Solutions
Sterling Ranch’s Sustainable Look For decades, policymakers, utilities, and conscious citizens have been working to conserve electricity through sophisticated demand management tools to help customers understand the relationship between peak use periods and real costs. These measures have helped educate customers on ways to reduce usage — and their bills — while also ensuring the integrity and stability of the grid. This same approach hasn’t yet been systematically applied to an even more finite resource: water. With energy management programs having successfully demonstrated proof of concept in reducing electricity consumption, a growing number of utilities and partners are deploying resources to do the same for water with increasing urgency. Americans this year will pay an average of $104 per month in water and wastewater bills, an increase of more than 30% within the last decade. In most cases, consumers have no idea how much water they’ve used or how much it’s going to cost until the end of the month. As the old adage goes, you can’t manage what you don’t measure, and with a drought-intensive summer already forecasted by leading hydrologists, the threat of an emerging “megadrought” looms. Consequently, the urgency to apply the same principles to measuring energy usage to water in real time is higher than ever. Consider the case of the Colorado River basin, located in the southwestern United States. Occupying approximately 250,000 square miles and stretching 1,400 miles long, the Colorado River is a critical municipal water resource for nearly 40 million people throughout seven states. Growing demands in the Colorado River system, coupled with the potential for reduced supplies due to climate change, may put water users and resources relying on the Colorado River at risk of prolonged water shortages in the future. Even a single season of drought is bad news for the Southwest, and the impact extends
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SUSTAINABILITY TODAY | SUMMER 2021
beyond residents, with dry conditions in the area shriveling crops, harming livestock, and worsening wildfires.
state was abnormally dry, 65% was experiencing
As of late June 2020, the State of Colorado recently reported that more than 80% of the
extreme drought conditions, according to the
moderate drought, 55% was experiencing severe drought, and 33% of Colorado was experiencing Drought Monitor. The monitoring group also
