AGENDA REPORT
Meeting Date:
Item Number:
To:
From:
Subject'
Attachments:
December 6, 2022
E-10
Honorable Mayor & City Council
Robert Welch PE, Utilities General Manager
METROPOLITAN WATER DISTRICT'S COLORADO RIVER
MUNICIPAL CONSERVATION MEMORANDUM OF
UNDERSTANDING
1. Memorandum of Understanding Cover Letter
2. Memorandum of Understanding
RECOMMENDATION
Staff is recommending that City Council move to join Metropolitan Water District's (MWD) Colorado River Municipal Conservation Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
The purpose of the MOU is to show basin-wide collaboration and demonstrate a commitment to reducing reliance on the Colorado River.
INTRODUCTION
Metropolitan Water District recognizes worsening conditions on the Colorado River. On August 24, 2022, MWD joined with six (6) other municipal water providers (Aurora Water, Colorado Springs Utilities, Denver Water, Pueblo Water, Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Southern Nevada Water Authority) in the Colorado River Basin and signed an MOU pledging increased conservation actions within their service area (Attachment 1 and 2). The purpose of the MOU is to show basin-wide collaboration and demonstrate that urban water users are committed to reducing their reliance on the Colorado River. MWD is encouraging all member agencies, including the City of Beverly Hills, to sign on to the MOU, pledging the same commitment.
DISCUSSION
MWD, along with six (6) other organizations within the Colorado River basin have signed or are in the process of signing an MOU detailing their commitment to continued water conservation, reducing their water demands, and expanding their efforts to reuse and recycle water supplies. In the cover letter (Attachment 1) sent to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, they expressed their understanding that municipal water use represents only a small fraction of the total Colorado River water use, but progress needs all
Meeting Date: December 6, 2022
organizations moving in the same direction to be effective. The MOU highlights five (5) actions the group is committing to implementing:
1. Continue and expand programs to increase indoor and outdoor water use efficiency.
2. Introduce a program to reduce the quantity of non-functional turf grass by 30% through replacement with drought and climate-resilient landscaping while maintaining vital urban landscapes and tree canopies that benefit our communities, wildlife and the environment.
3. Increase water reuse and recycling programs where feasible, contingent on the dependability and security of existing Colorado River supplies essential to support these efforts.
4. Implement best practices and sharing lessons learned to help one another accelerate our efficiency strategies. Water providers will select from the following approaches those tactics best tailored to preserve thriving communities, environmental health and strong economies:
a. Transforming our outdoor landscapes and urban environments in a manner that improves climate resilience and promotes an ethic of wise water use through mandatory watering schedules and compliance enforcement, incentivized turf removal, and limitations on new turf; b. Increasing efficiency of indoor fixtures and appliances; c. Employing best practices for industrial processes and commercial operations, including minimization of evaporative cooling; d. Adopting conservation-oriented rate structures to incentivize efficiency; e. Accelerating water loss control by prioritizing supply considerations in asset management programs and exploring water loss control regulations to minimize water loss;
f. Improving coordination between land use and water planning efforts through improved processes, best management practices and additional regulations, where appropriate; and
g. Employing other strategies tailored to the unique needs of each community.
5. Collaborate with other water users in the Colorado River basin to bring the supply and use of the river into balance.
At the November 10, 2022, Public Works Commission meeting, the Commission unanimously recommended City Council move to join MWD's MOU pledging increased conservation action within the service area.
FISCAL IMPACT
There does not appear to be a fiscal impact associated with Joining MWD's MOU at this time. There could be financial impacts to pursuing new programs based on the above commitments.
Shana Epstein,
Director of Public Works
Approved By
Attachment 1
Aurora Water
Colorado Springs Utilities
Denver Water
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Pueblo Water
Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District
Southern Nevada Water Authority
August 24, 2022
Commissioner Touton
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
1849CSt., NW
Washington, DC 20240-0001
SUBJECT: MUNICIPAL CONSERVATION ACTIONS
Dear Commissioner Touton,
The Colorado River sustains hundreds of communities throughout the West, nourishing the lives and livelihoods of the millions of residents that rely on this essential water supply. Decades of drought, climate change and overuse have reduced the river's once-plentiful flows and upended the supply certainty that has allowed our communities to develop, grow and flourish. Like you, we recognize that achieving balance within the basin is an extraordinary and complex challenge that requires both swift and significant steps to protect the river and its many beneficiaries.
Answering this critical call to action requires individual and collective efforts to conserve the river's limited water supply and protect the vital environmental resources on which we depend.
Innovation, action, adaptation, and a shared commitment to stewardship are fundamental steps in this journey and a responsibility we all share.
The signatories of this letter have either approved the enclosed Memorandum of Understanding or are in the process of seeking consideration and approval of the MOU or similar water conservation commitments by their appropriate governing bodies. The Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District in Colorado, as a wholesale provider of water to municipalities within its district, supports the commitments in the MOU through the separate letter enclosed.
