Sunday, July 16, 2000
Abilene looks at other cities
for water conservation models
By Sidney Schuhmann
Reporter-News Staff Writer
When it comes to conserving water, most
cities in dry areas try a menu of ways to convince customers to
save every drop.
Water-smart classes, billboards, television
commercials, rebates and higher water rates are a few of the ways
cities in Texas are pushing residents to conserve water. Some
cities, such as San Antonio, Austin and Corpus Christi, have successful
programs that served as conservation models for Abilene.
“A lot of different communities take
a lot of different approaches to it,” said Linda Simpson,
assistant director of Abilene’s water utilities. “And
those were the cities that we looked at carefully.”
Corpus Christi
Although Corpus Christi’s drought plan
has not been activated since 1997, officials are still encouraging
water conservation, said Yolanda Marraffo, a public education
specialist for the city’s water department.
Free residential water saver kits are available,
and last summer the city launched a “Beat the Peak”
media campaign with billboards and radio and television commercials
urging residents to avoid watering during peak consumption hours
— the hottest parts of the day.
“We have seen little watering during
the peak hours of the day, which we feel is the result of education,”
Marraffo said.
Abilene is starting its own media campaign
using the slogan “Defeat the Drought.” And like Corpus
Christi, the city plans to distribute drought survival kits.
Phoenix
Another model of conservation is Phoenix,
known as the “Valley of the Sun.”
Large facilities such as parks, golf courses
and cemeteries in Phoenix have limits on the amount of water they
can use, and the city works with businesses to curb their water
use. Phoenix residents are encouraged to use low-flow plumbing
fixtures and to xeriscape their yards, employing plants and irrigation
methods that require less water.
Phoenix also uses weather data to help residents
avoid over-watering their lawns. Outdoor watering accounts for
about half of Abilene’s summertime consumption, Simpson said.
In Phoenix, a network of weather stations
that monitor atmospheric conditions collect data to determine
the amount of water Phoenix landscapes need to remain healthy.
Farmers originally used the evapotranspiration information, but
now it’s being put to use for residential lawn watering.
Evapotranspiration is the transfer of moisture
from the earth to the atmosphere through the evaporation of water
and transpiration from plants.
A three-day lawn watering guide based on
evapotranspiration data is published in the Phoenix newspaper
and people can adjust their automated sprinkler systems to keep
their lawns healthy, said Tom Babcock, lead water resource specialist
for the city.
Another program the Arizona city uses to
conserve water is called “Neighbors Helping Neighbors.”
High school students learn plumbing by fixing leaks in low-income
neighborhoods. The city started the program four years ago and
has seen positive results, Babcock said.
A similar city program utilizes senior volunteers
to repair leaks.
San Antonio
San Antonio has a similar program that offers
free professional plumbing services to low-income families who
qualify.
Phoenix doesn’t have ordinances that
ban hosing down driveways or restaurants serving unrequested water,
as San Angelo does.
“We prefer to educate and create economically
advantageous (incentives) to do these things,” Babcock said.
Phoenix charges more for water during the
summer months.
But raising water rates during the dry summer
of 1996 didn’t work for San Antonio, whose customers revolted,
said Dana Nichols, water conservation planner for the San Antonio
Water System.
“You can have all the rules in the
world,” she said. “But if people don’t want to
follow them, what are you going to do? People understand that
we have water issues and we don’t need to be wasting water.”
Austin and others
San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Austin and
Abilene all have water rates that reward customers with lower
rates for using less water.
San Antonio and Austin offer economic incentives
in the form of rebates to customers buying low-flow toilets and
shower heads, water-conserving washing machines and xeriscape
vegetation. Austin residents can earn up to $500 in rebates for
planting trees, grasses and shrubs that don’t use much water.
Both cities are discouraging residents from
planting St. Augustine grass, which needs frequent watering. Instead
they are promoting more drought-tolerant grasses such as Bermuda
and buffalo.
“You can’t kill Bermuda if you
try,” Nichols said. “We’re trying to get people
away from thinking they have to have a bright green lawn in July.”
Maintaining a perfectly green lawn is inflating
the summer water bills of some Austin residents, said Tony Gregg,
the city’s water conservation manager. Instead, the city
encourages residents to store rainwater.
“Our long-term goal is to reduce usage
so we can delay building future water plants,” he said. “Just
about every summer, there’s a drought.”
Contact staff writer Sidney Schuhmann
at 676-6721 or schuhmanns@abinews.com.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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