. At a time when California and Western states are experiencing a prolonged and devastating drought and rising energy costs are impacting people throughout the nation, this bill tackles two escalating challenges by providing common sense solutions to reduce water and energy waste.”

“With reliable, affordable water supplies increasingly at risk because of droughts, population growth, and aging infrastructure, there is an urgent need for the federal government to increase its investment in water efficiency and conservation,” said Ron Burke, CEO of the Alliance for Water Efficiency. “Water efficiency and conservation are typically the fastest and least expensive ways to save water while also fighting climate change and lowering water bills. These problems are not limited to the west. 34 states are currently impacted by drought, and the cost to deliver water is rising rapidly in most communities compared to other consumer expenses; climate change and population growth will only exacerbate these problems.”

“This unprecedented drought is a reminder that we cannot lose a single drop of water to waste or inefficiency,” said Adel Hagekhalil, General Manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. “As our water supplies are increasingly stressed by climate change, every drop saved is a drop we need. This bill authorizes funding to repair leaky pipes and help consumers upgrade to water efficient appliances. These new EPA programs will save water and create jobs. Now is the time to address the needless loss of water.”

“Our changing climate has placed a bullseye on the reliability of our drinking water supplies,” said Ed Osann, senior policy analyst with NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). “The Water Efficiency, Conservation, and Sustainability Act supports collaboration between drinking water utilities and customers to apply proven strategies that will save both water and money and sets aside funds to disadvantaged communities whose water needs are regularly overlooked.  Federal support for water efficiency is long overdue, and we commend Rep. McNerney and Senator Padilla for leading this effort.”

In a letter of support by Contra Costa Water District, the District applauded the bill's efforts, stating: “The District is encouraged to see legislation focused on options to address water use inefficiencies and losses in public water systems. The District supports the programs outline… As we experience prolonged drought conditions, the District appreciates legislators continuing to move forward on legislation advancing water use efficiency efforts.”

The Water Efficiency, Conservation, and Sustainability Act of 2022 would establish three new EPA grant programs and authorize each at $20-25 million annually, for five years. The programs include the:

Water Efficiency and Conservation Grant Program

• Authorizes $25 million per year for grants to entities (state, local, tribal governments, as well as water and energy utilities and nonprofits) that carry out water efficiency programs for purchase, installation, or use of efficient fixtures, appliances, and landscaping.

• Directs 50 percent of grants to entities that experienced drought conditions designated as D2 (severe drought), or were under a Governor-declared drought emergency, within 3 years preceding grant award.

• Requires at least 40 percent of funds to go towards low-income households and disadvantaged communities, aligned with President Biden’s Justice40 initiative.

Sustainable Water Loss Control Program:

• Authorizes $20 million per year for grants and technical assistance to public water systems to conduct an annual audit and establish a water loss control program. California already requires urban water suppliers to submit annual water loss audits as of 2017.

Grants for Water Efficient Plumbing Code Adoption

• Authorizes $20 million per year for grants to States, Tribal governments, and units of local government with authority to adopt plumbing codes that meet or exceed U.S. and international water use efficiency standards.

The Water Efficiency, Conservation, and Sustainability Act of 2022 is endorsed by the Alliance for Water Efficiency, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the International Association of Plumbing & Mechanical Officials, the Association of California Water Agencies, and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies.

For a one pager of the bill, click here .

For full text of the bill, click here .

Join us for our regional member meetings!

The meeting will provide members with the information they need to know! Hear what's new with AWE, participate in important topics to your region, and connect with other members local to you.

Register by region, below

Canada on Tuesday, May 17, from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM CDT

Southeast on Wednesday, May 18, from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM EDT

Southwest on Tuesday, May 24 from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM MDT

Great Lakes and Northeast on Tuesday, June 7, from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM CDT

Northwest on Tuesday, June 14, from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM PDT

Meetings will be held virtually. Members are welcome to attend the regional meeting that aligns with your issues, and are free to attend more than one meeting!

California members are welcome to participate; note that CalWEP, an AWE chapter, offers a variety of excellent meetings and events for CalWEP members. Learn more. 

This meeting is free for members, $50.00 for non-members.

AWE is excited to announce the release of our newest report, An Assessment of Water Affordability & Conservation Potential in Long Beach California. This report evaluates water affordability in Long Beach and the extent to which water efficiency and conservation can help families, particularly disadvantaged families, lower their water and sewer bills. This is the second installment of AWE’s water affordability assessments, following 2020’s analysis of affordability in Detroit. These reports help address socioeconomic inequities by identifying the extent and scope of water affordability challenges as well as tangible steps that water utilities and consumers can take to reduce the financial burden of water and sewer bills.

The report finds that Long Beach has implemented extensive water efficiency and conservation programs that can lower the average water bills for a single-family residential customer up to 22%, and that such programs can continue to save customers money. The average annual cost of water and sewer in Long Beach was $824 in 2019 and 2020, which is 3.5% of the average annual income for Long Beach residents.  However, the economic burden can be higher for disadvantaged families, with nearly 10,000 households paying eight percent or more of their annual income for water and sewer expenses.

In conjunction with the release of this report, AWE, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and Long Beach Water are working together to provide water efficient plumbing fixtures and appliances to disadvantaged households in Long Beach. The products are being generously donated by Kohler^© and Whirlpool^©.

“The affordability of water is one of the most important issues facing the water sector right now,” Adel Hagekhalil, General Manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, said. “Climate change is creating the need for new investments in local supplies and greater water efficiency, and we must all work together and try to leverage other resources to keep these supplies as affordable as possible for all those we serve.”

AWE will host a webinar about the report on February 23rd.  Click here for more information and to register.

Click here to view this report, along with other AWE work products.

The Alliance for Water Efficiency is praising the Department of Energy (DOE) for reversing Trump-era rulemakings that undermined water efficiency standards. Final rules were adopted on December 20, 2021, to reverse weakened showerhead standards, and on January 19, 2022, to reverse weakened standards for dishwashers and clothes washers.

AWE had rallied our network to oppose the weakened standards and filed a lawsuit when the rules were adopted over our objections. "AWE and our partners are thrilled to see water efficiency standards restored for showerheads, clothes washers, and dishwashers," said AWE President and CEO, Ron Burke. "As climate change continues to threaten water reliability and affordability, these misguided rules could have wasted billions of gallons of water and significantly raised customers' water bills."

AWE would like to thank Keith Bradley of Squire Patton Boggs, whose pro bono work on AWE's litigation helped achieve this result.

Click here to learn more from the Federal Register.

On December 16^th the Department of Energy (DOE) officially reversed weakened showerhead standards adopted under the Trump Administration. Since 1994, showerheads have been limited to a 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm) standard, and in 2013 this requirement was amended to ensure the 2.5 gpm standard applies to fixtures with more than one showerhead. The Trump-era rules allowed each individual showerhead to meet the 2.5 gpm standard (for example, a fixture with three showerheads could use 7.5 gpm), while also exempting body sprays from the standard. AWE rallied our network to oppose the weakened standards and filed a lawsuit when the rules were adopted over our objections. AWE praises the DOE decision.

“This announcement restores the successful showerhead standards that had been in place since 1994,” AWE President and CEO Ron Burke said. The weakened rules could have led to billions of gallons of additional water consumption, an increase in energy use and power plant emissions, and increased consumer water bills. With much of the country struggling with drought, the 2020 changes could have further compromised water supply availability for many water utilities.”

On November 19th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Build Back Better Act, which includes language to make water conservation rebates tax-free. While energy conservation rebates were made tax-free in 1992, homeowners continue to be taxed on rebates for making water-saving investments, which increases their costs and discourages these improvements. AWE and our members have worked for years to change the tax code, and we are closer than ever as Senate approval is the last obstacle. Please sign this letter to the U.S. Senate in support of making water conservation rebates tax-free. The deadline to sign is COB Tuesday, December 7th.

Click here to view a draft of the letter.

Click here to email Liam at AWE to sign your organization's name to the letter.

On November 5^th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3684, the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which had previously passed the U.S. Senate. President Biden is expected to sign the bill into law soon.

AWE has been the lead advocate for water efficiency funding within the federal infrastructure bill, and we are pleased that it includes $400 million in new funding over 5 years for western states' water efficiency through the Bureau of Reclamation’s Water Smart grant program. Thanks to AWE members that signed letters of support, contacted congressional staff, and provided examples of water conservation programs in need of funding. This is a major victory for water efficiency!

At the same time, we continue to advocate for water efficiency grant funding that would be available nationally, and a change to the U.S. tax code to make water conservation rebates tax-free, within the Democrat’s Build Back Better Act.

Learn more about water efficiency legislation and AWE's advocacy efforts on our Legislative Watch Page.

AWE is seeking signatures on a letter of support for increased funding for the EPA WaterSense® Program, recommending that its budget be increased to at least $10 million annually and that the EPA Strategic Plan reflect this goal. With drought and water scarcity becoming increasingly common across the nation, and the problem expected to worsen because of climate change, the WaterSense program is more important than ever. 

Click here to view a draft of the comment letter.

Click here to email Liam at AWE to sign your organization's name to the letter by Noon, CST Friday, November 12, 2021.

EPA WaterSense's first 2021 Excellence Award goes to the Alliance for Water Efficiency for Excellence in Strategic Collaboration!

“Thanks to its continued commitment to collaborate on water conservation efforts in 2020, the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) has won its fifth Excellence Award for Strategic Collaboration. AWE has a WaterSense and Water-Efficient Products Advisory Committee whose mission is to improve water efficiency through the adoption of WaterSense labeled products and water-saving professional services; during committee meetings, WaterSense has a standing time slot to update the group on all its activities. AWE also partners with WaterSense to produce a periodic outdoor water use webinar series. Three webinars held in 2020 focused on topics such as landscape transformations and the WaterSense Your Better Yard campaign. In collaboration with two educators, AWE created Learning Landscapes: Outdoor Water Efficiency and Conservation Lessons, to teach the importance of using water efficiently outdoors. Finally, AWE, with funding from WaterSense partner Kohler Co., published a report in 2020 about the affordability of water and sewer service in Detroit. The report included an evaluation of the potential savings from replacing older toilets with new, WaterSense labeled models.”

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a unique use for water conservation. Last month, the city of Orlando, Florida, drew national attention for its unusual plea asking water customers to conserve water due to increased liquid oxygen consumption at healthcare facilities across the state and nation. Over the last year, healthcare facilities began to use liquid oxygen for treating severely ill COVID-19 patients, and as the virus rapidly surged through Central Florida (cases have since declined considerably), the demand for liquid oxygen ascended to extraordinarily high levels. Orlando also uses liquid oxygen in a process called ozonation, which removes contaminants and sulfur smell from water before it is distributed to Orlando residents. 

The predicament in Orlando demonstrates both the economic and public health benefits of water conservation. To help free up additional liquid oxygen for use within healthcare facilities across the nation, AWE member Orlando Utilities Commission—The Reliable One (OUC), looks to reduce water consumption by 25% to 50% from the current consumption level of 90 Million Gallons per Day (MGD). If Orlando residents comply with the requests of OUC and reduce water usage in their homes, they will not only help local hospitals care for more sick patients by freeing up liquid oxygen for vital respiratory treatments, residents will also save money on their monthly water bill. OUC also will benefit from the water conservation efforts of residents, as every gallon saved by consumers is water that OUC does not need to pump, treat with liquid oxygen, and deliver to customers, which reduces OUC’s short-term costs.

The process of ozonation is common in Florida as many utilities treat their drinking water with liquid oxygen to remove contaminants and the naturally occurring sulfur smell found in Florida’s water supply. During ozonation, liquid oxygen is converted to a gaseous form, then electricity is added to turn the oxygen gas into ozone, which kills harmful bacteria and viruses. The ozone also breaks down hydrogen sulfide, the compound that causes the “rotten eggs” sulfur smell of water. 

Ozonation is a vital part of the water treatment process for Florida utilities, and a shortage of liquid oxygen can have negative consequences. Fortunately, utilities have found solutions to manage this difficult situation. OUC has implemented an aggressive public information campaign to conserve water in the face of liquid oxygen shortages which has helped the utility reduce demand by 12.2% already.  Another Florida utility and AWE member, Tampa Bay Water, has also urged consumers to conserve water due to the liquid oxygen shortage. In addition to water conservation measures, Tampa Bay Water began using sodium hypochlorite (bleach) as a substitute for liquid oxygen to remove hydrogen sulfide from the water supply at the Lythia Hydrogen Sulfide Removal Facility. As the pandemic prevails, patients continue to require hospitalization and treatment with liquid oxygen, so utilities will have to keep conserving water and finding new solutions to accommodate for the shortage.

Water conservation has many benefits, such as reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, protecting rivers, bays, and aquifers by limiting water withdrawals, reducing utility costs, and saving consumers money. Now we can add another benefit to the list: helping healthcare facilities manage the COVID-19 pandemic and save lives.

For more information on water conservation visit Home Water Works  and the Alliance For Water Efficiency

This year, AWE decided to present a Member of the Year award to recognize an AWE member organization serving as a leader in the water efficiency and conservation community.

AWE members eligible for the award have:

• At least 5 years membership in AWE, including the year being considered
• Provided support and resources to AWE beyond membership dues
• Demonstrated consistent commitment to and support for the work of AWE and our mission

Choosing just one recipient was difficult because so many AWE members have made exemplary contributions. However, this year, one member rose to the top of the list. In 2008, the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) stepped in to do what many people wanted but few had the resources to do: create a national water efficiency and conservation conference.

