SUSTAINING OUR WATER SUPPLY: Water Efficiency Master Plan (2015-2025) WHAT IS THE Water Efficiency Master Plan (WEMP)? A Plan that describes specific programs to help residents, businesses, industries, institutions, and municipalities be more efficient with how they use water. Programs range from education to innovative technologies to rebates and other incentives.
OVERVIEW OF RECOMMENDED PROGRAMS: Businesses, Industries & Institutions
Residential Continuing Measures: - General Education/ Awareness - Research (e.g. water softeners, hot water recirculation systems) Proposed New Measures: - Residential Water Savings Assistance Program - Toilet Flapper Program - Rainwater Harvesting Program
Continuing Measures: - Water Efficient Technology Program (W.E.T.) - Research (e.g. commercial sub metering) Proposed New Measures: - CII E-Newsletter - Restaurant Certification Program - CII Cooling System Program
Trades Continuing Measures: - Trades Training Proposed New Measures: - New Home Building Incentives - Plumber Sustainability Training
Community -Wide Continuing Measures: - Water Conservation By-law - Mass Media Advertising - Local Municipalities Pressure and Leakage Management Proposed New Measures: - Enhanced Interactive Website & Communications - Landscape Topsoil Thickness Advocacy
WHAT DO WE HOPE TO ACHIEVE? The last WEMP was very successful – water use reductions were even better than the expected 8146 m3/day. This updated WEMP 2015-2025 will push even further for water efficiency, while ensuring our programs are up-to-date, innovative, and meet the needs of everyone in the Region of Waterloo. The recommended activities in the WEMP have been designed to: • Delay the need for the Great Lakes Pipeline • By 2025, save 3754 m3 of water per day. This is equivalent to the daily water needs of over 7000 households in the Region of Waterloo. • Reduce the average water use in single family home to 168 litres per person per day • Save a total of $2.5 million in avoided water supply and wastewater treatment operating costs • Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7700 tonnes
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Your comments and suggestions will help improve the WEMP 2015 to 2025. We will present a final version of the Plan to the Region of Waterloo Council by mid-2014.
Water Efficiency Master Plan (2015-2025) VISION The Region of Waterloo Water Efficiency Program contributes to sustaining a clean and reliable drinking water supply for the future; a supply that draws primarily from our groundwater and river water sources.
GOALS • To engage municipalities, residents, businesses, and institutions in actions and behaviours that promote water efficiency and conservation; • To positively impact our communities, environment and economy through the benefits that result from water efficiency and conservation; • To defer large capital infrastructure projects decades into the future, and focus on a sustainable water supply with groundwater and river sources; • To effectively monitor and report on the measurable benefits of the water efficiency program; and • To be recognized as innovative leaders in water efficiency.
OBJECTIVES • To further reduce indoor and outdoor water demand in the residential sector. • To reduce total system demand for water (i.e. metered residential and commercial, institutional and industrial sectors). • To keep summer peak demand ratios at or below existing levels. • To maintain Water Efficiency Program budget and staff at current levels.
TARGETS WHERE ARE WE NOW?
WHERE DO WE WANT TO BE IN 2025?
Indoor and Outdoor Water Use
202 litres per person per day
160 litres per person per day
Total System Per Capita Demand
285 litres per person per day
235 litres per person per day
Summer Peak Demands
Peaking factor (ratio of maximum day demand to average day demand) averaged 1.28 from 2006 to 2010
Peaking factor remains same or less than 1.28
Water Efficiency Master Plan (2015-2025) RESIDENTIAL PROGRAMMING PROGRAMS TO HELP IMPROVE WATER EFFICIENCY
CURRENT PROGRAMS TO CONTINUE Education and Awareness Raising
Continuing the Region’s successful activities in water conservation and efficiency – such as brochures, articles, ads, talks and workshops, educational material for schools, and more.
Research and Development
This program would continue studying how technology can be used to make homes even more water efficient – for example, improving the efficiency of water softeners.
RECOMMENDED NEW PROGRAMS Water Savings Assistance Program
This program is a “toolbox” to help residents reduce water use. It includes web-based tools to show you where and when water is being used in a home, tools to help find out where a home may have water leaks, and incentives for buying more water efficient appliances. The program is designed to especially help households that use more water than the average household in the Region of Waterloo and may include audits.
