It's all about conservation

By DUANE SCHRAG

Salina Journal

Martha Tasker is pretty sure the city has water users' attention: when they got their water bills this summer, they started calling.

"Many individuals are thinking about the cost," she said diplomatically.

As the head of Salina's utilities department, she, too, is thinking a lot about water. But her focus tends to be on how to get enough. Historically Salina's water has come from the Smoky Hill River, either via wells in the river's alluvial aquifer or directly from the stream.

When the river all but ran dry in July 2006, the city stepped up its efforts to ensure a reliable supply of water for the next 50 years. That search is continuing, but one measure the city has been pushing is conservation: every gallon not used is a new gallon not needed.

Whether it is electricity, water or trash, Americans are increasingly looking for ways to be more environmentally responsible, to slow the consumption of raw materials, perhaps even reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.

This week, the fourth and final edition of 2009's Salina Edition looks at how we are conserving, preserving and recycling.

The city of Salina has been looking at a suite of options for reducing the amount of water residents use, and one is through price pressure. Until last July, the pricing policy actually encouraged heavy use: There were discounts for residents who used more than their monthly baseline quantity (the figure is determined by the customer's winter usage but is never less than 7,180 gallons).

Starting in mid-July 2008, the price for water up to the monthly baseline quantity was $3.40 per thousand gallons; water in excess of the baseline amount each month cost $6.26 a thousand. It's not hard to use 1,000 gallons on your yard: If you're watering a swatch of grass 50-by 50-feet square, 1,000 gallons would cover the grass with 0.64 inches of water.

There were complaints. Residents in 2008 used less (about 1 percent) and paid more (about 1.7 percent, or $124,000). Changes in summer use were most pronounced: In June 2006, the city used 9 million gallons a day; in June 2008, it was 6.5 million.

"If you compared them, you'd think things are wonderful," Tasker said.

They may not be. Last summer was almost a perfect balance -- from the lawn's perspective -- of rainfall and sunshine.

"Many of the individuals I spoke to said they maybe irrigated twice last year, nothing like previous years," Tasker said. "The fact that we got the right rain at the right time -- I don't think you can say water conservation was the driving force (for the reduction in summer use). Mother Nature was helping us."

While it's true that in moderately dry climates such as ours in central Kansas water usage nearly doubles during summer months, it's the reductions in daily use that have a bigger effect.

Consider the pattern of use in 2003, which was drier than normal and followed a relatively dry year. Average daily use was 10 million gallons a day in July, almost a record, and 10.1 million in August, the highest since 2000.

If Salina residents had cut their 2003 summer use -- the extra water they used in June through September -- by a full 50 percent, it would have saved 181 million gallons.

If instead over the entire year they had cut their indoor use -- defined as the amount they used in January, February and December, which averaged 5.5 million gallons a day -- by 10 percent, they would have used 202 million gallons less.

Other ways to conserve

Water isn't the only vital resource being conserved locally. In December, the city launched a bus service, and business took off briskly -- CityGo delivers 2,000 rides a week.

"Are people using this because of the environment?" asked Pat Wallerius, chief financial officer at OCCK, which runs the bus service under contract with the city. "We can't say."

What he does know is that a feasibility study on the bus service was done when the price of gas was more than $3 a gallon, and now that the price is bouncing around $1.60, ridership is still stronger than projected.

"I think some of it you can attribute to (concerns about) the environment," Wallerius said.

The green buses were a conscious decision.

"We chose a go-green environmentally friendly theme, hoping we would have people conscious of their carbon footprint riding in the bus," he said.

Kansas and the coal plants

Commitments to reducing carbon emissions aren't universal. After the Kansas Department of Health and Environment refused to issue permits for construction of two new coal-fired power plants in Holcomb, legislation to override state officials was passed (with support from some local legislators) but came up short of the number of votes needed to override the governor's veto.

Now another bill that would clear the way for construction of the power plants is proceeding through the Legislature.

Meanwhile, at the federal level, regulators emboldened by President Barack Obama's commitment to addressing climate change have taken steps to regulate carbon emissions from coal plants. And there are renewed calls for federal legislation requiring greater use of renewable energy.

Easier without a vehicle

Wallerius said that with CityGo in operation, it has become easier to live in Salina without an automobile.

"We have people now who are functioning without a vehicle," he said. CityGo already has stops at the city's main retail and employment centers, and recently added more.

Although CityGo has more riders than expected, it continues to expand its audience.

"It seems a lot of junior high and high school students don't know about the service," Wallerius said. "That's going to be the demographic we try to market to next."

n Reporter Duane Schrag can be reached at 822-1422 or by e-mail at dschrag@salina.com.

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