Through an annual grant program, Reclamation funds projects in support of its Water Conservation Field Services Program throughout Southern California. This activity helps water user entities, local governments and others leverage their money and resources for water conservation projects through cost sharing. Nine grants totaling nearly $500,000 were awarded to various southern California water entities in 2007:

California Urban Water Conservation Council (CUWCC):
$50,000 – Smart Urban Landscapes Project

Through its Smart Urban Landscapes Project, the CUWCC is developing guidelines and residential landscape design templates that will help in the installation of more water efficient landscapes, and promote the use of innovative irrigation technologies and design principles that will improve the public’s understanding of good water management. Working in conjunction with home builders, watershed management groups, planning agencies, water supply agencies and homeowners, the CUWCC will also develop model home specifications to design watershed-friendly landscapes that minimize water consumption and pollutant runoff.

Smart Urban Landscapes will accelerate adoption of water efficient landscape designs, resulting in lower water use as well as reduced runoff and pollutants in watersheds. The program will develop model home specifications to design watershed-friendly landscapes that minimize water consumption and pollutant runoff. The Landscape Task Force, in their report Water Smart Landscapes for California, estimated annual water savings from this project would range from 60,000 to 100,000 acre-feet.

Joshua Basin Water District (JBWD):
$25,000 – Desert Water Conservation Demonstration

JBWD is the lead agency for a consortium of agencies in the Morongo Basin and Mojave Desert. The consortium proposes to develop a set of professional residential landscape plans unique to the High Desert. The landscape plans will be developed to meet the requirements of the model landscape ordinance for single family homes which limits water usage in new developments. Landscape has been cited as using up to 70% of residential water statewide.

Longtime desert residents have adapted to the desert environment and use about 65,000 gallons per capita per year versus 100,000 in new developments in the Victor Valley Water District area. If water usage is reduced by only 18,000 gallons per capita (half the difference of what is used by older desert residents compared to new residents) it could reduce water use by as much as 10,000 acre-feet per year in 2020. The project will also develop a Demonstration Garden with advanced water technology, including a gray water system model. The Demonstration Garden and educational materials will provide education on home landscape plans and irrigation technology for new homeowners.

Los Angeles & San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council (LASGRWC):
$75,000 – Residential Landscape Retrofit

This project will demonstrate how Low Impact Development Strategies can be applied to existing urban infrastructure to address runoff management, water conservation, pollution reduction and treatment, flooding, and habitat creation by retrofitting a residential street through state-of-the-art Best Management Practices (BMPs). Water conservation measures incorporated in this proposal include: drought tolerant landscaping, irrigation systems with Smart Controllers, rain gardens, driveway drywells, rain barrels, paving stones and other permeable walkways.

The project will conserve about 4 acre-feet per year from infiltration in the 10.4 acre demonstration area, and another 2 acre-feet per year is estimated to be conserved with decreased water use for irrigation from a combination of low water use landscaping, irrigation controllers, and rain barrels to capture rainfall for reuse. Bacteria, metals, oil and grease pollutant loads to surface water will also be reduced in proportion to the amount of runoff diverted. Water savings and pollutant reductions will be quantified by monitoring water quality and flow volumes and resident water use before and after the project is implemented.

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP):
$50,000 – Residential High Efficiency Clothes Washer Rebate Program

The primary goal of this pilot project is to develop a model for a High Efficiency Clothes Washer (HECW) instant rebate program that will determine the advantages and disadvantages associated with this rebate mechanism. Project goals include:

• Gaining an understanding of the most effective means to maximize these types of water savings projects in order to develop a workable regional model;

• Conserving 30.2 acre-feet of purchased water per year for the next 14 years and reducing the same amount of water entering the sanitation system;

• Reducing energy consumption by 19,093 kilowatt-hours per year for the next 14 years;

• Analyzing and determining the amount of “spillover” (the number of customers outside of LADWP) service area who are issued a rebate; and

• Reducing the amount of air pollution by 33.5 lbs of CO2 per year for the next 14 years.

The beneficiaries of the pilot project are 900 residents who receive the rebate and realize reduced water and energy costs. The value of the water savings benefit is $478 per AF (based on LADWP’s 2007 rate for treated water purchased from MWD).

San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA):
$67,400 – Residential Water Budget Pilot Program

This pilot program will provide landscape water budgets to the top water users in single family residential lots using aerial imagery to measure the landscape. The project is in the service area of Rincon Del Diablo Municipal Water District in the city of Escondido, CA. Savings are projected to be 125 acre-feet per year for the 250 homes in the pilot program.

Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District (EVMWD):
$20,000 – Multi-Stream Rotor Sprinkler Head Retrofit Program

The EVMWD is operating a sprinkler retrofit program that will reduce the need for imported water, save customers money, and reduce irrigation runoff in its service area. EVMWD will supply multi-stream rotor sprinkler heads to customers, verify installation and scheduling, and then track water savings. For 200 customers the program would save close to 80 acre-feet per year.

Western Municipal Water District (WMWD):
$74,085 – Irrigation Retrofits

As part of the WMWD's Water Conservation Demonstration Program, several activities intended to increase efficiency and reduce outdoor water use for residential and high water commercial/Industrial/Institutional (CII) consumers with the District’s retail service area are being implemented. Irrigation systems will be retrofitted for large landscapes and education tools for residential landscaping will be prepared. It is estimated that replacing outdated landscape irrigation systems with Weather-Based Irrigation Controllers targeting the 20 highest large landscape customers by water use would result in a water savings of approximately 75 acre-feet per year.

West Basin Municipal Water District (WBMWD):
$66,000 – Installing Water Efficient Equipment

The WBMWD is implementing an innovative program that will provide businesses and institutions incentives, resources, and technical assistance to install water efficient equipment. The 2-year program will focus on two target customer categories: businesses and institutions that have facilities with cooling towers, and those industries using water for the development of their products or services.

West Basin will contract with an engineering vendor to inspect as many as 200 cooling tower sites and 200 industrial sites to determine potential participation of the business or industry. Of those targeted sites, new water efficient cooling tower conductivity controllers will be installed by the customer at an estimated 20 sites, and process water equipment will be installed at roughly 15 industrial sites.

The water conservation measures include the conductivity and pH controllers and incentives for re-circulating equipment for process water. The project should generate approximately 120 acre-feet of water savings per year or 1,200 acre-feet over the 10-year life of the program.

Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC):
$65,000 – Distribution System Water Loss Management Program

The proposed Distribution System Water Loss Management Program represents a partnership of up to five retail water agencies and the MWDOC. An engineering company is conducting system audits to identify and collect necessary data to populate, run and interpret water audit software to quantify sources of non-revenue water. The total non-revenue water for agencies targeted for participation in the proposed program is 5,549 acre-feet, of which up to 85% is estimated to be recovered. The savings goal for the project is 4,754 acre-feet.

Need More Information?

If you have any water resources questions, need technical assistance, or want to learn more about water conservation partnerships, contact Deb Whitney, Water Conservation Coordinator, at dwhitney@lc.usbr.gov or by phone at: (951) 695-5310.