Water Use and Conservation in the CMR Study
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REPORT Calgary Metropolitan Region Board Water Use and Conservation in the Calgary Metropolitan Region Study OCTOBER 2019 CONFIDENTIALITY AND © COPYRIGHT This document is for the sole use of the addressee and Associated Engineering Alberta Ltd. The document contains proprietary and confidential information that shall not be reproduced in any manner or disclosed to or discussed with any other parties without the express written permission of Associated Engineering Alberta Ltd. Information in this document is to be considered the intellectual property of Associated Engineering Alberta Ltd. in accordance with Canadian copyright law. This report was prepared by Associated Engineering Alberta Ltd. for the account of Calgary Metropolitan Region Board. The material in it reflects Associated Engineering Alberta Ltd.’s best judgement, in the light of the information available to it, at the time of preparation. Any use which a third party makes of this report, or any reliance on or decisions to be made based on it, are the responsibility of such third parties. Associated Engineering Alberta Ltd. accepts no responsibility for damages, if any, suffered by any third party as a result of decisions made or actions based on this report. Calgary Metropolitan Region Board TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION PAGE NO. Table of Contents i 1 Introduction 1-1 1.1 Background 1-1 1.2 Project Objective 1-3 1.3 Project Scope of Work 1-3 2 Methodology 2-1 3 Data Collection and Review 3-1 3.1 Water Sources 3-1 3.2 Water Measurement and Consumption 3-5 3.3 Rate Structure 3-8 3.4 Water Use Definition and Scale Normalization 3-9 4 Observed Water Use Trends 4-1 4.1 Historical Population Growth 4-1 4.2 Historical Water Use 4-3 4.3 Estimating Unaccounted for Water 4-5 5 Data Gap Identification 5-1 6 Regulatory OverView 6-1 7 Observed Best Management Practices (In Other Jurisdictions) 7-1 7.1 Canadian Municipalities 7-1 7.2 United States Municipalities 7-4 7.3 Observed BMPs Effectiveness and Hierarchy of Application 7-5 rpt_cmrb_water_use_conserv_study_20191001_rev2.docx \ 8 Existing Water Conservation and Efficiency Efforts in the CMR 8-1 8.1 Existing Water Use Bylaws 8-1 Revision 2 \ 8.2 Water Conservation and Efficiency Measures (Reported from Interviews) 8-2 8.3 Water Conservation Status Evaluation 8-4 Final Report Final \ 9 Opportunities for the CMRB 9-1 10 Stakeholder Engagement 10-1 01.02_Reports Certification Page \ Advisory \ 00_Wtr_Use_Consrv_Sd \ 20193495 \ P: i Calgary Metropolitan Region Board Appendix A – Interview Log Appendix B - Privately Owned Rural Water Co-Ops Appendix C - Population Growth Rates Appendix D - Per Capita Water Use Appendix E - Inventory of Municipal Conservation, Efficiency and Productivity Plans Appendix F - Best Management Practices in Canadian Municipalities Appendix G - Best Management Practices in United States Municipalities Appendix H - Conservation-Oriented Water Pricing ii Calgary Metropolitan Region Board 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background The Municipal Government Act proclaimed the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board Regulation (AR190/2017) which re-instated mandated regional planning for the Calgary area, and established the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board (CMRB) in January 2018. Members of the CMRB include: City of Airdrie, The City of Calgary, City of Chestermere, Town of Cochrane, Foothills County, Town of High River, Town of Okotoks, Rocky View County, Town of Strathmore and a portion of Wheatland County. Figure 1-1 shows the CMRB municipality boundary. The objective of the CMRB is to promote long term sustainability, and the economic well-being of the Calgary Metropolitan Region (CMR), through environmentally responsible land use planning and coordination of regional infrastructure investment and service delivery. Key to planning and servicing new development is availability of water, which is complicated in the Calgary region by the closure of the South Saskatchewan River Basin (which includes most land area from Red Deer south to the Montana border) to any new water license applications. Those applications that were deemed complete when the closure occurred will be processed by the Province of Alberta over time. rpt_cmrb_water_use_conserv_study_20191001_rev2.docx \ Revision 2 \ Final Report Final \ .02_Reports 01 \ Advisory \ 00_Wtr_Use_Consrv_Sd \ 20193495 \ P: 1-1 Calgary Metropolitan Region Board Figure 1-1 Calgary Metropolitan Region Board – Municipality Boundary1 1 Figure 1-1 Retrieved From: https://www.calgarymetroregion.ca/about 1-2 1 - Introduction 1.2 Project Objective Water conservation and efficiency are key to supporting sustainable growth in the CMR. The main objectives of the Water Use and