Fred Merrill in Urban Land

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tutlook for

\ /aler eorìseryalron iIOW CAN WE RESHAPE THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT TO

1JSE

that want to improve their environmental footprint, especially smalter cities that don't necessarity have the resources themselves to create a plan of action.

IESS WATER?

There are simitar programs in other states

RON NYREN ExpEnrs Dtscuss covERNMENT poLtctES that hetp or hinder water conservation in the buitt environment, the role of water avaitabitity and consumption data in raising awareness and shaping behavior, strategies that developers should employ to reduce the waste of water, and other factors inftuencing water use,

What are good strateg¡es that state and/ or municipal governments can implement to encourage water conservation?

LAURA BoNtcH: Catifornia is leadingthe way. [lt] has passed two landmark pieces of legistation in the past couple ofyears. The new green buitding

to soak in. lf you're in a water-restricted area-say, the Southwest-you might not even be altowed to water your lawn. ln some cases, water companies will actually pay homeowners and businesses to rip

code, CALGreen, limits what kind of plumbing fixtures can be put in homes in new developments. So instead of a 2.5-gatlon-per-minute (g titers) shower-

up lawns and replace them with xeriscapes, which require minimaI water. Also, in a lot of cities and towns, the municipal pipes that move water thrbugh

head, for example, you're only allowed a two-gallonper-rninute (B liters) showerhead. As a resutt, all

the system are so leaky that sometimes 20 to 30. percent of [it] never makes it out io the coniumers. So cities are doing a lot of work to find those leaks and stop them.

new deùetopment in Catifornia is using 50 percent of the water used by homes built before the tegista-

tion took effect. Another piece of legislation, which takes effect in zot7, wilt require that every time a

FRED MERRTLL: Some locat governments have

differential pricing. The water authority knows how much you should use in your house, without being too wasteful, and they'tt give you a good deal on

that amount of water, but as you start to use more than that, the price per gallon goes way up. People really pay attention to their monthty water bill. ln hot weather, during the day, when you shouldn't be watering your lawn, the water authority might charge businesses and residents a higher rate for water use to encourage peopte to water the lawn in the evenings and at night, when the water has a chance

that pro-

vide assistance and recognition.

RtcK cARTER: At the municipaI scale, it is best to take a holistic approach that integrates efficient. water supply systems with demand-side conserya-

home buitt before ry94 is sold, the indoor fixtures will have to bç retrofitted to meet the CALGreen code. So our existing water infrastructure is going to be able to serve more new development than ever.

tion techniques and effective stormwater and wastewater practices. ln Minnesota, we have a program catled GreenStep Cities. There are z9 besf practices that cities can foltow to become a GreenStep City, and they range from energy-efficiency initiatíves io

How do regulations and policies

sometimes get ¡n the way of water conservat¡on?

measures for investing in better transportation systems to water-related actions such as demand-side

pyRoN srloóe, When it

.or., a agricultural

u$ep of water, the opportunities for savings are

conservation. GreenStep Cities is designed for cities

eriormous. But most states in the West have water rights laws that are based on how long you have had the rights to use the water. And if you don't use the water that you have allocated to your agricul-

CONTRIBUTTNG THEIR INSIGHTS:

tural or industrial use, your allocation is reduced. So this incentivizes consumption of water regardless of the water supply. ln regard to the built environment, my firm does a lot of work in developing

countries Iike Mexico, lndia, and [those in] Africa. ln these places, it is common practice to use recycled

(alter,

[aura Bonich, v¡ce

Rick

president, NV5 Engineering,

design team leader, LHB,

Jackson, Wyoming; member,

Minneapolis, Minnesota

integrative

Community Development (ouncil (Silver Flisht)

76

URBAN LAND

SEPTEM BER,/OCTOBER 2O16

Fred Merrill, principat,

Byron Stigge, tounder,

Sasaki Associates, Watertown, Massachusetts; member,

lnfrastructure, New York City; member, Responsible Property

Sustainable Development

lnvestment Council

Council

Levet

water, both from rainwater and treated wastewater. Singapore is even mixing smalt amounts of recycled water into its drinking water suppty. The regulatory environment in the United States is not as open to

these kinds of solutions. But for regions beginning to experience severe drought, these regulations may need to be rethought.

cARTER: Too many poticies and laws actually encourage more water consumption. For exampte, until not that long ago, waterless urinals were not legal in Minnesota. This year, the state finalty adopted a plumbing code that regutates rainwater harvesting for indoor use, but outdoor reuse for irrigation is still unregulated. Without clear and effective guidetines for proven systems, designers, building owners, and code officials struggle with

effectively implementing them in projects. Also, some cities have rules for the buitt environment that require landscaping of a kind that can't thríve without a significant amount of irrigation. That means the law is essentially requiring people to use more water than they should be.

BoNrcH: ln the last five years, the technologies available for understanding how much water cities consume have gotten much better. But municipat and state governments haven't necessarily taken into account the effect that conservation technologies have had on water use. A lot ofthe infrastructure that's being designed and the master ptanning being done relies on ten years of historical water use data as an indicator of how much water a new development will use. But that's not a good indicator anymore, because so much has changed in the last few years. So a lot of municipalíties are stilt overptanning their future infrastructure requirements. We need to shift the investment in infra-

structure. lf we can build smalter potabte water and wastewater systems, and instead spend those dollars building reclaimed water systems, that would make a bíg difference.

What âre the best ways to use data about availability and use of water to encourage conservation? cARTER: To track the progress of cities involved in the GreenStep Cities program, we started the Regional lndicators lnitiative in Minnesota. We gather data about energy, water, vehicle miles traveled, and waste. Then we analyze it and present it in a way that people can grasp. The way we present the data on the Regional lndicators website graphicatly shows the consumption of water and other

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2O16

URBAN LAND

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