Water-saving efforts evaporated too soon

October 23, 2007
By Matt Kempner, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Four years after metro Atlanta called for conservation measures that were supposed to ease water needs, there's been no metrowide accounting of how much water has been saved. Nor are there requirements for actual reductions.

And critics say some of the most important steps called for in a regional plan —- retrofitting older homes with low-flow fixtures and raising billing rates for water hogs —- have yet to be fully implemented or have been watered down in some communities.

"There's a lot of smoke and mirrors," said Sally Bethea, executive director of the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, an environmental advocacy group. "With most of the water conservation programs, they are just going through the motions. They are talking the talk, but they are not following through to make sure we are really saving water."

In 2003, a board of local officials and state appointees created plans to ensure metro Atlanta had enough water through the year 2030. The 16-county region could make it, the board of the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District said, but it warned that anything less than aggressive conservation would cause the area to run out of water early.

Brad Currey, a retired chief executive of packaging company Rock-Tenn, whom the governor recently appointed to the district board, said creation of the water plan was a major step. But implementation is another matter.

"Nobody gets an A or a B. At best, we get a C," Currey said. "Nonetheless, we are pecking away at it."

Some billing rates don't go up enough to discourage excess water use, and "nothing much has happened" to retrofit the metro area's estimated million-plus older homes with water-saving faucets and toilets, he said.

Currey cited one of the top recommendations the district made in 2003: requiring installation of low-flow fixtures before pre-1993 homes could be sold.

The state Legislature let the proposal die in 2005. People in the real estate industry fought the measure and similar ones since, saying the proposals would create barriers to home sales and raise questions about liability if homes are wrongly certified as in compliance.

"We suggest you don't go after people just for selling their homes," Keith Hatcher, the Georgia Association of Realtors' senior political consultant, said recently.

But Seth Harp, a Republican state senator from near Columbus, said the retrofit requirements could have eased some pain during the current drought.

"Realtors succeeded in killing the bill we had that would have saved millions of gallons a day. And now they are paying the piper," said Harp, who pledges to introduce the legislation again.

Other retrofit ideas —- such as water utilities offering rebates for water-efficient toilets —- have taken years to put in place.

Cobb County plans to offer up to a $100 credit on water bills for newly installed miserly toilets in older homes and commercial buildings. Originally slated to begin in January, officials now hope to start it by Nov. 1 because of the drought.

But in Gwinnett County, "we haven't spent a lot of time focusing on it," said Jim Scarbrough, the technical assistant to the county's water resources director. "We are not taking it fast right now at all."

Significant retrofit programs can cost millions of dollars spread over a period of years, Scarbrough said. "We just haven't figured out how to make it work."

Still, Gwinnett's overall water conservation efforts "are fairly aggressive," he said, citing conservation tips posted on the county's Web site and mailed with water bills.

To be sure, the state has a big water-conservation measure in place now because of the drought: a ban on most outdoor watering. And had longer-range conservation measures been enacted earlier, metro Atlanta still would be in serious trouble, both water officials and critics say.

Georgia Environmental Protection Division Director Carol Couch blames the troubles on the record drought, expectations for a dry winter, a time when reservoirs normally refill, and an increase in federal releases from Lake Lanier and Lake Allatoona.

"We are not here because we consumed our way into this drought," Couch said.

But even as the state blames federal reservoir releases, metro Atlanta hasn't followed its own guidelines for saving water.

One step the water district considers crucial is "conservation pricing." Such a rate structure aims to jack up water rates enough that people cut back on unnecessary uses.

The district reports that more than 90 percent of area residents now fall under such pricing structures. But even some water system officials question whether some of the rates are structured sufficiently to cut demand.

"I think a lot don't," said Pete Frost, executive director of the Douglasville-Douglas County Water and Sewer Authority. Frost said his system will shift its pricing soon to comply with guidelines set by the planning district.

The district recommends at least three tiers of price, with the most expensive rates at least double those of the cheapest. The most expensive rates would be aimed at the highest 5 percent to 10 percent of customers, who typically use 10 percent to 20 percent of all water, according to the district.

But water officials get lots of complaints when they increase rates.

Nonetheless, Mark Crisp, who has worked on rate structures as a consultant to water systems, sees shortcomings in local prices. He cites, for example, DeKalb County's pricing. According to the county's Web site, its highest rate kicks in only for amounts above 40,000 gallons a month, which is nearly seven times more than typical use for a single-family home. Even then, DeKalb's rates don't go up as much as the district recommends. DeKalb's commissioners are expected to vote as early as today on changing the rate structure, a county spokeswoman said.

Even the stiffest conservation pricing structures have their limits, said Amy Vickers, a water conservation consultant and author from Amherst, Mass.

"The highest water users —- many of us call them abusers —- are often the most affluent people in the community," she said. "Those people are very price insensitive and don't care what the price of water is."

Local officials also are supposed to be reducing the huge, unaccounted-for water losses from their systems.

Eighteen percent of water in systems disappears without being recorded by customer meters, according to district data from several years ago. Some is water from hydrants to fight fires or used as part of water treatment plant operations. But some is wasted in pipeline leaks.

David Word, a senior planner on water issues for the Atlanta Regional Commission, said he has heard that some communities have made dramatic progress in reducing leaks. But so far, there hasn't been a metro-wide accounting of which areas have done better and which haven't.

By late next year, the district is slated to document how well all its water conservation measures have worked, including how much water actually has been saved, he said.

When he was the Georgia EPD's assistant director, Word reviewed the district's initial plan for conservation. He said he doesn't recall why it didn't require specific reductions by each local government.

But he said the plan was strong and he is "incredibly impressed by what has been done to carry it out."

Still, "there's a lot of work we need to do to refine it and do better as we go along," he said. "If we conclude it's not effective, we are going to change it to be effective."

That's fine, said Bethea of the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper. But there have to be mandates and deadlines for governments to make substantive reductions, she said.

Slow-working voluntary conservation measures won't be enough, she said. "I just don't think metro Atlanta can wait that long."