The WaterSmart Innovations Conference (WSI) has become the leading conference of its kind, with a focus on timely, smart content and a price tag that makes WSI available to as many as possible. SNWA staff run the show, and hosting a major national conference is no small feat, especially when you consider they do this in addition to their other responsibilities.

WSI continues to be the nation’s preeminent water efficiency conference thanks to SNWA’s dedication and vision. Moreover, SNWA is a long-standing AWE member and representative on the Board of Directors while also being a national water efficiency leader. To top it off, SNWA led the passage of AB 356 in 2021, a first-of-its-kind state law to ban the watering of certain non-functional turf grass in order to reduce water use in metro Las Vegas.

AWE Board Chair Ron Voglewede said, “SNWA has been a leader in pushing boundaries, supporting key areas of policy, and has been a collaborator with many of us, including the management of the WaterSmart Innovations Conference since 2008. SNWA has demonstrated vision and hard work to bring 'water smart innovation' front and center in concept and as a conference.”

AWE's Water Star Award celebrates the “unsung hero”, the quiet water conservation practitioner working in the trenches who makes a huge difference by their dedication, passion, and progressive approaches to move forward our field. Water Star award winners receive this recognition not because they apply for the award, but because their peers around them recognize the value of their significant contribution and achievements over time and their quiet dedication to the cause.

The Alliance for Water Efficiency is proud to present its 2021 Water Star Award to Denise Schmidt.

Denise's conservation career began when she joined the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin in July of 2012 as a Water Policy Advisor. She is now a Division Administrator at the Commission, where Wisconsin is the only state in the country that regulates both private water companies and public water utilities. Policies that the Public Service Commission adopts are broad-ranging throughout the Wisconsin water utility sector.

For her extraordinary contribution to regulated water conservation and efficiency policy in the state of Wisconsin and beyond, for her commitment to assisting water utilities with reducing their water losses and financial pressures, and for her teamwork spirit and consummate dedication to working together for common water efficiency goals, the Alliance for Water Efficiency is very proud to present this award to Denise Schmidt.

“On behalf of the AWE Board of Directors, I would like to congratulate Denise on earning the Water Star Award," AWE Board Chair Ron Voglewede said. "Denise has been the leading force for advancing Wisconsin’s water efficiency policies and programs and a national leader as well. She has been a true champion for sustainable water use whose work embodies AWE’s mission.”

Click here to learn more about Denise's career accomplishments and to view past winners of the Water Star Award.

The Department of Energy has proposed to reverse the weakened showerhead standards adopted under the Trump Administration in December 2020 and return to the previous standards. As you may know, AWE challenged the 2020 rules in court, and we are very pleased that DOE is aligning with our position. 

AWE is seeking organizations to sign on to a comment letter in support of this proposal. Click here to view a draft of the letter.  Please click here to email Liam at AWE by Noon CT on Monday, September 20 to indicate that your organization will sign on.  We will only include the organization names and do not need you to identify a person/title to sign on.

AWE's Annual Member Meeting, to be held October 5 at the South Point Hotel in Las Vegas, will feature Andy Belanger,  Director of Public Services for the Las Vegas Valley Water District and Southern Nevada Water Authority as a keynote speaker. The Public Services Department is responsible for communicating the organization’s goals and initiatives to the community, educating the public about water issues, coordinating public participation, and leading government affairs activities.

For more than 20 years, Southern Nevada has addressed impacts from a devastating drought by focusing on conservation and the removal of turf within the Las Vegas Valley. The recent passage of Assembly Bill 356 during the 2021 Nevada Legislative Session will accelerate the removal of turf by restricting the use of Colorado River water to irrigate nonfunctional turf by 2027. This enhanced conservation measure will reduce the amount of water wasted on unutilized turf, and ultimately assist the Southern Nevada Water Authority in maintaining reliable water supplies for over two million residents and the millions of visitors to the region each year.

Andy has held various positions in Public Services since 1997 and was appointed Director in 2014. Throughout his professional career, he has been involved in several community outreach efforts for the District and Authority, including the quarter-cent sales tax, the Groundwater Management Program, the integrated water planning process, and efforts to remove nonfunctional turf throughout Southern Nevada. Additionally, Andy has served as a lobbyist at the Nevada State Legislature since 2001 and also serves as Vice-Chair on the State Board for Financing Water Projects.

Andy graduated magna cum laude from the Honors College at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with a Bachelor’s degree in political science and has a Master’s degree in the same field. In addition to his academic degrees, Andy holds a certificate in public participation from the International Association of Public Participation.

On August 10, the U.S. Senate passed a bi-partisan infrastructure bill with $400M (over 5 years) in new funding for western states water efficiency through the Bureau of Reclamation’s Water Smart grant program.

AWE’s lobbying in DC, including a sign-on letter to congressional leaders, helped secure this funding in the bill.

AWE is working to secure even more water efficiency funding that would be available nationally as the U.S. House of Representatives considers the bi-partisan bill and other infrastructure legislation.

Learn more here. 

The federal government declared a water shortage for Lake Mead and the Colorado River, meaning that individual states will have water allocations cut starting in January. This first-ever shortage declaration for the Colorado River comes after Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the US by volume, has drained at an alarming rate this year. At around 1,067 feet above sea level and 35% full, the Colorado River reservoir is at its lowest since the lake was filled  after the Hoover Dam was completed in the 1930s.

Lake Mead will operate under shortage status for the entirety of calendar 2022. Click here  to learn more. AWE will continue to closely monitor this situation and work to equip our member utilities in the Colorado River Basin with tools and resources to combat drought and conserve water.  

Today the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) once again praised the Department of Energy (DOE) for proposing to undo Trump-era rules that slashed efficiency standards.

The previous Administration’s DOE created separate “product classes” for dishwashers, clothes washers, and dryers that have a short cycle as the “normal” cycle, meaning such models would not need to meet decades-old energy and water standards. Fortunately, no major manufacturer created a model to exploit the loophole and many publicly opposed the 2020 rules.

AWE, Environment America, and U.S. PIRG filed a lawsuit to block these changes, and DOE’s proposal would side with our appeal and revert to the previous federal standard. AWE and our partners also appealed a Trump-era rule that weakened water efficiency standards for showerheads, which the DOE already proposed to reverse last month.

AWE President and CEO Ron Burke issued this statement:

“The DOE proposal is another great step toward restoring the efficiency standards that were undermined by last year's rulemakings. We look forward to the return of dishwasher, clothes washer, and dryer efficiency standards that have been successful for decades. With so much of the country struggling with drought, it's especially important that we decrease energy use and power plant emissions, lower consumers’ water bills, and save billions of gallons of water with high-efficiency, high-performance appliances.”

Today the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) praised a Department of Energy (DOE) proposal to reverse changes to the federal definition of showerhead made under former President Trump that would have skirted federal standards adopted in 1994 that required showerheads to release no more than 2.5 gallons of water per minute. The Trump rules were adopted in December 2020 and allow each nozzle on a showerhead to meet that standard, which means showerheads with multiple nozzles bypass the standard and expel far more water, consume more energy, and increase customers’ utility bills. AWE, Environment America, and U.S. PIRG filed a lawsuit to block the changes, and DOE’s proposal would side with our appeal and revert to the previous federal standard. AWE and our partners also appealed a Trump-era rule that weakened water efficiency standards for clothes washers, and AWE is optimistic DOE will choose to reject those changes as well.

AWE President and CEO Ron Burke issued this statement:

“The DOE proposal would rightfully restore the successful showerhead water efficiency standard that has been in place since 1994. The rollback adopted in 2020 would waste billions of gallons of water, increase energy use and power plant emissions, and raise consumers’ water bills. And with much of the country struggling with drought, the 2020 changes could further compromise water supply availability for many water utilities.”

The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) has released two Requests for Proposals for nationwide (excluding California) direct distribution pilot programs covering whole-home flow monitoring devices and smart irrigation controllers. 

Building on the success of other state and regional direct distribution programs across the US, AWE is requesting proposals from manufacturers to help us build a program that not only makes smart water technology readily available to consumers, but also creates new sources of data and insights for water managers.

No longer accepting proposals.

• RFP: Smart Irrigation Controller with Utility Facing Dashboard

• RFP: Whole-Home Flow Monitoring Device with Utility Facing Dashboard 

KEY DATES

Issue Date: July 6, 2021 
Questions Due: July 13, 2021, 4:00 p.m. CDT
Submittals Due: July 27, 2021, 4:00 p.m. CDT

On July 1^st the U.S. House of Representatives passed the $715 billion INVEST in America Act,  with funding for transportation and water infrastructure. Although this bill does not include new water efficiency grant funding that AWE has recommended, it does include significant investments that will improve water efficiency. Moreover, there are other legislative options for securing water efficiency grant funding, and AWE has successfully elevated this issue in congress with our op-ed in The Hill,  sign-on letter, and ongoing meetings with congressional staff. We remain optimistic that Congress will eventually approve significant new water efficiency funding this year.

The water components of the INVEST in America Act include:

Drinking Water Infrastructure & Assistance: $117 billion

• Authorizes $53 billion for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, the primary source of federal funding for safe drinking water infrastructure.
• Authorizes $45 billion to fully replace lead service lines throughout the nation. As many as 10 million lead service lines are currently in use, including an estimated 400,000 schools and child facilities with lead components.
• Strengthens drinking water standards and improves the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to set those standards. It directs EPA to set health-protective national standards for PFAS, 1,4-dioxane, and microcystin toxin within two years.
• Provides assistance to low-income Americans with their water bills by creating two permanent assistance programs and authorizing them at $8 billion.
• Promotes near-term customer debt relief by authorizing $4 billion to reduce or eliminate debt incurred since March 2020 and prohibiting water systems receiving this funding from disconnecting the service of eligible residential customers as a result of non-payment for a five-year period.

Wastewater Infrastructure: $51.25 billion

• Authorizes $40 billion for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, the primary source of federal funding for clean water infrastructure.
• Includes $2 billion for projects to capture, treat, or reuse sewer overflows or stormwater— helping keep pollution out of local rivers and lakes—and $2.5 billion for state water pollution control programs.
• Permanently codifies the clean water “green reserve” to prioritize investments in green infrastructure, water- and energy-efficiency, and other efforts to make utilities more resilient to climate change. Also dedicates $1 billion toward alternative water source and water recycling projects to augment existing water supplies.
• Provides critical technical assistance to small, rural, and Tribal communities that often struggle to afford the costs of planning new infrastructure projects and to address local water quality challenges.
• Establishes a new clean water grant program to invest in communities with failing septic systems and prioritizes funding to those communities that lack access to adequate sewage treatment systems.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is releasing $166.6 million in FY’21 funding for the Low Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP). In total, $1.1 billion will be available through LIHWAP grants from the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act  and the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act . Grantees may use these funds to assist low-income households, particularly those with the lowest incomes, that pay a high proportion of household income for drinking water and wastewater services, by providing funds to owners or operators of public water systems or treatment works to reduce arrearages of and rates charged to such households for such services. Grantees may carryover up to 100 percent of the funding for obligation in FFY 2022 and FFY 2023. All funds must be obligated by September 30, 2023 and expended (liquidated) by December 31, 2023.

For more information:

• State and territorial FY’21 allocations 
• Press release 
• LIHWAP website 
• AWE's Draft Letter to Congress  asking for Water Efficiency Funding

**Petition Closed**

Please sign this petition from the Alliance for Water Efficiency asking Congress to take the nation's water crisis seriously by including significant water efficiency funding in infrastructure legislation.

With the current drought already impacting over 90 million people in the U.S. and with water scarcity likely to get worse because of population growth and climate change, there is an urgent need for Congress to act.

While the federal government has made significant investments in energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) over the years to address the nation's energy challenges, parallel investments have not been made in water efficiency and water reuse despite the increasingly urgent need to conserve water. Between 2000 and 2020, federal EERE investments dwarfed federal investments in water efficiency and water reuse by a ratio of approximately 80 to 1.

Water efficiency and conservation helps ensure access to clean, affordable water and tackles climate change by reducing the amount of energy used to heat, pump, and treat water, which in turn reduces emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide.

Using less water also helps protect our rivers, bays, and aquifers, and it saves consumers money. Water efficient plumbing products can save an average family hundreds of dollars each year. This is especially important today with COVID leaving millions of Americans unable to pay water bills.

Click here to learn more and to sign the petition. We greatly appreciate your support!

Thank you,

Ron Burke
President and CEO
Alliance for Water Efficiency

The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) is happy to announce the launch of its Learning Landscapes Grant Program for the 2021-2022 school year.  AWE offers this grant program to support building or improving educational outdoor spaces that allow school-age children to experience hands-on, applied learning about landscape water use.  Eligible projects include outdoor landscapes at schools, on public/government property, at botanical gardens, and other community locations as appropriate.

The application period CLOSED on July 30, 2021, grant recipients will be announced soon.  AWE will award five grants in the amount of $5,000.

Those interested can request the Learning Landscapes Grant application packet.  Grant awardees are required to use at least one of the three AWE Learning Landscapes Lessons.  A fourth lesson will be released this summer and can be used to meet this requirement.

