Water is one precious resource. Growth and competing demands for fish protection and recreation throughout the Pacific Northwest can make water scarce. Use water efficiently to help protect the environment for future generations and help ensure enough water remains available for everyone - especially during dry summer months. You can save money too.

Grow a healthier yard with less maintenance by practicing smart outdoor watering and the other steps to natural yard care. Plus, an average household could cut indoor water use almost in half by switching from older fixtures to new, efficient ones.

We continue to work with customers to reduce average per person consumption by 10 percent between 2000 and 2010. In 2001, as part of a regional water supply project, Tacoma Water and several utility partners signed an agreement with the State of Washington committing to the reduction. This conservation goal applies to both retail and wholesale water customers.

This conservation goal will help ensure enough water remains available regionally to meet the needs of people, animals and the environment and makes it possible to use existing water supplies more efficiently. The goal also provides opportunities to develop regional water supply and fish enhancement programs and to further promote conservation.

On a per-person basis our total system production decreased 30 percent from year 2000 to 2009. We currently remain on track to exceed our 2010 conservation goal.

In order to achieve the water conservations goal and help ensure the efficient use of water, we have implemented conservation programs based on our 2006 water conservation program assessment and conservation plan. The program assessment:

• evaluated the existing water conservation program;
• determined base use in 2000 against which to measure water use reduction;
• identified water conservation programs that Tacoma Water could implement to meet the 10 percent water conservation goal; and
• proposed possible implementation strategies.

Our current conservation goal expires at the end of 2010. A new water conservation goal for 2011 - 2017 was adopted by the Public Utility Board in June 2010. The conservation goal for 2011 - 2017 is an 8.4 percent reduction in total system water production, measured in gallons per capita per day, between January 1, 2011 and January 1, 2018. 

Our water conservation program helps ensure enough water remains available regionally to meet the needs of people, animals and the environment. For more information or to schedule a workshop for a group, please explore this site or call our conservation specialists at (253) 502-8723 or e-mail conservation@cityoftacoma.org.

The issue of “lost revenue” or “rate impacts” has sometimes been wrongly used as a rationale to avoid water conservation. To understand the revenue and rate implications of conservation programs, one must examine how conservation programs affect water use in the short and long term.

Short term costs:

A reduction in consumption may result in a need to raise rates to maintain operations. However, for customers who implement efficiency measures this will be offset by the fact that they will also be paying less for using less water.

For utilities that extract the water supply directly from rivers conservation has an immediate impact. More water is left in the rivers to maintain a healthy ecosystem. Consideration must be given to the responsibility of the utility to be a good steward of the resource.

Long term costs:

Conserving water is the cheapest source of additional supply. It is much more expensive for a utility to buy additional water rights, raise a dam, build a new reservoir, etc. These other sources of supply (usually multi-million dollar investments) will have a much greater impact on rates than conserving existing supply. To put it simply, ignoring conservation can lead to situations that will require large rate increases.

The fact that Tacoma Water has seen a significant reduction in use has allowed us to continue to meet the need in the region for new supply in support of economic development and growth. This is occurring without having to invest significantly in new sources of supply.

Additionally, a reduction in use has also led to downsizing of infrastructure, as Tacoma Water is doing with the McMillin Reservoir. Operations and maintenance costs may be reduced in the long term due to lower quantities of water needing to be treated and transported.