CWA endorses Water Conservation Summit white paper, calls for strategic plan

The San Diego County Water Authority board endorsed the Water Conservation Summit white paper as the basis for a strategic plan for water conservation and directed CWA staff to return to the board within 90 days of the November 30 action with a comprehensive strategic plan for water conservation.

“I think it is a sound plan, but it is going to require more effort,” said Helix Water District general manager Mark Weston, who co-chaired the Water Conservation Summit planning committee with Mike Uhrhammer of the Padre Dam Municipal Water District.

Uhrhammer prepared the white paper derived from the 2006 Water Conservation Summit held September 29 at the University of San Diego. The County Water Authority and its member agencies hosted the summit, and the planning committee also included four CWA staff members, eight other water district staff members including Fallbrook Public Utility District general manager Keith Lewinger, one City of San Diego staff member, Water Conservation Garden director Marty Eberhardt, and property manager and former CWA director Nora Jaeschke.

The Water Conservation Summit brought together water agencies, land use planning agencies, landscape industry businesses, environmental non-profit groups, growers and nurseries, property managers, developers, planning consultants, and others. A total of 243 individuals participated in the Water Conservation Summit, and their recommendations were used to develop the white paper.

The goal of the water conservation summit is to save more than 100,000 acre feet a year, which includes the existing 45,000 acre feet of conservation but will require an additional 55,000 annual acre feet of savings. The white paper calls for an industry cluster to bring products, plants, and services to the market while land use agencies enact water-efficient landscape ordinances by 2010.

The model ordinance and the industry cluster are two of the six strategies for landscape conservation; the other four are professional education, public education, financial incentives, and ongoing summits.

The model ordinance strategy includes creating a working group, developing a draft ordinance, and coordinating adoption of the ordinance by local agencies while educating affected industries as well as government staff and board members. The industry cluster strategy includes creating a working group, defining opportunities for collaboration, developing performance and quality standards for participating companies, creating a Web site as a resource, and using the industry cluster working group to help create the model ordinance and develop professional certifications.

The professional education strategy includes developing a common approach for landscaper certification, making training available, and promotion of certified landscapers and companies through an online directory. The certification program would provide different levels of difficulty and achievement for different employee levels and

would be taught in both English and Spanish.

The development and implementation of a “California friendly” brand will be part of public education and training as well as part of the financial incentive strategy. The public education working group will meet with large retailers, water districts, gardens, and other educational resources to request participation in the branding program. Water-efficient landscaping will be promoted to county’s homeowners and homebuyers, including the use of professional photographers to feature the aesthetic benefits of water-efficient yards. The public education program will also seek to replace the phrase “water conservation,” which is often associated with emergency situations, with “water efficiency,” educate local residents on water use and drought issues, provide residents with step-by-step approaches for water-efficient landscaping, educate the public on the benefit of hiring certified individuals and companies, develop an awards program for early use of water-efficient landscaping, and develop educational materials and programs to introduce students to water-efficient landscaping. A “one-stop shopping” brochure would be developed, and tours of the Water Conservation Garden along with signage for water-efficient landscaping elsewhere are also part of the public education plans. Online education will also provide information and photographic images.

The financial incentives strategy focuses on making water-efficient design financially viable; potential incentives include a tiered rate structure and water budget based rates which compare actual water use to projected water use for specific landscaping.

The ongoing summit strategy includes creating a planning committee for the 2007 Water Conservation Summit and options for revising and improving the summit’s format. The 2006 summit’s feedback form included requests for improvement and future recommendations; the two most common requests for improvement were longer breakout sessions and more question and answer time although the third-ranking request was for a shorter summit.

The CWA board’s support of the Water Conservation Summit goals also includes support for the CWA as the lead agency to implement the white paper’s recommendations. The CWA will work with industry representatives and others through a Conservation Action Committee. The CWA board’s motion also included hiring and funding a project manager.