The AWE Learning Landscapes school lessons focus on outdoor water efficiency and align with Next Generation Science Standards for grades 3-8. 

The lessons are publicly available and can be requested via the link below.

• Click here to request the Learning Landscapes Lessons

AWE Learning Landscapes Grants and Lessons were made possible by generous funding provided by The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation.

The following op-ed by Ron Burke and Mary Ann Dickinson was originally published in The Hill on May 25, 2021. 

With the current drought already impacting over 90 million  people in the U.S. and with water scarcity likely to get worse because of population growth and climate change, there is an urgent need to invest in water efficiency. This threat goes well beyond the arid west. Thirty-three states  have been hit by drought since 2000, including ones located in the Great Plains, Midwest, Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. And scientists warn  that most of the country is on pace to experience water shortages if we don’t manage water better. 

Water efficiency not only helps ensure access to clean, affordable water amidst a changing climate, it’s also a cost-effective way to control the root cause of climate change in the first place. That’s because water-saving strategies reduce the amount of energy used to heat, pump and treat water, which in turn reduces emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide.  

Using less water also helps protect our rivers, bays and aquifers, and it saves consumers money. Water efficient plumbing products can save an average family hundreds of dollars  each year. This is especially important today with COVID-19 leaving millions of Americans unable  to pay water bills. 

Like energy efficiency, water efficiency supports many of the important goals that Congress and the Biden administration are discussing — climate resiliency, sustainability, public health, equity and affordability. Unlike energy efficiency, however, federal funding for water efficiency — such as rebates to buy water efficient plumbing/irrigation and installing leak detection meters — has been a drop in the bucket. 

An analysis by our non-profit organization, the Alliance for Water Efficiency, found that federal spending on energy efficiency and renewable energy has outpaced spending on water efficiency and water reuse by approximately 80 to one since 2000. This discrepancy is surprising given that water efficiency not only protects water resources and saves money, it’s also a cost-effective way to save energy. For example, an analysis by UC Davis  found that in 2015-2016, water conservation was a more cost-effective way to reduce energy use in California than traditional energy efficiency programs.

The U.S. government has made significant investments to tackle the nation’s energy crisis, while the tab for averting the water crisis falls to local water agencies that can be cash-strapped in the best of times, not to mention now with the pandemic leaving customers unable to pay their bills. The federal government pays less than 5 percent of the cost for drinking water and wastewater, according to the National Association of Clean Water Agencies,  relying instead on loans to local communities. 

The climate is changing, droughts are getting worse and water supplies are increasingly at risk. Water efficiency and conservation are the most immediate, cost-effective and environmentally beneficial ways to meet these challenges. It’s time for Congress to take the water crisis seriously and make significant investments to help communities cope.

Ron Burke is the president and CEO of the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the efficient and sustainable use of water in the United States and Canada. Mary Ann Dickinson is the founding president and CEO of AWE.

Yesterday the White House announced its American Jobs Plan  with a focus on economic development and job creation through infrastructure investment. AWE and its member organizations are currently analyzing the plan and working with congress and Biden administration officials to ensure funding for water-efficient infrastructure and products are included.

Water-efficient infrastructure has many benefits, including: 

• Reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
• Reducing infrastructure costs by limiting the need for additional capacity for water and wastewater systems. 
• Saving water utility customers money. 
• Making communities less susceptible to water shortages, flooding, and sewer overflows. 
• Protecting aquifers, lakes, and streams. 
• Moreover, AWE’s report, Transforming Water: Water Efficiency as Infrastructure Investment, demonstrates that investment in water efficiency will produce economic output benefits that would range between $2.5 billion and $2.8 billion per billion dollars of direct investment.

The eight-year American Jobs Plan includes a number of investments that hold promise for water efficiency, including: 

• $56 billion in grants and low-cost flexible loans to states, Tribes, territories, and disadvantaged communities to modernize drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater systems in rural communities. These investments will improve water efficiency, especially if the grants can fund the replacement of leaking water system pipes, and incentives for utility customers to purchase water-efficient products and appliances and transform landscapes. 
• $50 billion to improve "infrastructure resilience," portions of which would fund:
  • Water efficiency and recycling programs to address the western drought crisis. 
  • Infrastructure in communities vulnerable to climate-driven disasters and to "build back above existing codes and standards." AWE believes this program should "build back" with updated plumbing standards and WaterSense® products to help community resilience and save water customers money.
  • "A bipartisan tax credit to provide incentives to low- and middle-income families and to small businesses to invest in disaster resilience." Water conservation products help prevent water shortages and flooding like those seen in Texas last year, and AWE will advocate for their inclusion in this proposed tax credit. Similarly, AWE continues to advocate for making all water conservation rebates tax-free, as is the case with energy efficiency rebates.
• $213 billion to build and retrofit more than two million affordable and sustainable homes and $100 billion to upgrade and build public schools. AWE will advocate for the inclusion of plumbing system repair, water-efficient fixture and appliance upgrades, and water-efficient landscape design and efficient irrigation products in these proposed programs. This program represents an opportunity for water efficiency to help customers lower their water bills.
• $46 billion worth of clean energy products purchased by the federal government. AWE encourages the administration to include energy-efficient products that use water in this initiative, such as WaterSense-labeled faucets and showerheads and ENERGY STAR® clothes washers and dishwashers.

AWE will provide further updates as details emerge.

AWE has released its highly-anticipated Cooling Tower Estimating Model (CTEM) and the accompanying guide titled, Taking Inventory: A Guide for Identifying Cooling Towers and Estimating Water Use. The AWE Cooling Tower Estimating Model (CTEM) is an Excel-based tool that provides an estimated range of the number of water-cooled facilities, number of cooling towers, total cooling capacity, water use, and water conservation potential for a utility service area based on a minimal amount of input data. CTEM can also be used to develop a cooling tower inventory, a critical first step in creating or refining a cooling tower water efficiency program. 

Base features of CTEM can be used with the following data inputs:

• Country (United States or Canada)
• State or Province
• County (for U.S. locations)
• Service Population
• Water Quality (measured in total dissolved solids (TDS) or conductivity)

Taking Inventory: A Guide for Identifying Cooling Towers and Estimating Water Use is a companion to CTEM, providing instruction on how to use the model, identify cooling towers, and initiate a cooling tower inventory.

The development of CTEM and this guide is a key step to increasing the effectiveness of incentive and outreach programs for the efficient use of cooling water. With CTEM estimates, suppliers can begin to understand the conservation potential in cooling towers, develop marketing and conservation efforts, and record facility participation.   

A webinar with the project team was held on April 8. Click here to view the recording.

Member-Only Benefit

The Cooling Tower Estimating Model is available free of charge to AWE members, as a member-only benefit, but it is subject to your agreement to the Cooling Tower Estimating Model Terms of Use. If not already, sign-in here to gain access to the Terms of Use form. Not a current member? Join now! 

Environment America , U.S. PIRG  and the Alliance for Water Efficiency have filed two appeals to protect federal efficiency standards for showerheads , clothes washers, and dryers . The suits challenge two new Department of Energy rules. One rule  changes the definition of a showerhead, and the other rule  creates a new class of clothes washers and dryers with no water or energy-saving requirements.

Up until now, showerheads could not be sold in the United States if they released more than 2.5 gallons per minute of water. The Department of Energy’s new rule changes that regulation so that each nozzle on a showerhead could meet that standard. That means showerheads with multiple nozzles bypass the standard, expelling far more water and consuming more energy (which is required to heat the water) than previously allowed.

The clothes washers and dryers rule creates a separate class of “short-cycle” machines that do not need to meet current federal water or energy efficiency standards.

“For decades, efficiency standards for showerheads, clothes washers and dryers have created a win-win-win situation for consumers by saving energy, water and money,” said U.S. PIRG Environment Campaigns Director Matt Casale. “We’ve filed these appeals because it makes absolutely no sense to reverse policies that have successfully lowered our carbon emissions and reduced utility bill costs for Americans. We have nothing to gain and plenty to lose as a result of these poor decisions.”

The legal appeal against the showerhead rule is not the first effort by these groups to protect showerhead efficiency. In October, Environment America submitted 10,184 member comments  pushing back against the rule. In addition, Environment America, U.S. PIRG and their state organizations submitted a comment  urging the Department of Energy (DOE) to protect consumers and the planet by maintaining showerhead efficiency standards.

“These Department of Energy rules set up tens of thousands of Americans to needlessly and unintentionally waste water and energy each time they hop in the shower and clean their clothes,” said Environment America Energy Conservation and Efficiency Associate Brynn Furey. “Our decision makers should encourage products that safeguard our water and energy. Instead, they are sending sensible standards down the proverbial drain.”

The Alliance for Water Efficiency also submitted detailed comments  signed by 60 water utilities and other organizations to the Department of Energy about the showerhead rule.

“We are pleased to participate in this appeal, as we are especially concerned about the impact of the showerhead rule,” said Mary Ann Dickinson, president and CEO of the Alliance for Water Efficiency. “This misguided rule would waste billions of gallons of water and significantly raise consumers’ water bills. It would also severely compromise water supply availability for many water utilities, especially in the arid West.”

The legal appeals were filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

###

Environment America is a national network of 29 state environmental groups. Our staff work together for clean air, clean water, clean energy, wildlife and open spaces, and a livable climate. Our members across the United States put grassroots support behind our research and advocacy.

U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, is a consumer group that stands up to powerful interests whenever they threaten our health and safety, our financial security, or our right to fully participate in our democratic society.

U.S. PIRG and Environment America are both part of The Public Interest Network, which operates and supports organizations committed to a shared vision of a better world and a strategic approach to social change.

The Alliance for Water Efficiency is an organization dedicated to the efficient and sustainable use of water that advocates for water-efficient products and programs and helps encourage and facilitate water conservation.

​The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)  announced a final rule yesterday that adopts a revised definition for "showerhead," and separate definitions for "body spray" and "safety shower showerhead". These products are exempt from current efficiency standards, meaning that the shower in this picture will now be legal. Click here  to view the full text of the final showerhead rule.

This rule was opposed by AWE and 60 undersigned organizations–including water utilities, manufacturers, local governments and non-profits–in a letter filed in October.

Furthermore, an additional rule announced that certain clothes washers and dryers will now be able to use unlimited energy and water. This rule, which was opposed by AWE and 58 undersigned organizations in a comment letter filed in October, establishes separate "product classes" for clothes washers and dryers with a short cycle as the "normal cycle."

This troubling new rule will open the door to wasteful products because washers and dryers in this product class will not be subject to any energy or water efficiency regulations. Click here  to view the full text of the final clothes washer rule.

Click here  to learn more about AWE's efforts to oppose this attack on water efficient appliances. We will continue to monitor this issue, and will be reaching out to the incoming Biden Administration to advocate for a reversal of these rules.

Click here  for a blog post from the Natural Resources Defense Council outlining the flaws in these rules.

AWE is excited to announce that Bill Hoffman is the winner of the 2020 Water Star Award! This award celebrates the "unsung hero," the quiet water conservation practitioner working in the trenches who makes a huge difference by their dedication, passion, and progressive approaches to move forward our field.

Click here  to view a recording of AWE President and CEO Mary Ann Dickinson presenting Bill with the award.

Click here to see past winners of the Water Star Award.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced two different rulemakings to change the definitions of showerheads and create a new unregulated class of Clothes Washers, following up on President Trump's repeated pledges to tamper with water efficiency and revert back to decades-old high flow standards. AWE filed three comment letters in response to these developments.

Showerheads

DOE proposes to define a showerhead as follows: "Showerhead means any showerhead (including a handheld showerhead) other than a safety shower showerhead." DOE then proposes to include in its regulations its interpretation of the term "showerhead" to mean "An accessory to a supply fitting for spraying water onto a bather, typically from an overhead position.” 

Under DOE’s proposed definition, each showerhead included in a product with multiple showerheads would separately be required to meet the 2.5 gpm standard established in federal law, rather than the total flow being 2.5 gpm. DOE also proposes to eliminate the terms "body spray" and "safety shower showerhead" from the showerhead definition. As a result, multiple showerheads would be routinely allowed in shower stalls, and body sprays and safety showerheads will have no legal flow requirements whatsoever.

“This is a dramatic step backward in water efficiency,” said AWE President and CEO Mary Ann Dickinson. “It is unconscionable for the Federal government to be adopting regulations that date back to the 1980s, when we are now facing water resource scarcity in 40 of the 50 states.”

What is not clear is whether the proposed regulation change on showerheads will affect states that have adopted their own stricter standards over the years. AWE is researching this issue with legal experts.

Numerous groups have come out in opposition to this showerhead proposal, such as ACEEE. Here is a statement from Consumer Reports:

"There is absolutely no need to change current showerhead standards," David Friedman, vice president of advocacy at Consumer Reports and a former DOE official during the Obama administration, said in a statement. "Thanks to the standards, consumers have access to showerheads that not only score well on [Consumer Reports] tests and achieve high levels of customer satisfaction, but also save consumers money by reducing energy and water consumption," Friedman added.

Click here  to view the full proposal for showerheads.

Click here  to view AWE's comment letter about showerhead definitions, filed on October 14, 2020.

Click here  to view AWE's additional letter with further legal arguments about the proceeding, filed on October 14, 2020.

