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tutlook for
\ /aler eorìseryalron iIOW CAN WE RESHAPE THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT TO
1JSE
that want to improve their environmental footprint, especially smalter cities that don't necessarity have the resources themselves to create a plan of action.
IESS WATER?
There are simitar programs in other states
RON NYREN ExpEnrs Dtscuss covERNMENT poLtctES that hetp or hinder water conservation in the buitt environment, the role of water avaitabitity and consumption data in raising awareness and shaping behavior, strategies that developers should employ to reduce the waste of water, and other factors inftuencing water use,
What are good strateg¡es that state and/ or municipal governments can implement to encourage water conservation?
LAURA BoNtcH: Catifornia is leadingthe way. [lt] has passed two landmark pieces of legistation in the past couple ofyears. The new green buitding
to soak in. lf you're in a water-restricted area-say, the Southwest-you might not even be altowed to water your lawn. ln some cases, water companies will actually pay homeowners and businesses to rip
code, CALGreen, limits what kind of plumbing fixtures can be put in homes in new developments. So instead of a 2.5-gatlon-per-minute (g titers) shower-
up lawns and replace them with xeriscapes, which require minimaI water. Also, in a lot of cities and towns, the municipal pipes that move water thrbugh
head, for example, you're only allowed a two-gallonper-rninute (B liters) showerhead. As a resutt, all
the system are so leaky that sometimes 20 to 30. percent of [it] never makes it out io the coniumers. So cities are doing a lot of work to find those leaks and stop them.
new deùetopment in Catifornia is using 50 percent of the water used by homes built before the tegista-
tion took effect. Another piece of legislation, which takes effect in zot7, wilt require that every time a
FRED MERRTLL: Some locat governments have
differential pricing. The water authority knows how much you should use in your house, without being too wasteful, and they'tt give you a good deal on
that amount of water, but as you start to use more than that, the price per gallon goes way up. People really pay attention to their monthty water bill. ln hot weather, during the day, when you shouldn't be watering your lawn, the water authority might charge businesses and residents a higher rate for water use to encourage peopte to water the lawn in the evenings and at night, when the water has a chance
that pro-
vide assistance and recognition.
RtcK cARTER: At the municipaI scale, it is best to take a holistic approach that integrates efficient. water supply systems with demand-side conserya-
home buitt before ry94 is sold, the indoor fixtures will have to bç retrofitted to meet the CALGreen code. So our existing water infrastructure is going to be able to serve more new development than ever.
tion techniques and effective stormwater and wastewater practices. ln Minnesota, we have a program catled GreenStep Cities. There are z9 besf practices that cities can foltow to become a GreenStep City, and they range from energy-efficiency initiatíves io
How do regulations and policies
sometimes get ¡n the way of water conservat¡on?
measures for investing in better transportation systems to water-related actions such as demand-side
pyRoN srloóe, When it
.or., a agricultural
u$ep of water, the opportunities for savings are
conservation. GreenStep Cities is designed for cities
eriormous. But most states in the West have water rights laws that are based on how long you have had the rights to use the water. And if you don't use the water that you have allocated to your agricul-
CONTRIBUTTNG THEIR INSIGHTS:
tural or industrial use, your allocation is reduced. So this incentivizes consumption of water regardless of the water supply. ln regard to the built environment, my firm does a lot of work in developing
countries Iike Mexico, lndia, and [those in] Africa. ln these places, it is common practice to use recycled
(alter,
[aura Bonich, v¡ce
Rick
president, NV5 Engineering,
design team leader, LHB,
Jackson, Wyoming; member,
Minneapolis, Minnesota
integrative
Community Development (ouncil (Silver Flisht)
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Fred Merrill, principat,
Byron Stigge, tounder,
Sasaki Associates, Watertown, Massachusetts; member,
lnfrastructure, New York City; member, Responsible Property
Sustainable Development
lnvestment Council
Council
Levet
water, both from rainwater and treated wastewater. Singapore is even mixing smalt amounts of recycled water into its drinking water suppty. The regulatory environment in the United States is not as open to
these kinds of solutions. But for regions beginning to experience severe drought, these regulations may need to be rethought.
