Fiscal Note
Approximately $25,000 is available in the 2008 Water Utility Operating Budget for expenses related to the Conservation and Sustainability Plan. Future year expenses under the Plan will be considered in Water Utility Operating Budgets and rate structure requests with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin.
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Accepting the Conservation and Sustainability Plan of the Madison Water Utility and its recommendations.
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WHEREAS: Madison is fortunate to have abundant supplies of groundwater that if protected and used in a sustainable manner will last long into the future--with proper management, planning and conservation now.
However, if the utility is to meet expanding customer demand every year as the city grows, it has to continually increase its pumping and delivery capacity, and it may eventually have to find additional sources of water if its primary source is overwhelmed. Each increase in capacity and supply costs the utility money to develop and operate, and it is actually cheaper for both the utility and its customers to invest in water efficiency rather than increased supply. Additional benefits of water conservation include improved water quality; a reduced burden on surface water quality, as less wastewater is generated; reduced greenhouse gas emissions due to reduced energy spent on water pumping; and increased spring, stream, and river flows, as less of the groundwater that feeds them is withdrawn.
With these factors in mind, a task force was begun a year ago to address the issue of sustaining the groundwater that supplies Madison’s wells. This task force has studied the issues involved and developed a plan and list of recommendations to insure that Madison can maintain its current rate of water pumping, even with population growth, by reducing per capita usage 20% by the year 2020.
The foundation for being able to maintain the current annual pumping rates, which is the overall goal, is reducing per capita water consumptio...
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