Clothes Washers

DOE proposes to establish separate product classes for top-loading residential clothes washers and consumer clothes dryers that offer cycle times for a normal cycle of less than 30 minutes, and for front-loading residential clothes washers that offer cycle times for a normal cycle of less than 45 minutes. DOE would consider appropriate energy and water efficiency standards for such product classes, if adopted, in separate rulemakings. This means that the new product classes, once adopted, will have no energy and water efficiency standards to govern them. 

Click here  to view the full proposal for clothes washers. 

Click here  to view AWE's comment letter regarding clothes washers, filed on October 13, 2020. 

Additional Information

Click here  to read more about this issue from the American Council for an Energy Efficiency Economy (ACEEE).

Click here  to learn more in an article from The Hill.

The Alliance for Water Efficiency envisions a future with reliable and sustainable water resources, healthy ecosystems, and economically strong communities. This future is not possible in a system that does not serve all people equitably. AWE supports all those working towards a more just and inclusive society today and every day.

In keeping with the values statement above, today the Alliance for Water Efficiency released its report, An Assessment of Water Affordability and Conservation Potential in Detroit, Michigan, which evaluates water affordability and water conservation potential at the census tract level. Water affordability is an incredibly important issue, and the Alliance for Water Efficiency is dedicated to advancing the conversation by applying and evaluating measures of affordability and quantifying the benefits of water conservation. Through our efforts we aim to better understand and define the problem, and work toward solutions to help communities that are disproportionately impacted by water and sewer bills.

The assessment demonstrates:

• There is a clear need for assistance in Detroit as the cost of water and sewer service is characterized as a high burden.
• There is large potential for water conservation savings.
• There is a meaningful role for water conservation to empower customers to lower water and sewer bills.
• There is value in conducting an affordability assessment at higher resolutions than at the city or service-area level.

The affordability assessment applied the Household Burden Indicator (HBI) and Poverty Prevalence Indictor (PPI), which are relatively new indicators put forth in an April 2019 paper prepared for the American Water Works Association, National Association of Clean Water Agencies, and the Water Environment Federation. The water conservation assessment was based on an estimate of inefficient toilets remaining in the city of Detroit.

The report is available here.

AWE hosted a webinar on July 23, 2020 to summarize the findings of the report. Click here to access a recording of this webinar.

This work was made possible by generous funding provided by Kohler Co. 

We need your help! Supportive comments are needed in response to a Federal Register notice. 

On April 7, 2020 EPA announced in a press release  that it has completed a review of WaterSense® product performance criteria, and decided not to make any changes in WaterSense specifications at this time. That review actually was required by America’s Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA), the 2018 law that statutorily authorized WaterSense after the program had operated at EPA for 12 years at the direction of both Republican and Democratic administrations.

At the same time, however, EPA said it is seeking to measure consumer satisfaction with WaterSense labeled products as a possible factor to be considered in future changes to WaterSense specifications. On April 10, 2020, EPA published a notice in the Federal Register  seeking public comment on this issue. The deadline for comments has been extended to July 24, 2020.

The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) fears that without strong public support for the WaterSense program and the performance of its labeled products, the Administration will change its mind and consider potentially disastrous changes for the WaterSense program and its product specifications.  AWE has drafted a very detailed comment letter which you can join. We also suggest that you send your own separate letter, as we wish to have a large number of supportive responses in the Federal Register record.  Here are points to emphasize in your letter:

1. WaterSense products are tested to ensure that they perform as specified. The rigorous testing required for all products bearing the WaterSense label is in itself a guarantee of product performance.
2. WaterSense products perform well and customers are satisfied with them. If you are a water utility that has issued rebates for WaterSense products, and if you have positive experiences to share about your customers’ satisfaction, please do so.
3. Current WaterSense product specification levels are important to maintain to help protect our nation’s water resources. WaterSense products make an important contribution to saving water in the United States, water that is desperately needed to be conserved in many water utility systems. If you are a water utility dealing with scarcity in your drinking water supplies, please make this point in your letter.
4. WaterSense products are widely available in the marketplace and manufacturers have worked hard to design these products to meet WaterSense specifications. There would be serious economic disruption to US plumbing manufacturers should this situation be required to change.

To also help you with your comment letter, we have prepared the following resources:

1. Download our Call to Action and distribute it as widely as you can.
2. Download our Factsheet with messages that you can use in your letter.
3. Download the Memorandum by Peter Mayer clarifying that data from the two Residential End Use Studies document the lack of increased flushing frequency with higher efficiency toilets. Toilets are not flushed any more now than they were in 1999.
4. Download our AWE letter, which was signed by 62 organizations, companies, and government entities and filed on July 22, 2020.
5. Download our AWE Showerhead Letter, which was filed on July 22, 2020.
6. View a copy of AWE's press release here.

AWE has requested a 60-day extention of the comment period. Click here to view the letter we sent to the EPA. 

Comments to the Federal Register are due July 24, 2020. Remember to do the following:

1. Identify in the subject line of your letter Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–OW–2020– 0026
2. Click here  to file your comments. 
3. Click here to send a copy of your letter to AWE!  

AWE is happy to announce the launch of its Learning Landscapes Grant Program. AWE offers this grant program to support building or improving educational outdoor spaces that allow school-age children to experience hands-on, applied learning about the water our landscapes consume. Eligible projects include outdoor landscapes at schools, on public/government property, at botanical gardens, and other community locations as appropriate.

The application period CLOSED on June 30, 2020, but please stay tuned to AWE's newsletter for any further updates.

In addition to the grant application, AWE is releasing its Learning Landscape Lessons. This includes three school lessons focused on outdoor water efficiency that align with Next Generation Science Standards for grades 3-8.

The lessons are publicly available and can be requested via the link below.

• Click here to request the Learning Landscapes Lessons.

AWE Learning Landscapes Grants and Lessons were made possible by generous funding provided by The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation.

*Update on Federal Register Notice: Click here*

In a press statement released last week, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it is not making any changes at this time in WaterSense® efficiency specifications for toilets, showerheads and faucets. However, EPA is now seeking public comment and information on consumer satisfaction with the WaterSense® program and its labeled products, according to a notice published in the Federal Register on Friday, April 10, 2020. The deadline for public comment is June 9, 2020.

EPA is following up on President Trump’s frequent complaints that efficient toilets, faucets and showerheads don’t work. “People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once,” the President said in December, adding that he had asked EPA to look into the federal efficiency standards and WaterSense® product specifications.

It is vital that everyone concerned with efficient and sustainable water supplies tell the EPA that WaterSense® products work—that the American public is not interested in changing products that have saved more than 3.4 TRILLION gallons of water and more than $84.2 billion in water and energy bills. (Statistics are as of 2018, according to EPA.)

We are committed to demonstrating once again that the current generation of WaterSense® products meets consumer expectations while functioning properly at the flush volumes and flow rates specified. See the information below on what the Alliance for Water Efficiency is planning to do to help you make your voice heard.

Here’s what has happened

On April 7, 2020 EPA announced in a press release that it has completed a review of WaterSense® product performance criteria, and decided not to make any changes in WaterSense® specifications at this time. That review actually was required by America’s Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA), the 2018 law that statutorily authorized WaterSense® after the program had operated at EPA for 12 years at the direction of both Republican and Democratic administrations.

At the same time, however, EPA said it is seeking to measure consumer satisfaction with WaterSense® labeled products as a possible factor to be considered in future changes to WaterSense® specifications. On April 10, 2020, EPA published a notice in the Federal Register seeking public comment on this issue. Comments are due by June 9, 2020.

Here’s what we plan to do

We believe that it is urgent that everyone concerned with preserving the current WaterSense® product specifications – water utilities, government agencies, manufacturers, businesses and other stakeholders — submit their views to EPA. We must make a compelling argument that any changes proposed to roll back WaterSense® specifications will have a damaging effect on both American-based industry, water supplies, and the environment.

To assist in our collective response, AWE will do the following steps within the next week:

1. Form a coalition of manufacturers, utilities, government agencies, codes and standards bodies, and environmental groups to coordinate messaging and present a united front on support of the current WaterSense® product specifications.
2. Prepare a factsheet that everyone can use in their comments to the Federal Register.
3. Prepare an official AWE response letter which others may sign on to if they wish (although we would prefer that everyone send their own separate letters).
4. Prepare a short report documenting what the 2016 Residential End Use Study actually found with respect to the issue of toilet double-flushing: that it was not a statistically significant finding for high efficiency toilets.
5. Develop a press strategy which will include reaching out to major media outlets and corporate sustainability managers.
6. Develop and distribute social media messaging that can be widely used by all stakeholders.
7. Distribute a Survey Monkey link to a short consumer satisfaction survey that utilities can send to their customers who received rebates on WaterSense® products.
8. Begin discussions with key members of Congress to ensure that they are fully aware of the risks inherent in changing federal water efficiency standards or the terms of the WaterSense® program authorization. This is imperative to start soon, because legislators could be vulnerable to a campaign to “get the government out of our bathrooms,” the same refrain that was used in a previous effort to change federal water efficiency standards in 1996.
9. Raise the funds necessary to undertake this campaign. Any and all contributions to this effort will be welcome.

Can we do all this in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Yes. It will be a little more difficult, but we can certainly do it. We cannot lose sight of the need for WaterSense® labeled products — and for maintaining federal water efficiency standards — even as we struggle to deal with this deadly virus. All of this Federal Register comment activity can be handled virtually. And we will do our utmost to make certain you are aware of all the developments in this important effort. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, make plans to submit your comments to EPA by June 9, 2020, and be sure to get into the process the necessary approvals for sending such a letter. We will help you with template letters beginning next week.

Here’s how to submit your comments to the Federal Register:

1. Go to: https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=EPA-HQ-OW-2020-0026-0001
2. Submit your comments, which can include documents, audio or video material. Note than any multimedia must be accompanied by a written comment. The written comment is considered the official comment and should include discussion of all points the commenter wishes to make. We all need to work together on this, and your help will be invaluable. 

We all need to work together on this, and your help will be invaluable. Email us at office@a4we.org if you have any questions. 

Mary Ann Dickinson

President and CEO
Alliance for Water Efficiency

Built on the industry-leading Salesforce.com Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, WaterWays® is a cloud-based solution for water efficiency program delivery and management. WaterWays accepts online, digital applications for water efficient product rebates and irrigation audit schedule information through WaterRebates.com, and allows utilities to track and measure the applications while engaging with customers, all on a secure platform.

Through your membership with AWE, you can license WaterWays® (and WaterRebates.com at your option) at a discounted annual rate of $3,600 per year.

Click here to download a fact sheet to learn more about this exciting AWE member benefit.

Click here to email Liam McCarthy at AWE to learn more.

Use and Effectiveness of Municipal Irrigation Restrictions During Drought study

Chicago, IL— 1/23/20 — Today the Alliance for Water Efficiency released a major new research study on municipal drought response and water demand. The Use and Effectiveness of Municipal Irrigation Restrictions During Drought study explores how drought response measures have been implemented and how water demand reductions have been achieved across different water suppliers in different states.  

“The results confirm the effectiveness and importance of irrigation restrictions during a drought,” said Mary Ann Dickinson, President and CEO of the Alliance for Water Efficiency. “The research shows that when necessary and with proper implementation, substantial demand reductions can be achieved by communities working together during a drought.”

Key findings from the study include:

• Case study participants in California and Texas successfully reduced annual demand by 18-30 percent and peak monthly demand by 20-42 percent through a combination of mandatory demand management measures.
• Within this study, voluntary conservation did not generate statistically significant savings (i.e., estimated savings are indistinguishable from zero).
• Messaging and enforcement are viewed as best practices and essential components of a successful drought response.
• Water Shortage Contingency Plans should include all of these components: messaging, enforcement, irrigation day-of-week and/or time-of-day restrictions, drought surcharges, and implementation strategies.
• To be effective, Water Shortage Contingency Plans need codified rulemaking to include provisions that are enforceable on non-compliant customers.

“There are many substantive findings in this report that water utilities will want to learn,” said Dickinson. “This is the largest study to date of municipal drought response in America in terms of scope and breadth.”

Learn more and download the Executive Summary here.

While the Executive Summary is available to the public, AWE members have access to the full report. Click here for the request form.

This two-year research study was conducted by Anil Bamezai, PhD of Western Policy Research along with Lisa Maddaus and her team at Maddaus Water Management, Inc. AWE sponsored this study with financial support from the participating water utilities. Peter Mayer of Water Demand Management developed the original research concept and served as AWE’s project manager for the study.

This research is part of AWE’s Outdoor Water Savings research initiative which has produced several major research reports:

• Phase 1 Review of Existing Research (2014)
• Peak Demand Reduction Study (2017)
• Landscape Transformation Study (2019)
• Drought Restrictions Study (2020)

Last week President Trump announced at a Business Leader Roundtable Meeting  that he has tasked the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to investigate the efficacy of water efficiency standards for toilets, showerheads, and faucets in the United States. This announcement received considerable press coverage, and as a result, the Alliance for Water Efficiency has been fielding numerous information requests since Friday. The water efficiency community is understandably concerned about what might happen.

Are the President’s Concerns Justified?