Toilet Flapper Program
This program includes activities to encourage people to replace their toilet flappers, one of the most common sources of leaks and wasted water in toilets. Some of the things it may include are online tutorials, print material, rebates, or giveaways.
Rainwater Harvesting Program
This program uses education and incentives to encourage homeowners to use rainwater harvesting systems larger than a rain barrel (e.g. more than 1000 litres), where it makes sense to do so.
HOW DOES AN AVERAGE HOUSE USE WATER?
Average local indoor household water use Source: Aquacraft and NRC (2013). Residential End Uses of Water Study Update
Water Efficiency Master Plan (2015-2025) BUSINESSES, INDUSTRY & INSTITUTIONS PROGRAMS TO HELP IMPROVE WATER EFFICIENCY
CURRENT PROGRAMS TO CONTINUE Water Efficient Technology (W.E.T.) Program
The W.E.T. program has been a successful flagship program for businesses, industry and institutions. It offers a variety of activities including on-site water use reviews, rebates, fixture replacement programs, cost-sharing for a broad range of water efficiency measures, and the Water Efficiency Excellence Awards.
Research and Development
This program would continue to explore how water efficiency can be improved in this sector. One example is exploring how to encourage each store in complexes such as strip malls to have its own water meter – this makes it easier for those businesses to understand their own water use.
RECOMMENDED NEW PROGRAMS E-Newsletter
An electronic newsletter with success stories, weblinks, small “bytes” of information or relevant water conservation facts and photos. This will help spread the word about ways to improve water efficiency among businesses, industries and institutions.
Restaurant Certification Program
This program focuses on helping restaurant owners use less water and recognizing their efforts through certification, awards or other means.
Cooling System Program
Once-through cooling systems use cold drinking water to absorb heat – water that is then put directly into the sewer. This program involves encouraging more water efficient alternatives to this system.
TRADES
PROGRAMS TO HELP IMPROVE WATER EFFICIENCY
CURRENT PROGRAMS TO CONTINUE Trades Training
This program involves continuing with activities such as meetings and workshops with gardeners, landscapers, and plumbing retailers to talk about working together for water efficiency and conservation.
RECOMMENDED NEW PROGRAMS New Home Building Incentives
This program provides education and incentives for green (or “blue”) water efficient developments and high-performance buildings. The program will investigate a mix of direct incentives (e.g. fee waivers, tax incentives) and indirect incentives (e.g. speeding up the permitting process).
Plumber Sustainability Training
Plumbers currently have only a few hours of training in the area of water efficiency awareness and skills at the apprentice level. This program will draw from the lessons of a current pilot with GreenPlumbers© to carry out a similar program that increases plumber knowledge in water efficiency across the Region of Waterloo.
Water Efficiency Master Plan (2015-2025) COMMUNITY - WIDE PROGRAMS TO HELP IMPROVE WATER EFFICIENCY
CURRENT PROGRAMS TO CONTINUE Water Conservation By-Law
Continuing the Region’s great success with its Water Conservation By-Law and promotional material. This by-law ensures greater efficiency in outdoor water use by restricting lawn watering to one day each week.
Pressure and Leakage Management
This program includes activities for the Region of Waterloo to partner with and provide funding to cities and townships to improve their programs to find and fix leaks in their water distribution system.
RECOMMENDED NEW PROGRAMS Research and Development
This program studies how topsoil depth can be increased across municipalities. If topsoil is too shallow, a plant’s roots develop poorly and it cannot properly access water. Research shows that deeper topsoil helps reduce the need for watering lawns and gardens.
Enhanced Interactive Website and Communications
This program involves adding new features to the Region of Waterloo’s Water Conservation website so that more people can find the tools they need to be more water efficient. This could include interactive water use calculators, videos, blogs, success stories, and more.
HOW IS WATER USED BY DIFFERENT GROUPS IN THE REGION OF WATERLOO?
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK Fill out a Comment Card or visit the following link to read the Water Efficiency Master Plan and answer a few short survey questions:
www.regionofwaterloo.ca/water