cARTER: Too many poticies and laws actually encourage more water consumption. For exampte, until not that long ago, waterless urinals were not legal in Minnesota. This year, the state finalty adopted a plumbing code that regutates rainwater harvesting for indoor use, but outdoor reuse for irrigation is still unregulated. Without clear and effective guidetines for proven systems, designers, building owners, and code officials struggle with
effectively implementing them in projects. Also, some cities have rules for the buitt environment that require landscaping of a kind that can't thríve without a significant amount of irrigation. That means the law is essentially requiring people to use more water than they should be.
BoNrcH: ln the last five years, the technologies available for understanding how much water cities consume have gotten much better. But municipat and state governments haven't necessarily taken into account the effect that conservation technologies have had on water use. A lot ofthe infrastructure that's being designed and the master ptanning being done relies on ten years of historical water use data as an indicator of how much water a new development will use. But that's not a good indicator anymore, because so much has changed in the last few years. So a lot of municipalíties are stilt overptanning their future infrastructure requirements. We need to shift the investment in infra-
structure. lf we can build smalter potabte water and wastewater systems, and instead spend those dollars building reclaimed water systems, that would make a bíg difference.
What âre the best ways to use data about availability and use of water to encourage conservation? cARTER: To track the progress of cities involved in the GreenStep Cities program, we started the Regional lndicators lnitiative in Minnesota. We gather data about energy, water, vehicle miles traveled, and waste. Then we analyze it and present it in a way that people can grasp. The way we present the data on the Regional lndicators website graphicatly shows the consumption of water and other
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"Some cities have rules for the buitt environment that require [andscaping of a l<ind that can't thrive without a significant amount of irrigation. That means the law is essentiatty requiring peopte to use more water than they shoutd be."-RtcK cARTER resources. We've found that makes the biggest difference. You can look at spreadsheets all day [ong,
some years ago, and in that case it made sense to encourage peopte to take shofter showers and limit
but it doesn't sink in until you see a bar chaft showing that your city's water use is two times higher than [that ofl att the rest of them. We separate water data by residential and commercial/industrial uses so we can analyze trends, and that makes a reat dif-
lawn watering. But you don't need to be hammering people about taking shorter showers in New York state, where the water suppty is ptentifut. There's no one-size-fits-all approach. The best use of data responds to a region's clirhate and varies over time, considering the season's drought condition.
ference, too. lt's one thing to look at the total water
consumption in a city and try and normalize it, and another to show what's actua[[y coming out of the tap per household or per capita. MERRTLL: Most states have regutations based on
engineering standards that estimate how many gallons of water per day will be used by a residential,
commercial, or industrial development. For example, in Massachusetts, if you're building a single-family home, the number is rro gattons (416 titers) per bedroom per day. So ifyou have a three-bedroom house, they would estimate that your house might use 33o gallons (r,z5o liters) of water per day. For commercial uses, when they're doing the planning of new facilities, the proponent of the project uses similar standards to estimate how much water will be used daily. Project proponents can then go to the water authority and say, "We think we need X number of ga[[ons a day" for the project. However,
the new reality is that regulatory standards are often very conservative, and due to peak demand pricing and emerging water-saving and metering techniques that improve measuring of the time and votume of water use, homes and businesses are often using less water than they used to and lower levels than the standards estimate. STTGGE: Most states and regions in drought-prone
areas have a tiered regulatory process whereby they grade the current leveI of drought, from no drought
condition to severe drought. Depending on the level of drought, different degrees of water conseryation are required. The key thing is to disseminate that
information to the public as clearly as possibte, but only as necessary. Just understanding groundwaterlevel aquifer depletion, or understanding the level of the reservoirs, can have a big impact on people's water use when these levels are low. For example, Georgia was in a very severe drought situation
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What water-saving strateg¡es shou¡d individual pr¡vate developers be embrac¡ng more?