There are answers for this. The Water Research Foundation's two Residential End Use Studies  (1999 and 2016) specifically did not find statistically significant evidence of multiple toilet flushing. The Maximum Performance Testing Program  (MaP) documents exemplary toilet performance of literally hundreds of models through rigorous and independent toilet testing, offering consumers virtually endless choices towards the selection of a great performing toilet. Lastly, the EPA WaterSense® program  has developed rigorous specifications for toilets, showerheads, and faucets that require independent testing and third party certification to help ensure that the products meet consumer expectations while functioning properly at the flush volumes and flow rates specified. Thus, the new generation of plumbing fixtures have been documented to perform very well, and at a very reasonable cost to the consumer. 

However, it is clear that the President is mining a potential vein of public support. It is an unfortunate fact that some consumers have at one time or another experienced a problem with a plumbing product. (But note for the record that toilet plungers were invented long before efficiency standards were enacted. Even at high flushing volumes, toilets can clog.) 

What is At Risk With the President’s Directive to EPA?

Minimum water efficiency standards for toilets, showerheads, faucets, and urinals were set by the 1992 Federal Energy Policy Act, and changes to these requirements will take an Act of Congress. Even if the EPA produces a report that recommends repeal of these standards, such legislation to implement those recommendations would need congressional action in an already busy legislative agenda in a presidential election year.  

Further, the Uniform Plumbing Code and the International Plumbing code both incorporate the federal water efficiency standards. Repealing the federal standards in Congress doesn’t mean that the water efficiency standards in the codes are automatically repealed too. Changes would have to occur in the next code revision cycles. So water efficiency standards repealed at the federal level would have no immediate effect on any new construction until the codes would be revised.  Also, six states have now enacted their own water efficiency standards (California, Texas, Georgia, Colorado, New York, and Nevada) and even if the federal standards were to be repealed by Congress, these states still would have their own legislated or regulatory standards in place.

However, the voluntary WaterSense labeling program may be at risk, since the WaterSense program labels water-using products that are 20% more efficient than the federal standards. The water efficiency community was successful last year in getting the WaterSense program its much needed official Congressional authorization, but its budget status and future direction of the program nonetheless still remains at the discretion of the EPA Administrator, and thus at risk. 

What Should We Do?

We should first wait to see if this is just a personal presidential complaint or real threat to our hard-won water efficiency standards. It appears at the very least that the President’s directive to EPA may result in a public comment process to seek consumer opinions about efficient product performance.  

Here is our immediate plan of action:

1. We will carefully track any developments on this issue and will keep you informed.
    
2. We will form a coalition of manufacturers, utilities, code and standards groups, and environmental organizations to present a united front opposed to any repeal of the current federal and state water-efficiency laws and standards. We must make a compelling argument through this coalition that any changes proposed to roll back federal standards will have a damaging effect on both American-based industry and the environment.
    
3. We will begin identifying and talking with key members of Congress to ensure that they are fully aware of the risks inherent in repealing the current law. This is imperative to start soon, because legislators could be vulnerable to a campaign to “get the government out of our bathrooms,” the same refrain that was used in a previous effort to change the law in 1996.
    
4. We will work with the Department of Energy (DOE), which is charged with administering the federal law, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which the President has directed to take action on this issue. It is vital that we understand how the wheels of government are turning and what steps we can take to affect any outcome on this issue.  We will provide whatever technical assistance and support we can.
    
5. We are researching the legal issues around reversing the current statutory standards through Executive action rather than Congressional action. While we believe at AWE that any rollback would require a change in the federal statute, we want to be prepared for all contingencies. 
    
6. If any changes are officially proposed that would impact the federal standards or the WaterSense program, we will organize a massive grass-roots campaign of e-mails and letter-writing aimed at convincing Congress and the administration that repealing national water-efficiency standards is a very bad idea for the country.

But to do all of this means that we will definitely need your help. Stay tuned. 

Mary Ann Dickinson
President and CEO
Alliance for Water Efficiency

For some time, the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) has been concerned about the issue of multiple showerheads in single shower stalls, and particularly how the subject is treated in green stretch codes that stress water efficiency. After some negotiation, on November 7 AWE and the Plumbing Manufacturers International (PMI)  came to an agreement and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)  to deal with this issue. AWE had been concerned that differing provisions were being considered at many green codes and standards venues: IAPMO’s Water Efficiency and Sanitation Standard (WE-Stand); ASHRAE’s Standard 189.1 Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings; the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED); the WaterSense® Homes specification; and other such forums. At issue was whether these green codes would potentially allow multiple showerheads that flow in excess of 2.0 gpm in shower compartments designed for only one person. The agreement reached between AWE and PMI will work to ensure water efficiency in green homes and buildings, and also work to provide harmonization of requirements in green codes and standards on this important issue.

The agreement limits the combined flows of multiple showerheads serving a one-person shower compartment to a maximum of 2.0 gpm, and stipulates that shower compartments designed for two persons be constructed using two separate shower valves which are installed no less than 96 inches apart measured horizontally, ensuring that such shower compartments are indeed designed for two people. Both organizations agree to support this provisions at all green code and standard venues. Signing the agreement are Kerry Stackpole, CEO of PMI, and Pete DeMarco, Chair of the AWE Board.

Congratulations to 2019 Recipient Kathy Nguyen, Cobb County Water System

The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) presents its Water Star Award every year to recognize individual excellence in water efficiency. This year AWE is very proud to present the 2019 Water Star Award to Kathy Nguyen  of the Cobb County Water System. Learn more here.

EPA WaterSense's first 2019 Excellence Award goes to the Alliance for Water Efficiency for Excellence in Strategic Collaboration!

"The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) spent much of 2018 collaborating with other water conservation stakeholders to help save resources, which earned the organization yet another Excellence in Strategic Collaboration Award. AWE cosponsored three outdoor webinars with WaterSense in 2018; nearly 600 professionals attended those webinars and learned about outdoor water efficiency techniques and programs. AWE also provided input on the WaterSense Notice of Intent to develop Version 2.0 of the specification and certification requirements for WaterSense labeled homes. AWE partnered with the California Water Efficiency Partnership and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to complete an evaluation on the impacts of WaterSense labeled products and conservation efforts in the Los Angeles area. AWE and its nearly 500 members continue to support a variety of research projects that help push water conservation innovation forward."

Saturday, March 22 (2014) marks World Water Day, an international day of reflection on our planet’s water challenges. This year also marks another significant moment in water history: the 20th anniversary of the implementation of the Energy Policy Act, which mandated more water and energy efficient plumbing fixtures, including toilets, urinals, showerheads and faucets.

To celebrate 20 years of this watershed legislation, the Alliance for Water Efficiency examined the savings specifically from toilets required by the EPAct, and found that the power of combining plumbing and policy is clear. AWE estimates that the EPAct has saved the nation 18.2 trillion gallons of water through more efficient toilets, enough water to supply the cities of Los Angeles, Chicago and New York for 20 years.*  

The EPAct of 1992 required the installation of toilets that used no more than 1.6 gallons of water per flush, or 54% less water than the 3.5 gallons-per-flush toilets found prior to the legislation. 

The estimated 18.2 trillion gallons represents cumulative water savings that have resulted from the use of more efficient toilets, which save an estimated 4.6 billion gallons of water each day.  In addition, further water reductions have been achieved by high efficiency 1.28 gallons-per-flush EPA WaterSense labeled toilets. AWE promotes water conservation policies, programs and products to advance the sustainable and efficient use of water. This finding demonstrates the potential to achieve significant water savings through legislation that requires the use of more efficient technology.

For additional resources to raise awareness of water efficiency policies, see the links below and visit AWE’s Legislative Watch page to track and support bills relating to water efficiency and conservation:

• 18 Trillion Gallons of Water Saved during 20 Years of Low-Flow Toilet Regulations  – American Standard Press Release and Infographic
• Recognizing Water Efficiency’s Value – Mary Ann Dickinson’s Blog Post for The Johnson Foundation’s Charting New Waters

*based on current water use

Policy Change by Government Accounting Standards Board Allows Debt Financing

Water conservation and green infrastructure projects can finally once again be debt financed with water utility capex funds. This is a major new development that should help reduce the rate shock that has accompanied these programs, since lately they have been only financed with annual utility operating funds. Because of this, utilities have been paying for the decades-long benefit of these programs in the first two years of their construction, hardly the way to properly finance a utility asset.

The ability to debt finance has now come about because of a change in policy at the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB), which has decreed that these expenditures can now be listed on the water utility balance sheet as “regulatory assets” to be paid off with increases in rates over time to cover the capital expenditure. For an article about the issue, click here. 

The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) maintains a mailing list to keep in contact with its members and all those interested in the latest happenings in water conservation and efficiency. To receive updates on all AWE activities, the efforts of like-minded organizations, and up-to-date news on all things related to water efficiency, click here to sign up for the mailing list. 

The Alliance for Water Efficiency, in conjunction with the California Water Efficiency Partnership, has released a template Request for Proposals (RFP) document that utilities can use for bidding Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) systems.

The RFP endeavors to be technology neutral, and presumes that the utility is soliciting proposals for a turnkey AMI solution under the auspices of a prime contractor. The RFP stresses the issue of interoperability and is available in Word so that it can be easily customized. Learn more here.

Thank you to McManis Family Vineyards for supporting the Alliance for Water Efficiency, and for their continued efforts to be efficient water users in the production of their award-winning wines.

Click to learn more about this certified sustainable winery. 

With California facing water shortfalls in the driest year in recorded state history, Governor Brown today proclaimed a State of Emergency and directed state officials to take all necessary actions to prepare for these drought conditions. The Governor’s drought State of Emergency follows a series of actions the administration has taken to ensure that California is prepared for record dry conditions. In May 2013, Governor Brown issued an Executive Order to direct state water officials to expedite the review and processing of voluntary transfers of water and water rights. In December, the Governor formed a Drought Task Force to review expected water allocations, California’s preparedness for water scarcity and whether conditions merit a drought declaration. Earlier this week, the Governor toured the Central Valley and spoke with growers and others impacted by California’s record dry conditions.

On Thursday, January 23, Ben Grumbles, President of the U.S. Water Alliance, announced the awardees of the 2014 U.S. Water Prize while speaking to the California Irrigation Institute Conference attendees in Sacramento, California. 

The four winners are: Alliance for Water Efficiency, Chicago, IL; American Water, Voorhees, NJ; Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater, Cincinnati, OH; and Orange County Water District and Sanitation District, Fountain Valley, California. "America's future looks bright blue with these shining water stars," said Ben Grumbles.  "Our 2014 winners are leading the way by reducing water waste, reusing water resources, and rethinking watershed strategies and technologies."

The U.S. Water Prize was initiated four years ago by the U.S. Water Alliance to elevate those organizations with strategies that promote the value of water and the power of innovating and integrating for one water sustainability. "These winners offer approaches that will build resiliency in the face of challenges like the California drought and other climate change impacts,” remarked Ben Grumbles, as he provided accomplishment of each. Regarding AWE, “The Alliance for Water Efficiency is a leading force for education and advocacy, instilling an ethic of ‘every drop counts’ and proving that a ‘save more, waste less’ strategy applies not just to water but to energy and money as well."

The Alliance for Water Efficiency and the other winners will be honored in an awards ceremony on April 7, 2014, at National Geographic headquarters in Washington D.C.The recognition program will be attended by more than 300 water leaders from throughout the United States. "Water Prize winners reflect America's broad diversity and ingenuity, from the Heartland to the Coast, with urban and rural problem solvers working to keep water clean, safe, and secure," said Dick Champion, U.S. Water Alliance, Chairman of the Board.

Nominations were reviewed by an independent, volunteer panel of judges respected as leaders in the fields of water and environmental policy.

Related News Item: AWE Awarded US Water Prize

UPDATE: On Saturday, March 1, 2014, Governor Brown signs drought legislation. 

"…The legislation had broad, bipartisan support. SB 103 passed 34-2 in the Senate and 64-3 in the Assembly. SB 104 passed 33-3 in the Senate and 68-1 in the Assembly. The bills provide $687.4 million to support drought relief, including money for housing and food for workers directly impacted by the drought, bond funds for projects to help local communities more efficiently capture and manage water and funding for securing emergency drinking water supplies for drought-impacted communities…" 

On Wednesday, February 19, 2014, California Governor Brown joined CA Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and CA Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez to announce legislation to immediately help communities deal with the devastating dry conditions affecting the state and provide funding to increase local water supplies. The legislation provides $687.4 million to support drought relief, including money for housing and food for workers directly impacted by the drought, bond funds for projects to help local communities more efficiently capture and manage water and funding for securing emergency drinking water supplies for drought-impacted communities. In addition, the legislation increases funding for state and local conservation corps to assist communities with efficiency upgrades and reduce fire fuels in fire risk areas, and includes $1 million for the Save Our Water public awareness campaign – which will enhance its mission to inform Californians how they can do their part to conserve water. 

The legislation would enhance water conservation and improve water supplies by:

• $549 million from the accelerated expenditure of voter-approved bonds, Proposition 84 and Proposition 1E, in the form of infrastructure grants for local and regional projects that are already planned or partially completed to increase local reliability, including recapturing of storm water, expand the use and distribution of recycled water, enhance the management and recharging of groundwater storage and strengthen water conservation.
• $20 million transferred from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to the Department of Water Resources (DWR) for direct expenditures and grants to state and local agencies to improve water use efficiency, save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from state and local water transportation and management systems.
• $14 million for groundwater management across the state, including assistance to disadvantaged communities with groundwater contamination exacerbated by the drought.
• $10 million transferred from the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Fund for the California Department of Food and Agriculture to invest in irrigation and water pumping systems that reduce water use, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
• $10 million transferred from the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Fund for the DWR to establish a grant program for state and local agencies to implement residential, commercial or institutional water efficiency projects that reduce water and energy use.
• $15 million from the General Fund for Emergency Drinking Water Fund to address emergency water shortages due to drought.
• $13 million from the General Fund to augment the California Conservation Corps and local community conservation corps to expand water use efficiency and conservation activities and to reduce fuel loads to prevent catastrophic fires. 

