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While Metro Boston is blessed with relatively abundant water supplies (averaging 44 inches of rain per year), there is often a mismatch between supply and demand.  Water suppliers are increasingly finding that their wells produce less water, and a lower quality of water, during summer months, or have seen their reservoirs drop dangerously low.  Even when water is physically available for human uses, its withdrawal from surface or groundwater resources may impact the local environment, native flora and fauna, scenic beauty, and recreation opportunities.  In some cases, municipal well pumping causes the desiccation and degradation of nearby wetlands that purify and store water.  Municipalities seeking additional water to support new growth over the coming decades will find fewer opportunities for new source development, and may find permitting new sources to be time consuming, expensive, and uncertain due to the growing understanding of how water withdrawals affect environmental resources.  

Our current water situation is partly due to local water policies that tend to promise abundance and promote consumption, effectively treating municipal water supply enterprise as if it were a private sector business.  In the face of increasing scarcity and growing understanding of environmental costs, we can no longer think of water as a limitless commodity that should be sold as cheaply as possible.  Water suppliers, municipal officials, and customers must move together toward greater sustainability in our finite water resources.  The solutions may not be easy or immediate, but together the region can reduce water demand so there is sufficient supply for both humans and wildlife.  

There are many strategies that communities can use to reduce water use demand.  Public education is a fundamental prerequisite for the success of water conservation programs, and should be the first strategy implemented.  However, outreach and education are only one component of a comprehensive water demand management program.  Conservation pricing, landscaping irrigation controls, better metering and water accounting, upgrading inefficient plumbing fixtures, and direct water use regulation all require more time, investment, and political commitment than public outreach, but they are essential to success.  

Municipal officials and water suppliers need to adopt a sustainability model similar to those emerging in the energy field, where conservation is seen as an alternative to system expansion.  Because conservation is equivalent to a new source of supply, water suppliers should fund and support conservation programs just as they would a pay for new source engineering services—as part of the cost of doing business, paid for through full-cost water pricing, accounting for both environmental costs and investments in demand management.  Full-cost pricing also requires the establishment of enterprise accounts so that water system revenues are kept separate from general municipal revenues, to avoid cross-subsidies that obscure the true costs of supplying water to the community.  

Peak demand drives the cost of water supply, since water supply systems must be capable of meeting maximum demand under the most extreme circumstances. Dealing with Reducing peak demand also requires participation from all sectors.  Property owners need to curb their summertime demand through low-water landscaping.  Developers and engineers must become skilled in water efficient site design, and advanced irrigation systems. 

11)    Increase public awareness regarding water conservation

12)    Adopt water pricing structures as a primary mechanism to manage water demand

13)    Use full cost pricing and use water revenues to fund conservation programs

14)    Increase the use of low-water landscaping

15)    Provide technical assistance to residents and businesses

16)    Establish and enforce standards and restrictions for outdoor irrigation systems

17)    Establish comprehensive programs to directly regulate water usage during peak periods

18)    Increase incentives for installing water-efficient products