Conservation Study are to define existing water consumption across the region, and to develop a common understanding of water conservation and efficiency that each community can use to improve their water conservation programs. For communities that lack water conservation programs, this information will assist in developing such programs with the collaboration of other municipalities in CMR. A key deliverable of this project was to develop a normalized and practical “definition” for water use tracking across the various municipalities within the CMR. This collective information will inform data gaps, areas for potential improvement, further discussion and collaboration opportunities amongst the municipalities, and future policy development surrounding water conservation and efficiency opportunities. 1.3 Project Scope of Work The key steps undertaken by the Associated Engineering’s (AE) project team are indicated below. Task 1 – Project Kickoff Meeting Task 2 – Information Gathering Task 3 – Review Water Use Data Task 4 – Examples of Water Conservation Best Practices Task 5 – Status Evaluation Task 6 – Reporting Task 7 – Project Management and Meetings Two interim reports were submitted to the CMRB for commentary, and have been incorporated into this final report, Water Use and Conservation in the Calgary Metropolitan Region Study. • Interim Report #1: Water Use and Normalization (covered Tasks 2 and 3)1 o Submitted on July 4, 2019. • Interim Report #2: Water Conservation Status Evaluation (covered Tasks 4 and 5)2 o Submitted on July 23, 2019. 1 Task 2: Information Gathering, Task 3: Review Water Use Data 2 Task 4: Examples of Water Conservation Best Practices, Task 5: Status Evaluation 1-3 Calgary Metropolitan Region Board 2 METHODOLOGY The first step of the Water Use and Conservation Study was to collect background information and review water use data. This provided a basis to understand current water use and an overview of the information being collected, tracked and monitored. The following information was provided by the CMRB: • Municipal Context Reports (dated February 15, 2019). • Demand Management – Data Requirements Questionnaire (dated March 14, 2019). Municipality Specific Information: • Historical Population and Water Consumption Data. • Public Notices regarding Water Rates. • Public Notices regarding Water Conservation Initiatives. • Water Conservation Study Reports. • Water Use Bylaws. Where information was not provided or made available from the municipalities, supplementary information was obtained through municipality websites; however, as data gaps still exist, these are identified and discussed further in Section 5. Once the recorded data was reviewed, interviews were conducted with each municipality on their current methods on measuring water use, water conservation and efficiency measures, existing water use regulations and bylaws, and rate structure. These interviews with municipalities took place from May 30, 2019 to June 20, 2019 via phone. A log of interview questions and responses is attached in Appendix A. The following summarises the requests that were made of each municipality: • Annual Water Consumption Data (m3) for the past 10 years (2008 to 2018): o Divided by “type” of user, i.e., Residential, Commercial, Irrigation, etc. • Annual Population and/or Population Growth Rate. • Annual Water Production Data (m3) for water treatment plants (WTPs) that are owned and operated by the municipality or Annual Water Volume Data (m3) purchased from an adjacent municipality, for the past 10 years rpt_cmrb_water_use_conserv_study_20191001_rev2.docx \ (2008 to 2018). • Additional clarifications regarding Water Rate Structures, Water Conservation Initiatives and Studies, and Water Revision 2 \ Use Bylaws. Final Report Final Using the information received from the CMRB and interviews with member municipalities, per capita water use \ (L/c/d) was estimated using historical population and water consumption data from the past 10 years (2008 to 2018). 01.02_Reports \ This was followed by a review of the applicable water use regulatory regime, and research on best management practices in other jurisdictions in Canada and the United States to provide insights of what others have done regarding Advisory \ water efficiency as part of an overall water management program. 00_Wtr_Use_Consrv_Sd \ 20193495 \ P: 2-1 Calgary Metropolitan Region Board 3 DATA COLLECTION AND REVIEW 3.1 Water Sources The following table summarizes the water source and main water users for Water Treatment Plants (WTPs) that are owned and operated by municipalities within the CMRB boundary. This information provides context on how each municipality is supplied with potable water (either by one or more WTPs or purchase from a Regional Supply). The volume of annual water production versus purchased water is analyzed in Section 4.0 and used