A pioneering, conservation-oriented practice of the Community Water Co. is letting consumers compare their monthly water usage to neighborhood and company averages on the company’s Web site.
After Community Water works out the bugs, the practice is likely to be embraced by several other Tucson-area water utilities in January. If their experience is positive, it
may become a national model for encouraging conservation.
Since May, Community Water has posted on its Web site, www.communitywater.com, a 13-month water usage history for each customer, accessible only through the account number. Many utility bills already show month-by-month use, and some show weather data as well.
What’s different about Community Water’s Web site is that it also makes available averages for about 650 of each customer’s neighbors for comparable types of residences--single-family, duplex and triplexes, or multi-family--and for all residences in the utility, which has about 9,500 customers.
Customers can access the average water use figures in their neighborhood, but not the individual records of any other customer.
Innovative tool
The Water on the Web program, as it is known, has drawn praise from Val Little, manager of Water CASA, the Water Conservation Alliance of Southern Arizona. Community Water is a member of Water CASA, along with the Marana, Oro Valley, Metro Water, Flowing Wells and Avra Valley water utilities.
“Its extremely innovative. We think it’s an excellent tool, a relatively inexpensive way to present a huge amount of information to water customers.
“Before we did this pilot, we looked and asked around...and were not able to find anything like this anywhere in the country,” Little said.
“We think this has tremendous potential for water savings. If people look at their usage patterns month by month and compare themselves with others in their neighborhoods, they might spot trends, leaks, find out if something is wrong. They might look at water usage and make lifestyle changes,” Little said.
Water on the Web is the brainchild of Community Water Controller Arturo Gabaldón, who said he was inspired by stock market figures listed in daily newspapers, which allow investors to compare the performances of various stocks over time.
Conservation awareness
“We stole [the idea] from the finance world. Past performance [in water usage] is not necessarily an indicator of future performance, but it can build an awareness of how people are using their water,”
Gabaldón said.
“It’s like looking at the Dow saying ‘I own these stocks or use water this way, but how are other people using it?” I am trying to apply those ideas to people with water. We find that when people are more aware of water issues, they are more conservative,”
Gabaldón said.
Community Water, a consumer-owned cooperative, serves a population of about 16,000 at 9,500 accounts in the areas roughly between Duval Mine Road on the north, Mission Twin Buttes on the south.
When Community Water brought the idea to Water CASA, the consortium decided it made sense to do the pilot project in Green Valley “because the neighborhoods there are so homogeneous. We will [expand] this to the members of Water CASA probably starting the first of the year,” Little said.
That uniformity means homeowners can compare themselves to neighbors with similar-sized homes and yards, Little said. Water CASA’s other member utilities have about 120,000 customers, Little said.
The region’s largest water utility, Tucson Water, has about 675,000 customers. It is not planning to make any changes in its bills for at least six months, but at that time may consider adding
system wide averages for various categories of residential users, Tucson Water spokesman Gwen Goodman said.
The Water on the Web program cost about $10,000 and was funded by half by a grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and half by Water CASA, Little said. Most of the costs are related to developing and maintaining the Web site .
Little acknowledged there is no hard evidence that such an information system will decrease water consumption, but said, “Intuitively you have to assume that if someone has more information, certainly they will not use more water as a result of what they find out. If someone is paying attention to water use, they will only become more efficient.”
Community Water President Mike Weber said “we are very proud of it. It is the first site of its kind that we know of. We feel we have a leg up on many larger water providers in terms of the Web site and the information we disseminate to our customers. It’s just one more step in the right direction.”
Customers who have above-average water consumption compared to the others in their category are given water-conservation tips when they go to the Web site.
Gabaldón said, “In Green Valley people are very aware and conscientious about their water use. One of the reason is the people here in Green Valley come from diverse backgrounds, some from places where water was something very consciously thought about, some from places like Minnesota, with many lakes and much water and their comment is that water is pretty darn cheap down here.”
“I don’t believe many people are wasting water, even the high water users. Part of the reason for comparisons is to give thought as to why you are using water--some grow plants and we are very proud of them,”
Gabaldón said.
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