Water Target III
Reduce City-Wide Water Consumption by 3% Each Year until 2014
The water usage in City of Bloomington has been projected to increase from an average of 13.1 million gallons per day (mgd) (in year 2000) to 17.2 mgd (in year 2020). Our only source of treated water, Monroe Water Treatment Plant has a capacity of 24 mgd to meet such an increase in demand. However, summer usage has reached 28 mgd due to activities like lawn watering, irrigation, and other outdoor water use. In order to tackle extreme situations like drought we need to conserve water.
Alternate Strategies for Lawn Maintainance are:
- Use of storm water or grey water for lawn watering
- Installation of rain sensors
- Turning off automatic irrigation systems at the end of season
- Decrease run-off to storm drains by properly positioning sprinklers away from the street
The figures of average water use in a non-conserving household are shown in the figure below. Leaking appliances and fixtures consume a large portion of water.
Figure 1: Average Indoor Water Use in a nonconserving home (Water Conservation Plan, 2009, City of Bloomington Utility)
Although improvements in plumbing fixture efficiencies were mandated by the 1992 U.S. Energy Policy Act, new luxury shower systems that use multiple water jets and waterfalls negate the savings of the efficient plumbing fixtures.
Indicators:
- water usage as % of plant capacity
- avg gallons consumed per household or commercial connection