=
ì
BoNtcH: Because the amount of water infrastructure required for new development is often based on out-of-date historicaI data, the costs to.build that infrastructure are higher than they need to be. Residual land value can be driven way down by infrastructure costs. lf your new buitding witt use onty half as much water as the same buitding constructed ten years ago, the sewer pipe and the water pipe could be hatf as big. D.evelopers could be more proactive and ask their design teams, "ls that the infrastructure we reatly need, or is that just the infrastructure lcalted for by] the city code created 4o years ago?" But time is money, and it would take a lot of time and effort for a developer to go to the city and ask the city to change those standards. MERRTLL: For an urban developer constructing a
high-rise or mixed-use buitding, instalting highty efficient plumbing fixtures that meet LEED [the U.S. Green Building Councit's Leadership in Energy and
water by redùcing irrigation requirements, protect drinking water sources from potlution associated with stormwater runoff, replenish groundwater through infittratiän, and create a beautiful public realm that increases property values. Because they capture stormwater, these landscapes can drasticatly reduce irrigation costs and stormwater fees.
work with are very
srrGGE: The best developers attuned to their customers, their climate, their region, and their local potiticat situation. When you're attuned to your climate, you naturally select plantings that require minimal watering, and you I
naturally setect fronl the wide range of tow-ftow fixturésrthat are availabte. To my mind, the biggest saviâgs are possibte with discretionary water use in the landscaping. I work with developers in ptaces like lndia and Africa, where projects require
Environmental Design rating systeml standards is
on-site wastewater treatment. And'most projects in
probably the most impoftant strategy. For a developer of a master-planned community, not onty are the fixtures important, but also the policies that govern how homeowners can use water for their lawns and how water is disposed of after use. Many
lndia are required by law to incorporate rainwater haruesting. So in a way, some developing countries are forced to be on the cutting edge because of the [imitations of their cities' sewer systems and drink-
master-planned communities wi[[ now use treated wastewater and recaptured rainwater for irrigation. CARTER: [Private devetopers should embrace lowmaintenance] drought-toterant native [andscapes
that incorporate stormwater best management practices. ln the Twin Cities, nearly one quarter of our drinking water is used for irrigation. Devetopers should embrace landscapes that conserve potabte
ing water networks. ln the United States, the best projects have a responsible landscape ptan that has
the appropriate amount of irrigation.
What other ¡ssues related to water should more people know about? BoNrcH: Electricity and natural gas are regulated by the federal government, but water and sewer. systems are regulated tocally. So I might convince a
water district to adopt the right conservation standards and to project future water use based on the assumption that new homes really are going to use less water. But then in the next town, I have to start all over explaining these issues to the water district there. lt woutd be great if we could get federal legistation that requires uttra-low-ftow fixtures or limits outdoor landscape irrigation, but water is regulated by tocal municipaI ordinance.
srrccE:
Completed in zoro, the Student Services Building at the University ofTexas at Dallas has water-conserving features such as automatic sensors in faucets, dualflush toilets, and low-flow
urinals. Iandscaping is drought-tolerant and uses indigenous plants.
I've studied water systems extensivety
around the world, and my assessment is that the use of potabte water in buitdings can be reduced by
about zo or 30 percent just by using water-saving technologies. But the totaI amount of water used for human activities in buildings, tike drinking, bathing, and washing, is relatively small. We actually eat more water than we drink: according to the U.S. Department of Agricutture, nearly 8o percent of water is used for agricultural uses across the United States. So to reatty conserue water, we have to address the agricultural sector. MERRTLL: Many metropolitan water authorities are
serving more people with less water than they ever have, because of att the water-saving technologies and strategies now available. lf everybody in a community or region had low-flow toilets and low-ftow showerheads, that would greatly reduce water consumption. The biggest impact comes from many people making a small change. UR
oN
N
y
RE
N is a freelance architecture and urban planning writer
based in the San Francisco Bay area.
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