On March 4, 2014 the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) published a notice of proposed rulemaking and a public meeting related to new energy conservation standards for commercial clothes washers. The public meeting will be held on Monday, April 21, 2014 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Easter Standard Time, in Washington, DC. The meeting will also be broadcast as a webinar for those who cannot attend in person.

Public comments on the rulemaking may be provided through May 5, 2014. All pertinent information can be found on the DOE Rulemaking for Commercial Clothes Washers Energy Conservation Standard page, including instructions on how to register for the public meeting webinar.

The current standards for commercial clothes washers went into effect on January 8, 2013. The proposed standards are the same until January 2015. After January 1, 2015 differing standards would go into effect for commercial clothes washers:

Note the proposed standards use “integrated water factor” as the terminology and the existing standards use “water factor.”  According to 10 CFR 430, Subpart B, Appendix J2:

“Water factor means the quotient of the total weighted per-cycle water consumption for cold wash divided by the cubic foot (or liter) capacity of the clothes washer.”

“Integrated water factor means the quotient of the total weighted per-cycle water consumption for all wash cycles in gallons divided by the cubic foot (or liter) capacity of the clothes washer.”

On March 19, 2014, delivering on a commitment in the President’s Climate Action Plan, the White House launched the Climate Data Initiative, an ambitious new effort bringing together extensive open government data and design competitions with commitments from the private and philanthropic sectors to develop data-driven planning and resilience tools for local communities. The Initiative will help give communities across America the information and tools they need to plan for current and future climate impacts.

In support of the President’s Climate Data Initiative, AWE commits to developing and delivering data-driven information, assistance and education to help businesses, communities and consumers prepare for the impacts of climate change by using water more sustainably.  Using water more efficiently can help mitigate the effects of climate change, including drought and more frequent flooding, by stretching water supplies to meet future needs and reducing wastewater and storm water flows that can damage ecosystems. Below are a few initiatives that embody AWE’s commitment to leveraging data to drive a shift in how we use and think about water.

Over the next three years, AWE will provide assistance and resources to communities throughout the U.S. to help them achieve water use reductions or expand water conservation programs, through webinars, workshops, and new tools. This includes AWE’s Water Conservation Tracking Tool, which enables utilities to evaluate the water savings, costs, and benefits of a variety of conservation programs, and track savings over time, as well as a new Sales Forecasting and Rates Model to help utilities design and evaluate water rates that help achieve revenue stability and incentivize efficiency.

AWE will develop a comprehensive Outdoor Water Savings Research Program over the next three years to produce actionable data on the savings potential and actual water savings from a variety of outdoor conservation measures. The results of this research will provide relevant information on water and cost savings from different outdoor measures and programs, regional differences, and evaluation methods. Outdoor water use, compared to indoor use, is much more diverse due to differences in lot sizes, irrigation methods, vegetation, weather, and behavior. This makes it challenging to predict water savings resulting from efficiency measures, which is a critically important piece of the water resource planning process.  More accurate data will allow communities to implement outdoor programs that effectively help conserve water.

AWE will work with at least ten communities over three years to customize and distribute its online Household Water Calculator, which empowers citizens to make better decisions about their water use through data. The Calculator allows consumers to calculate their own water use, compare it to a neighboring and water-efficient home, and delivers a personalized efficiency plan to help them use water more wisely.

More states are seeking to improve water efficiency by reducing flush volumes and flow rates. On Friday the Colorado Legislature approved Senate Bill 103, phasing in the sale of WaterSense labeled water fixtures on Third Reading. Governor John Hickenlooper is expected to sign the bill into law in the coming weeks.

With this legislation, Colorado joins Georgia, Texas, and California in mandating that only high-efficiency, performance-tested fixtures be sold. The goal of this type of legislation is to help ensure new homes and businesses are built to be water efficient from the start and will save a significant volume of water over time.

The Colorado legislation was not without controversy and failed to pass when first introduced in 2012. Things changed in 2014 when organizations like the Alliance for Water Efficiency and water providers and professionals across Colorado signed on in support. The measure is expected to save over 40,000 acre-feet of water in Colorado by 2050.

Water is a shared resource critical for human health, driving the economy, and maintaining freshwater species. Yet due to a myriad of factors, including growing demand, climate change and pollution, freshwater in many regions is increasingly at risk.

The Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS), a partnership of global leaders in sustainable water management, aims to reduce that risk. On April 8, the multi-stakeholder group released the International Water Stewardship Standard version 1.0, the first global framework to promote sustainable freshwater use. By focusing on targets in water governance, water balance, water quality and other important water-related areas, the Standard will help water-users understand the value of water, mitigate their water risks, and earn recognition for responsible water stewardship. It clearly defines criteria for good water stewardship and was designed to align with other sustainability initiatives and support independent certification with varying levels of recognition.

The AWS Standard (version 1.0) can now be implemented to help to mitigate water risk and demonstrate action to address shared water challenges.

The AWS Standard provides a roadmap to follow towards sustainable water use and guides actions that mitigate water risks. It enables sites to improve their operations, as well as address shared water challenges in their catchments through actions on water governance, water consumption, water quality and water-related areas of importance.

The AWS Standard defines globally applicable, consistent criteria for responsible water stewardship, and is designed to support public sector agencies, align with other sustainability initiatives.

The AWS Standard will be supported by a verification program, to be completed in 2014, with varying levels of recognition and offering assurance for investors, owners and purchasers. AWS encourages sites to begin implementing today.

Recognized at April 7, 2014 Event in Washington, D.C.

On April 7, 2014 at the National Geographic Society Headquarters in Washington, D.C. the U.S. Water Alliance and hundreds of water leaders from across the country celebrated the Alliance for Water Efficiency and others as this year's U.S. Water Prize winners. Among the distinguished guests were U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior, Mike Connor. Both gave remarks and personally congratulated the winners.

2014 U.S. Water Prize winners are: Alliance for Water Efficiency, American Water, Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati, and Orange County Water District and Sanitation District.

The U.S. Water Prize, first launched in 2011, is organized and administered by the U.S. Water Alliance. Through the prize, the Alliance underscores the value of water and the need for one water integration, innovation, and collaboration among environmental, business, utility, and community leaders.

AWE President and CEO, Mary Ann Dickinson Speaking

AWE Board Chair, Kelly Kopp Speaking

Kelly Kopp, Mary Ann Dickinson, and Carole Baker (AWE Board Chair Emeritus)

Event Sponsors and 2014 Award Winners

Related News Item: AWE Awarded US Water Prize by the US Water Alliance

Be sure to come to Las Vegas early on Tuesday, October 7, 2014 to catch the AWE Committee Meetings during the day and the Annual Membership meeting and reception starting at 5:00 p.m. Tuesday evening. Bruce Rhodes, Manager of Water Resource Management at Melbourne Water, will be the headline speaker at the Annual Membership meeting, with a talk entitled Lessons Learned from Australia: What Happens when the Drought is Over?   

Bruce played a central role in the management of the ‘Millennium drought’ in the Melbourne region, which deeply affected southern and eastern Australia between 1997 and 2009. This drought resulted in the lowest inflow recorded into Melbourne’s water storages, significant falls in storage levels, impacts on environmental flows, and severe demand reductions across the entire Melbourne region. Following this epic drought, Australia then experienced record floods. This wide swing in hydrology had serious repercussions for Australia’s demand management programs.

Bruce has presented widely on water resources planning and management, catchment hydrology, climate change and drought management at Australian and international conferences. A Civil Engineer by background, he holds a Master of Engineering Science in Water Resources and has over thirty years of water resources management experience. He has authored numerous papers and has contributed to a range of publications, including the recently released IWA publicationPreparing Urban Water Use  Efficiency Plans – A Best Practice Guide. He is also a member of the American Water Works Association Climate Change Committee and a loyal member of AWE.

To cope with its deepening drought, the State of California adopted on July 15, 2014 an emergency resolution and regulation which mandates minimum actions by water providers to curb water waste and conserve water. Contained within the State regulation is a reference to the rates work being compiled by the Alliance for Water Efficiency to assist water utilities in the recovery of revenue which may be declining as a result of drought restrictions. 

The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) has scheduled this year’s in-person committee and annual member meetings to be held on Tuesday, October 1 in Las Vegas, NV.

Tuesday, October 1 is the day before the start of the 2019 WaterSmart Innovations Conference & Expo  at the South Point Hotel and Conference Center,  so arrive early and plan to attend the following meetings.

We look forward to seeing you.

• AWE WaterSense & Water-Efficient Products Committee Meeting
  Tuesday, October 1, 2019
  8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. | Napa A Room
   
• AWE Education & Outreach Committee Meeting
  Tuesday, October 1, 2019
  10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | Napa A Room
   
• AWE Water Efficiency Research Committee Meeting
  Tuesday, October 1, 2019
  1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | Napa A Room
   
• AWE Annual Member Meeting & Reception
  Tuesday, October 1, 2019
  5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. | Sonoma C Room
  Feature Speaker: TBD/TBA

Developing programs and campaigns to help customers use less water on their landscapes this spring, or create some buzz around Smart Irrigation Month? From May through October, 2019, the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) offered members a Smart Irrigation Marketplace where water providers and community organizations could learn about and access communications content, exclusive manufacturer rebates and incentives, discounts on professional assistance, program design resources and more—all provided by fellow AWE members.

Member-Only Benefit

Certain program design and customer education resources are still available to members in the Resource Library. 

Update: The Alliance for Water Efficiency has been working hard, along with a number of other organizations, to get an amendment to the tax code to make water conservation rebates exempt from federal income tax. On Friday, December 11, 2015, a letter signed by 32 Congressional Representatives asking for this amendment was sent to the IRS and the Department of the Treasury. 

###

Urgent, Act Now! Tell Congress to Make Water Conservation Rebates Tax-Exempt  

2015-12-03  

We need AWE members and supporters to act right now in urging congressional leaders to change federal tax law so that rebates and credits for water conservation and green infrastructure projects remain tax-free for recipients. 

AWE is part of an ad-hoc coalition of water conservation groups and water-supply entities seeking such a change, and there is recent progress toward including it in the massive bill to fund government programs for the coming year. Changing the tax treatment of water conservation rebates would give them the same treatment that energy rebates receive under the tax code.

But we need your support for this important issue. Please e-mail Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy urging them to support this change. You can find their e-mail addresses and a proposed letter of support here.

Please don’t wait. There are only a couple of weeks left before Congress adjourns for the year and this opportunity is lost.

The Alliance for Water Efficiency is urging a change in federal tax law so that rebates and credits for water conservation and green infrastructure projects remain tax-free for recipients. 

In response to urging from key lawmakers, AWE has suggested that these payments from water utilities not be included in gross income by the Internal Revenue Service—the same treatment as energy rebates receive under the tax code. 

Because water rebates and credits are now considered “income” by the IRS, utilities are required to send a Form 1099 (Miscellaneous Income) to any customer who receives more than $600 in rebates for a calendar year. That form, which is also sent to the IRS, could result in a tax liability for the homeowner or business that took action to conserve water usage or curtail storm water runoff—a potential disincentive for people to help improve water efficiency. And those rebates can reach tens of thousands of dollars when a homeowner has torn up extensive lawn and landscaping to save on water use.

This issue was included in the U.S. Treasury Department’s so-called “greenbook,” an annual report on tax policy changes the administration would like Congress to enact.  It is also the goal of legislation that is being considered by Rep. Jared Huffman, D-CA.

AWE is working with members of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee on ways that this important change in the tax law can be made. We’ll keep you posted on progress.

AWE is pleased to announce that at its annual member meeting and reception in Las Vegas on October 6, 2015 the featured speaker will be Brian Richter, Chief Scientist for the Global Water Program of The Nature Conservancy, President of Sustainable Waters—a global water education organization, and author. Brian will highlight his experiences as a world leader in water science and conservation for more than 25 years, and his latest book Chasing Water: A Guide for Moving from Scarcity to Sustainability in which he tells a cohesive and complete story of water scarcity: where it is happening, what is causing it, and how it can be addressed.

Brian has consulted on more than 120 water projects worldwide. He serves as a water advisor to some of the world’s largest corporations, investment banks, and the United Nations, and has testified before the U.S. Congress on multiple occasions. He also teaches a course on Water Sustainability at the University of Virginia.

Brian has developed numerous scientific tools and methods to support river protection and restoration efforts, including the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration software that is being used by water managers and scientists worldwide. Brian was featured in a BBC documentary with David Attenborough on “How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth?” He has published many scientific papers on the importance of ecologically sustainable water management in international science journals, and co-authored a book with Sandra Postel entitled Rivers for Life: Managing Water for People and Nature.

