In 2003 The Washington State Legislature passed Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 1338, better known as the Municipal Water Law. This law directs Municipal Water Systems to use water more efficiently in exchange for water right certainty and to address future demands.
CVHA has for the past 6 years operated under an Efficiency Goal of “Maintaining Historic Water Use Levels”. However, for the past 3 years our water use has increased. It has increased due to: hotter dryer summers, larger house construction, remodels to larger houses, increase in family occupancy replacing older owners etc.
CVHA is one of the smallest systems in the State, some cities have single storage systems that exceed our yearly use totals. However, to demonstrate to the state we are complying with the law we are enacting the following change from the Maintain Historic Use Levels. This goal was discussed in depth with our Water Manager; Chet Mowbray.
New Goal: To reduce water use by 1% for the next 3 years, this equates to 30,000 gallons of water per year (1% of 3.3 million gals per year). We will do this by: continued homeowner water savings tips in mailings and add: Upon homeowner request indoor/outdoor leak detection inspections along with how to use your water meter to detect and locate home leakage. On the CVHA side we will continue with leak detection and repair and add a system component replacement program based on detailed possibility of failure criteria.
Our assessment is that this new goal will be easy to attain with the water saving measures. But the goal can be changed at any tine during its lifespan.
Currently we track water usage for each home on an Excel spreadsheet so if you are interested in your usage totals by year let us know.
If you have any comments or suggestions contact us at cvhapres@gmail.com or write to CVHA, 17222 Crystal Dr. E., Enumclaw, WA. 98022. If neither of those work for you, call me direct at 253-736-4657.
Gary Castellane
CVHA President
