District Focus on Water Conservation Paying Off

(ATLANTA - March 12, 2007)

A review of the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District’s accomplishments at its recent board meeting revealed that local governments and water utilities in the greater Atlanta area have made significant progress in achieving the goals set for in the plans.

“In just three short years, the District’s water resources plans have become valuable tools for protecting our watersheds and for ensuring clean and plentiful water supplies,” said Kit Dunlap, president of the Great Hall County Chamber of Commerce and chair of the District board. “In all areas – wastewater, watershed management and water supply and conservation – local governments are making progress in implementing the requirements of the plans.”

The District has seen impressive gains in the area of water conservation. One of the most significant accomplishments is the increase in the number of utilities that use conservation pricing, meaning that the more water a customer uses, the higher the unit cost. Conservation pricing reduces excessive discretionary water use, especially outdoor irrigation, by making water use increasingly more expensive. Today, 66 percent of the District’s water utilities serving 91 percent of the population have adopted increasing block or tiered rates. That’s up from 10 percent of the utilities serving 32 percent of the population prior to the creation of the District.

“Conservation pricing is one of the most important things we can do to give people an incentive to think about how much water they use,” said Sam Olens, chairman of the Cobb County Commission and vice chair of the District. “It’s an absolutely essential tool for meeting our water conservation targets.”

Tiered pricing is not the only water conservation measure that is paying off. In the past year, the percent of the population served by water utilities that provide residential water audits has increased by 20 percent. The percent of utilities with leak detection programs has increased by 16 percent over the same time period. Also, 89 percent of the utilities, serving 97 percent of the population, have implemented water conservation education programs. Local utilities are also distributing kits that will allow homeowners to replace older faucets and showerheads with low-flow units.

For the next several years, the push will be to develop retrofit programs to replace older, inefficient toilets with low-flow fixtures. Water providers are currently conducting an inventory of old housing stock and developing programs to provide incentives to change out old toilets.

“While there is much work ahead, we are seeing success,” Chairman Dunlap said. “The District, with more than 100 jurisdictions and 62 water systems, is the only major metro area in the country with a comprehensive water conservation program that is required and enforced.”

The District’s 2006 Annual Report and implementation review of the three plans are available on the District’s Web site, www.northgeorgiawater.org.

The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District is a planning entity dedicated to developing comprehensive regional and watershed specific water resources plans to be implemented by local governments in the district. These plans will protect water quality and public water supplies in and downstream of the region, protect recreational values of the waters in and downstream of the region and minimize potential adverse impacts of development on waters in and downstream of the region. The District encompasses 16 counties in North Georgia: Bartow, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Forsyth, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry, Paulding, Rockdale and Walton counties.  For more information about the District, contact Joy Hinkle at 404.463.3344.Information about the District is available at www.northgeorgiawater.org.

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