Tapping into water conservation

Water may be everywhere, but the growing consensus is that there’s not going to be enough to go around in the not-so-distant-future. While some companies are already viewing water as the next oil—and are starting to prepare as if the world is approaching “peak water”—2009 will bring a new wave of water conservation efforts among U.S. organizations.

Because the cost of water is typically kept artificially low, introducing water conservation efforts tends to be an uphill battle. The impacts of climate change, the depletion of groundwater due to poor management of stormwater runoff and the continual overuse of fresh water will likely cause water to become even more scarce, according to a study released in May 2008 by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. All of this is helping the efforts of a few organizations, governments and companies that are trying to bring the idea that water is an important part of the sustainability and economic puzzles to the forefront.

Despite a tremulous economic climate, the country’s new leadership makes 2009 the year to begin taking water conservation more seriously. It’s only been in the last couple of years that water issues have started garnering attention, mostly because no one up to this point has had to pay the real price of fresh water.

Unlike the price of oil, another natural resource on which the global economy depends, the price of water does not value the water itself. Instead its price is determined by the cost of the infrastructure and transportation used to move water from one place to another. The average cost per 1,000 gallons of water in the United States is just $1.50, according to the American Water Works Association, a non-profit that works to improve drinking water around the world.

“They measure the stuff in acre-feet, not in barrels,” says Neal Dikeman, a partner at Jane Capital. “If energy is a commodity price that is exceedingly low, water is a small fraction of that.”

That’s all likely to change according to Jon Roberts, director of building science at CTG Energetics. “Water has been highly undervalued, but that is changing,” he said in an e-mail. “Several water utilities in Southern California are talking about 20 percent to 30 percent annual rate increases for the next five years. Moreover, the potential for water curtailments and mandatory reductions is very likely,” Roberts says.