Effect of Water Education on Reducing Residential Consumption in San Antonio, Texas

• Main Author: Rice, Jeremy Joseph
• Other Authors: Kaiser, Ronald
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: municipal conservation; education; water conservation; San Antonio Water System
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-08-819

Education is touted as one of the most effective and inexpensive measures for reducing water consumption for major cities. Coupled with additional water reducing strategies this education can have a significant impact. While, this is a generally accepted principle in the water resources community it has been difficult to accurately quantify the savings. Studies attempting to quantify reductions from these programs have been limited to small samples of neighborhoods. San Antonio is recognized as one of the leading conservation programs in the country at reducing the consumption of its customers. This study focused on over 3,000 customers in San Antonio who were classified as high-end users. The average monthly consumption for this group in June of 2006 exceeded 60,000 gallons per month. Each customer was sent an educational packet by mail with information to conduct an audit of the water use indoors and outdoors. Many of the customers used a free service allowing a trained professional of the San Antonio Water System to conduct their audit at no charge. Three groups were identified (1) those who received a educational packet, (2) those who conducted a home audit and reported they had conducted an audit, (3) those who had a free audit conducted by a trained technician. The water consumption for six months was tracked and compared to the previous year's consumption. Each of the three groups showed savings with those in the third group showing the greatest savings. Lastly, a cost analysis was conducted showing the effectiveness of the program in reducing consumption by cost.