AWE’s Annual Member Meeting & Reception is held as part of the annual WaterSmart Innovations Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas, Nevada. All AWE members and prospective members are welcome to attend. Brian will be signing copies of his book Chasing Water. The meeting and reception takes place Tuesday, October 6, 2015 from 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. in Sonoma C Room at the South Point Hotel and Conference Center. Come and mingle. We hope to see you there.

Imagine H2O™  today announced the results of its inaugural California Water Policy Challenge. The initiative, which seeks to advance the market for water innovation through forward-thinking policy, attracted over one hundred submissions from academia, the private sector, government entities and NGOs. Successful applicants presented Imagine H2O with actionable policy recommendations to drive adoption of water technologies by California's cities, farms and industries.

Public policy is vital to help California deploy water technology more effectively while inspiring the State's innovation economy to tackle the looming water crisis. Imagine H2O, the water innovation accelerator, launched the California Water Policy Challenge to highlight the need to overcome regulatory barriers to innovation and catalyze public-private collaboration on policy design and implementation.

"The California Water Policy Challenge demonstrates a growing interest in how policy can incentivize water technology adoption in the California market," said Nimesh Modak, Director of the Policy Program at Imagine H2O. "We hope this program serves to foster new partnerships with government to deliver real policy change and unlock innovation opportunities."

The Challenge's judging panel, comprised of experts in California water policy, selected a winner and three finalists to be featured at a forum in Sacramento on February 9, 2016. Policymakers and key stakeholders will discuss the proposals and the opportunities and challenges in the path towards implementation.

The Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) and San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) teamed up on the winning proposal and will receive up to $25,000 in support. The partnership presented a compelling case for how discrete policy improvements to water reuse and recycling standards could incentivize water users to deploy on-site treatment technologies. "On-site water treatment is a widely recognized solution with considerable promise in the California market," says Mary Ann Dickinson, President and CEO of AWE.

"We look forward to developing a policy framework for onsite water systems that protects public health and allows for innovation and broader adoption of treatment technologies," says Paula Kehoe, Director of Water Resources with the SFPUC.

The Challenge recognizes three additional proposals as Finalists. The Freshwater Trust aims to improve coordination between groundwater and flood control agencies through a novel innovative recharge crediting scheme; Greywater Action and the Decentralized Water Policy Council offers guidance to streamline permitting of residential greywater systems; and WaterNow Alliance addresses constraints in public finance to better empower utilities to adopt new sustainable water technologies at scale.

The Results:

2016 Imagine H2O Policy Challenge Winner 
Alliance for Water Efficiency and San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

2016 Imagine H2O Policy Challenge Finalists 
The Freshwater Trust         
Greywater Action and Decentralized Water Policy Council
WaterNow Alliance

About Imagine H2O
Imagine H2O provides entrepreneurs around the world with the resources, insight and visibility to launch and scale innovative water businesses. Since 2009, Imagine H2O's accelerator has helped over 60 innovative companies win customers and receive more than $1 in every $10 of early stage investment in the water sector.

The U.S. Senate has joined the House in authorizing a WaterSense® program at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to identify products and services that conserve water and promote stormwater management. 

Senate approval of a broad, bipartisan energy efficiency bill included an amendment creating a WaterSense program sponsored by Sen. Tom Udall, D-NM, and five other senators. The Senate bill now must be reconciled with a House-passed energy bill that includes a similar WaterSense authorization. Agreement on a compromise bill is expected before June.

The Alliance for Water Efficiency has been a key backer of the WaterSense program since its inception in 2006. EPA has operated WaterSense under the discretionary authority of the EPA administrator, but the program has never been formally recognized by Congress. The House and Senate bills would for the first time establish a formal WaterSense program, although there is no funding authorized in either bill.

WaterSense promotes water conservation through voluntary labeling of products and services that reduce water use and the strain on water stems and wastewater or stormwater infrastructure EPA estimates that WaterSense has helped consumers save a cumulative 1.1 trillion gallons of water and more than $21.7 billion in water and energy bills since it was established 10 years ago.

The Alliance for Water Efficiency is pleased to announce that at its annual member meeting and reception in Las Vegas on October 4, 2016 the featured speaker will be Scott Schaefer, Wastewater Practice Leader and avid homebrewer. 

Scott's talk, inspired by American Water Works Association’s “No Water No Beer” campaign, will explore the historical and present day interactions between America’s favorite beverage and the water that we work so hard to protect, treat, conserve, and deliver. The presentation is intended to be informative, entertaining, and a celebration of one of the “highest uses” of water.

Scott, as Wastewater Practice Leader for AE2S, directs and administers the activities of the AE2S Wastewater Group and coordinates the business development, technical training, and staffing needs within the Group. He is also responsible for leadership, organization, morale, technical and administrative guidance, coordination, performance, marketing, sales, quality control, and efficiency.

Scott has been an avid homebrewer for the past eight years, and started brewing on the stovetop although has since upgraded to a batch-sparge all grain system. His local tap water works best with porters and stouts, although it can be modified to make Kolsch, pale ale, India pale ale, and saison.

AWE’s Annual Member Meeting & Reception is held as part of the annual WaterSmart Innovations Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas, Nevada. All AWE members and prospective members are welcome to attend. The meeting and reception takes place Tuesday, October 4, 2016 from 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. in Sonoma C Room at the South Point Hotel and Conference Center. 

AWE caps its full day of meetings with the Annual AWE Groundhog Days Music Night – featuring live performances from water efficiency's finest  (and bravest) musicians and vocalists. Music Night closes the AWE annual meeting at WSI. This year marks the 3rd edition of the Music Night.

The Alliance for Water Efficiency delivered a letter to EPA Administrator Pruitt today to urge continued funding for the successful EPA WaterSense® labeling program, recently proposed for elimination in the Trump Administration’s budget, and committed to defending the program. The letter outlines the numerous benefits of WaterSense and represents the support of 187 manufacturers, businesses, water providers, academic institutions, and efficiency advocates.

“The WaterSense program is a cornerstone of our nation’s water sustainability strategy, and has become vital to American communities, manufacturers, and service providers,” said Mary Ann Dickinson, President and CEO of the Alliance for Water Efficiency. “The Administration’s budget undervalues the contribution water efficiency makes to economic growth and the benefits of efficiency for US-based manufacturing. Defunding the program will be harmful to US businesses and families, and we are committed to taking all steps necessary to preserve this program.” 

The Trump Administration’s budget proposes massive cuts to the EPA’s energy and water programs, eliminating the highly successful ENERGY STAR® Program and its companion water-focused labeling program, WaterSense. The WaterSense program helps people save water with a label that indicates products bearing the label use at least 20 percent less water and work as well as or better than standard models required by law. WaterSense has never been congressionally authorized and has been funded at the discretion of the EPA Administrator.

The Alliance for Water Efficiency letter calls on Administrator Pruitt and Congress to maintain the $2 million budget for WaterSense. It is supported by leading American companies and organizations such as LIXIL Corporation/American Standard Brands, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, Kohler Co., the American Water Works Association, the Irrigation Association, and more than 175 other organizations, including water providers from around the country. The WaterSense program has more than 1,700 partner organizations that rely on the program to support their businesses or their water efficiency strategies. The WaterSense standards are also the basis for legislation in four states and other local plumbing codes that reference it.

“Eliminating WaterSense would destabilize the marketplace for manufacturers that rely on WaterSense-driven sales, start-ups bringing new products to market, and irrigation professionals that market their WaterSense certification,” said Pete DeMarco, AWE Board Chair and Executive Vice President of Advocacy & Research at the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials. “This is a cost-effective voluntary program that works. Our letter demonstrates that diverse organizations – from government agencies to Fortune 1000 companies – see significant value from this low-cost initiative.” 

The WaterSense program has saved American taxpayers more than $32 billion (2015 dollars) on their water and energy bills in the last ten years. It has saved 1.5 trillion gallons of water to date, providing greater water security given that 40 out of 50 states are anticipating water shortages in the years to come, according to a 2013 Government Accountability Report. It also helps consumers manage their water costs and can help American families reduce their water bills by up to $350 per year. 

“We need to congressionally authorize and permanently fund this program,” Dickinson continued. “Eliminating it would not only harm American businesses and invite foreign competition; it would also create hardship for communities dealing with water shortages and rising water rates. We invite all organizations with a stake in our water resources to join us in this effort.”

In addition, AWE is working closely with other important partners including the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, Plumbing Manufacturers International, American Water Works Association, and the High-Performance Buildings Coalition, to preserve this important program.

AWE is pleased to announce that it has begun negotiations with the California Water Efficiency Partnership with the goal to formalize a relationship between the two organizations. 

I will lead the negotiation process and will provide direction to the Partnership as it evolves into a formal relationship with AWE. What we want to avoid is the duplication of another very similar but separate water efficiency non-profit organization to AWE, and instead allow a merging of purpose and resources. In doing so, we expect the financial and programmatic benefits will be significant for both organizations. 

While I am serving as the Partnership’s Transition CEO, I want to assure the members of AWE that nothing will change in our dedicated service to you, our first priority, and I will remain at your service. The California Water Efficiency Partnership has a very capable leader in its Deputy Executive Director Sarah Foley, who will continue to run the Partnership’s day-to-day operations in Sacramento. My role will be to develop the plan to bring these two valuable organizations together.

Sincerely yours,
  
Mary Ann Dickinson
AWE President and CEO

2017 marks AWE’s Tenth Anniversary! AWE is pleased to announce that at its annual member meeting and reception in Las Vegas on Tuesday, October 3, 2017 the featured speaker will be Karen Guz, 2012 AWE Water Star awardee and current Director of Water Conservation for the San Antonio Water System (SAWS).

Karen's talk entitled, “How I Went from Rain Barrel Skeptic to Rolling with It: Converting Rain Barrel Mania into Conservation Results” will highlight SAWS’ wildly popular rain barrel program, which ended an initial 4-week pilot with 6,000 advance orders! Come hear about the program, and how they took the opportunity to transform that enthusiasm into other water savings. Hear how it has gone and how they will manage rain barrel popularity going forward. 

Karen, as Director of Water Conservation for SAWS, leads a dynamic team that has created a diverse set of conservation education programs, incentives and reasonable regulations to meet annual water savings targets. In recent years, Karen and her team have emphasized efforts that reduce outdoor, peak consumption of water. 

Come join us in celebrating AWE’s Tenth Anniversary at this year’s annual member meeting and reception. Held as part of the annual WaterSmart Innovations Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas, all AWE members and prospective members are welcome to attend. The meeting and reception takes place Tuesday, October 3, 2017 from 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. in Sonoma C Room at the South Point Hotel and Conference Center. Come and mingle. We hope to see you there.

AWE caps its full day of meetings with the Annual AWE Groundhog Days Music Night – featuring live performances from water efficiency's finest (and bravest) musicians and vocalists. Music Night closes the AWE annual meeting at WSI. This year marks the 4th edition of the Music Night, and interested singers and musicians (bring your own, or use one of our guitars) can contact Peter Mayer to sign up.

AWE welcomes meeting sponsors. Interested in being a sponsor of this year’s annual member meeting and reception, email us by clicking here.   

Click here to learn more about this year’s in-person advisory committee meetings also set to be held on Tuesday, October 3 at South Point Hotel and Conference Center.  

At the urging of the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) and other industry partners, the U.S. House of Representatives' Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which oversees funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has issued its Fiscal Year 2018 agency funding report rejecting the proposed elimination of the EPA's WaterSense® program–see pg. 58 of the report.

AWE applauds the subcommittee members, led by Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), for taking this strong stance on behalf of this vital consumer product efficiency labeling program. In April, AWE and 186 manufacturers, businesses, water providers, academic institutions and other efficiency advocates delivered a letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt promoting the virtues of WaterSense and urging its continued funding.

A true public-private partnership, the WaterSense® program has saved American taxpayers more than $32 billion (2015 dollars) on their water and energy bills in the last ten years. It has saved 1.5 trillion gallons of water to date, providing greater water security given that 40 out of 50 states are anticipating water shortages in the years to come, according to a 2013 Government Accountability Report. It also helps consumers manage their water costs and can help American families reduce their water bills by up to $350 per year.

Next steps involve approving a budget for FY2018 and authorizing the WaterSense® program, both of which require an act of Congress. To date, two bills have been introduced that would do just that, with a third about to be filed, and AWE is seeking signers for related Letters of Support. Links to our efforts follow. Take this important step and sign on to support the WaterSense® program.

S. 1137, the Clean Safe Reliable Water Infrastructure Act (Introduced 5/16/2017) 

H.R. 3248, the Water Advanced Technologies for Efficient Resource Use Act of 2017 (Introduced 7/13/2017)  

The California Water Efficiency Partnership (CalWEP)  and Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) announced that they are forming a new partnership, bringing together two of the country’s major organizations dedicated to improving and enhancing water efficiency in California and the United States. 

Beginning January 1, 2018, the CalWEP will become a chapter of the Alliance for Water Efficiency, the first in North America to do so. 

“This is an outstanding move for advancing water efficiency and conservation,” said Mary Ann Dickinson, who is serving as both the CalWEP Transition Executive Director and AWE President & CEO. “The alignment of these two major organizations provides new focus, unity and resources to advancing water efficiency and leverages each organization’s investments.” 

The move comes as the CalWEP, formerly the California Urban Water Conservation Council, undergoes an organizational transformation, from implementing 25-year old best management practices on water conservation into a new entity focused on helping water providers meet emerging legislative and regulatory mandates for Making Water Conservation a California Way of Life. 

