Developing a Water Management Plan

A successful water management program starts with a comprehensive strategic plan. The process for developing a strategic plan is generally the same for an individual facility or an agency. The plan provides information about current water uses and charts a course for water efficiency improvements, conservation activities, and water-reduction goals. A strategic plan establishes the priorities and helps a site or agency allocate funding for water-efficiency projects that provides the biggest impact. This page describes the general steps for creating a water management plan.

 The strategic plan should also include senior management support for water efficiency. This can be done in two ways:

• Provide a written policy statement that ties water efficiency to the long-term operating objective of the facility or organization
  
• Provide staff and financial resources to track water use, maintain equipment, and implement cost-effective water use reduction projects.
  
  
  After collecting water use data, take the following substeps:
  
• Determine a baseline annual water use for a specific year or an average water use over several years. If monthly data are available, plot the monthly use over time. Is water use increasing, decreasing, or steady?
  
• Try to determine what caused the major trends. Is there a seasonal pattern to water use? This is often the case when irrigation water is used or cooling water demand increases in the summer months. Analyzing the data in this way will help you understand current water use trends.
  
• Perform a walk-through audit of the facility to identify all significant water-using processes and associated operating characteristics. As part of the walk-through audit, note the operating schedule, flow rate, model number, and condition for each piece of equipment. You can also use a bucket and stopwatch and make a quick, rough estimate of equipment flow rate (e.g., faucets, showerheads, and once-though cooling). During the walk-through, pay particular attention to drain lines that are plumbed to floor drains in building mechanical spaces and utility chases.

Develop the Water Balance

You can now create a water balance with the quantified water uses by major equipment type. Compare the sum of the end-use water consumption to the total supply. The difference between these two values represents the “losses” in the system .These losses may be a result of:

• Water leaks in the distribution system or equipment
  
• Inaccuracies in the engineering estimates used to determine equipment water use
  
• Accounting errors such as poorly calibrated meters or unit conversion problems. If the losses are more than 10% of the total water supply, further investigation is probably warranted to determine the cause of the imbalance
  
  
  Based on the outcome of the water balance, the next step is to find ways to increase water efficiency and reduce water use. Use the FEMP BMPs for water efficiency as a starting point to identify operations and maintenance, retrofit, and replacement options for:
  
• Distribution System Audits, Leak Detection, and Repair
• Water-Efficient Landscaping
• Water-Efficient Irrigation
• Toilets and Urinals
• Faucets and Showerheads
• Boiler and Steam Systems
• Single-Pass Cooling Equipment
• Cooling Tower Management
• Commercial Kitchen Equipment
• Laboratory and Medical Equipment
• Other Water-Intensive Processes
• Alternative Water Sources