Our organizations recognize our role in the effort to reduce demands in the Colorado River basin. We come together from across the basin to pledge our commitment to continued water conservation, to reducing our demands for water, and to expanding our efforts to reuse and recycle our water supplies. While we have significantly reduced demands since the onset of the drought, there is more we can and must accomplish.
Achieving the protection storage volumes needed to preserve water and hydropower operations within the Colorado River basin cannot be met by a singular country, basin, state, or water use sector. While municipal water use represents only a small fraction of total Colorado River water use, progress begins with one and then many until we are all moving in the same direction.
We recognize that there is much good we can do if we move toward the same goal and at the pace required. We also understand the consequences of inaction. To that end, we are developing prudent municipal water conservation actions that every community that relies on the Colorado River should be using. In the coming months we will describe the steps our organizations will take now and codify our commitment to continued effort as we work to ensure our river and the communities it serves continue to thrive. We sincerely hope our commitment to action inspires other stakeholders that share the river to do the same.
Sincerely,
Aurora Water
Marshall Brown, General Manager
Denver Water
James 8. Lochhead, Chief Executive Officer
Pueblo Water
Seth Clayton, Executive Director
Colorado Springs Utilities
Aram Benyamin, Chief Executive Officer
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Adel Hagekhalil, General Manager
Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District
James W. Broderick, Executive Director
Southern Nevada Water Authority
John J. Entsminger, General Manager
Attachment 2
Memorandum of Understanding
by and among Colorado River Basin Municipal and Public Water Providers August 24, 2022
Over the past two decades, the Colorado River basin has experienced the worst drought in the last 1,200 years, which has reduced storage levels in Lakes Powell and Mead to unprecedented and critical levels. Water users throughout the basin must reduce demands to bring supply and use back into balance.
For over 20 years, communities have adapted to persistent and intensifying drought and reduced water supplies by achieving significant efficiencies in water use through direct and Indirect conservation programs, including improved technology for indoor water fixtures, changes to landscapes and watering practices, conservation-oriented rates and fees, reuse and recycling programs, marketing and education campaigns, and efficient land use and development policies. Yet, climate change and the resulting hydrological shifts we are experiencing require all water users in the basin to redouble our efforts to conserve our water resources.
Our customers have demonstrated their commitment to conserving our essential water resources by reducing per capita water use by the following amounts since 2000.
Aurora Water - 36%
Denver Water - 36%
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California - 33% Pueblo Water-32%
Southern Nevada Water Authority - 39%
Together, since 2000 we have decreased annual water use by 1,153,000 acre-feet while also adding 3.7 million people to our communities.
Much of this savings has been achieved through indoor and outdoor water use efficiencies.
Recognizing that a clean, reliable water supply is critical to our communities, we can and must do more to reduce water consumption and increase reuse and recycling within our service areas. We pledge to be part of the solution.
Specifically, we commit to take the following actions:^
1. Continue and expand our programs to increase indoor and outdoor water use efficiency.
2. Introduce a program to reduce the quantity of non-functional turf grass by 30% through replacement with drought- and climate-resilient landscaping, while maintaining vital urban landscapes and tree canopies that benefit our communities, wildlife, and the environment.
^ Water wholesalers, including The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, do not have regulatory authority over the use of water by end users and may only commit to develop incentive programs and model ordinance language to provide assistance to their Member Agencies in support of the phase out of non-functional turf within their service areas to help achieve this goal.
3. Increase water reuse and recycling programs where feasible, contingent on the dependability and security of our existing Colorado River supplies essential to support these efforts.
4. Implement best practices and sharing lessons learned to help one another accelerate our efficiency strategies. Water providers will select from the following approaches those tactics best tailored to preserve thriving communities, environmental health, and strong economies:
a. Transforming our outdoor landscapes and urban environments in a manner that improves climate resilience and promotes an ethic of wise water use through mandatory watering schedules and compliance enforcement, incentivized turf removal, and limitations on new turf;
b. Increasing efficiency of indoor fixtures and appliances; c. Employing best practices for industrial processes and commercial operations, including minimization of evaporative cooling;
d. Adopting conservation-oriented rate structures to incentivize efficiency; e. Accelerating water loss control by prioritizing supply considerations in asset management programs and exploring water loss control regulations to minimize water loss;
f. Improving coordination between land use and water planning efforts through improved processes, best management practices, and additional regulations, where appropriate; and
g. Employing other strategies tailored to the unique needs of each community.
5. Collaborate with other water users in the Colorado River basin to bring the supply and use of the river into balance. A robust agricultural economy, healthy watersheds, opportunities to recreate, and vibrant communities are all vital to our western way of life.
No one sector, nor one state, can achieve sufficient use reductions independently. For the sake of current and future generations, we all must work together to achieve a balance of supply and use and thereby preserve a functioning and healthy river system.
Aurora Water Denver Water
Marshall Brown, General Manager James S. Lochhead, Chief Executive Officer The Metropolitan Water District of Southern Pueblo Water California Adel Hagekhalil, General Manager Seth Clayton, Executive Director Southern Nevada Water Authority
John J. Entsminger, General Manager