“As a chapter of the Alliance, CalWEP will have access to all of the resources that the Alliance offers but with a focus on addressing California’s unique issues and providing value to members and California water providers,” said Joe Berg, Chair of the CalWEP Board of Directors. “This new collaboration will allow both organizations to capitalize on the other’s capabilities and to develop programs and tools they otherwise might not have the capacity to accomplish.”

The two organizations currently share members and are collaborating on several projects. CalWEP recently unveiled a new logo that echoes the Alliance’s logo. The logo also includes elements to represent CalWEP’s focus on fostering collaboration among a wide variety of stakeholders. Swirls of blue represent the many voices within CalWEP, whose members include professionals in the water utility, business, non-profit and other sectors. 

The California Water Efficiency Partnership (formerly the California Urban Water Conservation Council) is an innovative leader, voice and expert on water efficiency in California that fosters collaboration among a wide variety of stakeholders.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) with a 2017 WaterSense Excellence Award for its major contributions to WaterSense and water efficiency in 2016. AWE received one of 20 WaterSense awards at the WaterSmart Innovations Conference in Las Vegas for helping Americans to save water, energy, and money.

Over the past decade, the Alliance and nearly 2,000 other WaterSense partners have helped consumers save more than 2.1 trillion gallons of water, or more than the amount used by all U.S. households for 75 days. In addition to water savings, WaterSense labeled products and homes have helped reduce the amount of energy needed to heat, pump, and treat water by 284 billion kilowatt hours—which is enough to power more than 26.3 million homes for a year—and save $46.3 billion in water and energy bills.

“Since 2006, utilities, manufacturers, retailers, builders, communities, states, and other organizations have voluntarily supported WaterSense program’s efforts to protect and preserve our nation’s water supply for future generations,” said WaterSense Program Manager Veronica Blette. “By saving water together, these award winners and all of our partners help consumers and businesses realize the environmental and economic benefits of water efficiency.” 

AWE was honored as a 2017 WaterSense Excellence Award winner for its efforts to promote, advance and improve the WaterSense program, outreach campaigns and product and program specifications.

In 2016, the Alliance invested in research to advance water-efficient practices and continued a partnership with WaterSense to offer high-quality webinars on outdoor water use efficiency, reaching more than 700 practitioners. It also convened a WaterSense and Water-Efficient Products Committee, which brought together 65 organizations monthly to provide input on WaterSense-labeled product and program specification decisions. 

“The WaterSense program has become vital to American communities, manufacturers, and service providers,” said Mary Ann Dickinson, President and CEO of the Alliance for Water Efficiency. “AWE has been a key supporter of the WaterSense program since its inception in 2006. As we look to the next decade of the WaterSense program, we will continue to support and promote this important program throughout and beyond our network.”

November 17, 2017 Update: A letter signed by 97 organizations has been sent to members of Congress.

Energy efficiency rebates from energy utilities are exempt from federal tax, but not rebates from water utilities, whether they be rebates for drinking water efficiency, wastewater, or storm water programs. Since the rebates are not exempt from federal tax, water utilities must provide 1099s at the end of the year to customers that have received $600 or more in water rebates during the calendar year. This tax liability serves as a disincentive to water efficiency retrofit programs to encourage sustainable water use. 

Why weren’t water conservation or green infrastructure rebates made tax exempt like energy efficiency rebates were?

Until the recent national growth of campaigns to reduce water use and storm runoff, the amounts of water conservation rebates were relatively small and below the levels ($600) required to be reported to the IRS by water utilities. But with the rapid growth of water-saving programs (particularly rebates on landscape change-out) thousands of Americans have been facing an unexpected tax bill once these rebates are reported to the IRS. And the administrative costs for utilities to process thousands of 1099 forms are further disincentives for water conservation rebate programs.

What is the fix? A simple amendment to the tax code giving water rebates the same status as energy rebates. And there are now two bills in Congress that propose to do just that.

S. 1464  and H.R. 448  are bills that will make water conservation rebates exempt from federal tax. But these two bills will have a tough time getting passed, given that Congress is considering tax reform and will likely be removing tax exemptions, not adding them. The good news is that the Joint Committee on Taxation has concluded that the impact on the federal budget from this water conservation exemption would be negligible through 2026.

SACRAMENTO— Nearly 150 water conservation professionals, water industry leaders and elected officials came together March 7 in Sacramento to mark the official launch and evolution of the California Water Efficiency Partnership (CalWEP).  

Over the past several years, the Partnership has been undergoing an organizational transformation, from implementing 25-year old best management practices on water conservation as the California Urban Water Conservation Council into a new entity focused on helping water providers meet emerging legislative and regulatory mandates for Making Water Conservation a California Way of Life. 

“As urban water conservation challenges and requirements have evolved in California, so too has this organization successfully evolved,” said CalWEP Executive Director Mary Ann Dickinson. “We are building on a proud legacy of collaboration, expertise and leadership dedicated to addressing California’s unique challenges and opportunities but with a new focus and decision-making framework.” 

During the event, Steven Moore, Vice Chair of the State Water Board, presented the Partnership with a resolution, which stated, “The State Water Board is pleased to commend the California Water Efficiency Partnership as it celebrates its launch and looks forward to working closely to advance water conservation and efficiency actions statewide.” 

Bill Craven, Chief Consultant with the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee, also read a resolution from the California Senate sponsored by Senator Dr. Richard Pan and Assembly Member Kevin McCarty, commending the Partnership for its vital role in working to advance water efficiency and conservation in California. 

The launch comes after several major announcements by the Partnership over the past year, including the selection of Mary Ann Dickinson as the Partnership’s Executive Director. Dickinson served as Executive Director of the Partnership’s predecessor, the California Urban Water Conservation Council (Council), building the organization from the ground up. She left the Council in 2007 to establish the Alliance for Water Efficiency, a non-profit organization dedicated to the efficient and sustainable use of water in North America, and remains its CEO. In January, the Partnership announced that it would become a chapter of the Alliance for Water Efficiency, bringing together two of the country’s major organizations dedicated to improving and enhancing water efficiency in California and the United States. 

Said Dickinson at the event, “All of this has been possible only with your support and trust in our commitment to advancing water efficiency in California and to helping you and your organization reach your goals. We are pleased to share this milestone with you—to celebrate how far we’ve come and get ready for the road ahead, and to officially launch the California Water Efficiency Partnership.”

The California Water Efficiency Partnership (CalWEP)  has announced the election of a new Board and Officers to lead the organization. CalWEP represents more than 200 water supplier and organization members statewide, working together to foster leadership, expertise and collaboration to advance water conservation and efficiency in California.

Board Members and Officers begin their terms as CalWEP continues its evolution into a new entity focused on helping water providers meet emerging legislative and regulatory mandates for Making Water Conservation a California Way of Life. Several significant announcements have been made over the past year, including the selection of Mary Ann Dickinson as the Partnership’s Executive Director and its new status as a chapter of the Alliance for Water Efficiency, bringing together two of the country’s major organizations dedicated to improving and enhancing water efficiency in California and the United States.

The Board of Directors will be led in 2018-19 by CalWEP Board Chair, Amy Talbot, who is also the Water Efficiency Program Manager for the Regional Water Authority in the Sacramento region. The Board of Directors includes professionals from throughout California working for water providers, non-profit organizations, consulting firms, business and academia. They include: 

• Lisa Morgan-Perales (Vice Chair), Senior Water Resources Analyst, Inland Empire Utility Agency
• Greg Bundesen (Secretary/Treasurer), Water Conservation Supervisor, Sacramento Suburban Water District
• Patrick Pilz, Manager Field Operations, California American Water
• Ken Jenkins, Director of Drought Management & Conservation, California Water Service
• Trathen Heckman, Executive Director, Daily Acts
• Charles Bohlig, Supervisor of Water Conservation, East Bay Municipal Utilities District
• Penny Falcon, Mgr. of Water Conservation Policy, Legislation, and Grants, Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power
• Lisa Maddaus, CFO and Senior Engineer, Maddaus Water Management
• Justin Finch, Water Use Efficiency Analyst, Mesa Water District
• Bill McDonnell, Water Efficiency Manager, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
• Joe Berg, Water Use Efficiency Programs Manager, Municipal Water District of Orange County
• Paul Lierheimer, Contractor Division Director, Rain Bird
• Carlos Michelon, Principal Water Resources Specialist, San Diego County Water Agency 
• Julie Ortiz, Water Conservation Manager, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
• Sean McNeil, Water Efficiency Coordinator, City of Santa Rosa
• Carrie Pollard, Principal Program Specialist, Sonoma County Water Agency
• Kendra Olmos, Executive Director Center for Water-Energy Efficiency, UC Davis
• Rob Whipple, Water Resource Specialist II, Western Municipal Water District
• Diana Brooks, Chief, Water Use and Efficiency Branch, CA Dept. of Water Resources (Ex-Officio)
• Thomas Hawes, Water Conservation Specialist, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Ex-Officio) 

“I’d like to congratulate the leaders who are assuming these new positions and thank them for their continued service to CalWEP,” said CalWEP Executive Director Mary Ann Dickinson. “Together we are poised to help the water community deal with the new realities facing California. Continued partnerships will be key.”

Special thanks to our Transition Board Officers: Joe Berg (former Board Chair), Lisa Maddaus (former Vice Chair), and Jack Hawks (former Secretary/Treasurer). Also, we'd like to thank those members leaving the Board: Jack Hawks, Richard Harris, William Granger, and Peter Yolles. The California Water Efficiency Partnership is an innovative leader, voice and expert on water efficiency in California that fosters collaboration among a wide variety of stakeholders.

Have questions? Click here to email CalWEP's Admin Michael Walker.

April 22, 2019 Update: A letter signed by 126 organizations has been sent to members of Congress.

President Trump has released his budget for FY2020, and it proposes to eliminate the WaterSense program – yet again. As you all know, we were collectively successful in getting WaterSense authorized by Congress in the 2018 America’s Water Infrastructure and Improvement Act. But since the President’s budget for FY2020 proposes to eliminate it in the EPA budget cuts, we now need to take our case directly to Congress.

To do this we need your help! We need you to contact your elected Congressional Representatives and Senators. We have prepared a fact sheet (see the link below) which also includes a list of House and Senate Appropriations Committee members. If one of your elected representatives is on this list, your contact would be especially critical, although all representative contact is important. We have prepared a draft letter for you to send, or you can join our AWE letter, where we will be collecting organizational names for inclusion in a master letter to Congress. Or, you can do both! Send your own letter and also join the AWE letter! The draft letter is linked below and it is posted in Word so that you may easily modify it as you wish.

In addition to contacting your elected representatives, please consider donating to help AWE mount their campaign to Congress. WaterSense will only be saved by the collective efforts of us all. And we will need financial help to undertake this task and to build the coalition necessary to keep WaterSense alive. Please consider supporting us!

AWE WaterSense Funding Factsheet  

AWE WaterSense Funding Support Letter (Word)

The following op-ed by Mary Ann Dickinson, AWE President & CEO and CalWEP Executive Director, was published August 9, 2018 in the Sacramento Business Journal. Click here for the original publication. 

"When you think about dry cleaning, water might not be the first thing that comes to mind, but Sharon Sargeant of Bud’s Cleaners in Roseville says that water is one of their largest costs. 'Of course, we use it in the laundry,' she said. 'But most of the water we use is actually to cool our dry-cleaning machine, which is about the size of a Volkswagen.'

When the city of Roseville's water conservation team contacted Bud’s in 2015 to investigate a sudden spike in its water use, they found that the water chiller used to cool Bud’s dry-cleaning machine could be upgraded with a high-efficiency model that recycles water. The new equipment spurred a dramatic drop in water use—about 85 percent or 3.6 million gallons annually—in addition to providing a 48 percent savings in their water, sewer and energy costs.

Such water-saving success stories will certainly become more common in California in the coming years. Past droughts brought the passage of strong state laws and policies to promote a conservation ethic, and these laws have been very effective: California ranks No. 1 among the 50 states as having the most sophisticated water efficiency policies in the nation. 

This year, California’s commitment to water conservation and efficiency got even stronger with the passage of landmark legislation setting reduction targets for water providers. These new laws outline an overall framework for setting and meeting water use targets at the water provider level. The targets will be customized for each water provider and will include a combination of an indoor target of 55 gallons per person per day, an outdoor target based on development of outdoor water budgets for residential and commercial customers, and a water loss target to stem leakage in the utility distribution system. A credit will be given for systems that have developed recycled water.

But state laws are not the only reason that Californians have been leaders in the country. California’s water providers have collectively spent hundreds of millions of dollars since the 1980s on financial incentives to residential and business customers to encourage them to save water. And it is not just the residential customer who benefits. 

Commercial, industrial and institutional customers use about a third of the state’s urban water supply, and these customers can also profit by water conservation financial incentives. Like Roseville and other water providers in the region, the city of Sacramento offers generous incentives to business customers for saving water: replacing inefficient plumbing fixtures, changing out thirsty lawns with beautiful, low-water landscaping, upgrading irrigation systems and adding water-saving technologies such as connectionless food steamers, air-cooled ice machines and other devices. It is a good business proposition, both for the city and for the commercial customer. And now with the new legislation, water providers will be even further motivated to work with their business community to provide incentives for their efficiency efforts."