The East Bay Municipal Utility District's (EBMUD) water system has a proud history of providing high-quality drinking water for approximately 1.3 million people in a 331-square-mile area in northern California’s Alameda and Contra Costa counties. EBMUD's award-winning wastewater system serves approximately 650,000 people in an 88-square-mile area along the San Francisco Bay's east shore, extending from Richmond on the north, southward to San Leandro. EBMUD is a public utility formed under California's Municipal Utility District Act with its headquarters in Oakland, California.
EBMUD’s water supply system begins at the Mokelumne River watershed in the Sierra Nevada mountains and extends 90 miles to the East Bay. EBMUD is responsible for managing land and infrastructure from its watershed in the high country to over 400,000 individual residences and businesses in its service area. Ensuring a reliable water supply includes making the best use of limited supplies through water conservation and recycling, and developing long-term water supply projects.
Mission
EBMUD's mission is to manage the natural resources with which the District is entrusted; to provide reliable, high quality water and wastewater services at fair and reasonable rates for the people of the East Bay; and to preserve and protect the environment for future generations.
Sustainability Principles
Sustainability means using resources (economic, environmental, and human) in a responsible manner that meets today’s needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet tomorrow’s needs. This business approach applies a holistic view and strives to minimize waste; conserve energy and water; promote long-term economic viability; support safety and well-being for employees, communities, and customers; and benefit society.
Goals
The District has established the following comprehensive set of goals integrating sustainability principles.
- Long-Term Water Supply to ensure a reliable high-quality water supply for future generations.
- Water Quality and Environmental Protection that meets or surpasses environmental and public health standards and protects public trust.
- Infrastructure Investment in maintainance and improvements that are cost effective and ensure reliable and sustainable high-quality water service delivery.
- Long Term Financial Stability through management of finances to support District needs while maintaining reasonable water and wastewater rates.
- Customer Service with understanding and responsiveness that meets customer expectations.
- Workforce Planning and Development that ensure ample talent to do the District’s work today and tomorrow.
Conserving: Four Decades of Steady Progress
EBMUD residential customers in 2010 used almost a third less water today than the typical customer in the 1970s. Looking ahead, EBMUD expects the average customer will continue to conserve, bringing per capita water use even lower.
EBMUD’s comprehensive water conservation program is designed to help customers learn about water, provides advice on water efficient household fixtures and business equipment, and shows how outdoor landscaping can be both water-efficient and beautiful.
Water Years 2009-2010 Water Conservation Savings
The past two water years have shown the extraordinary ability of the East Bay to protect water supplies when needed. In 2008-09 water shortages were severe and customers responded, saving more than 35 million gallons of water per day. The following year, EBMUD’s local shortage improved to moderate, and customers continued to conserve while much of the state experienced severe water shortages.
WaterSmart Practices in the Home
Residential customers reduced their overall consumption by nearly 15% daily as compared to their pre-drought three-year (2005-2007) average. Outdoors, households cut water use by improving their irrigation systems and/or adjusting their landscaping to be more drought-tolerant. Indoors, customers implemented water saving changes through EBMUD home surveys, installation of free showerheads and faucet aerators, and rebate-supported purchases of water-efficient toilets and clothes washers.
In FY09 and FY10, high-efficiency toilet retrofits were popular with customers, with households and businesses receiving a combined 13,000 rebates totaling more than $1.6 million. Those toilets save more than an estimated 290,000 gallons of water every day or nearly 106 million gallons per year.
Clothes washer rebates were the most popular rebate program in FY09 and FY10 with more than 21,000 EBMUD residential customers participated in a regional water and energy agency rebate program. East Bay residents who purchased qualifying clothes washers saved an estimated combined 400,000 gallons of water daily or 146 million gallons per year.
WaterSmart Practices for Businesses
East Bay businesses implemented water savings initiatives, working with EBMUD to install water-efficient appliances, plumbing fixtures, process equipment, and irrigation systems. During the 2008-09 drought, business customer water use was down an average of 12% per day from overall efficiency efforts as compared to their pre-drought three-year (2005-2007) average. In 2009 and 2010 nearly 1,500 business customers utilized EBMUD’s free water surveys and conservation rebates, saving more than 550,000 gallons per day or more than 200 million gallons annually.
2010 marked the launch of EBMUD’s WaterSmart Certification Program for Businesses. The EBMUD Board of Directors has recognized seven businesses and institutions for outstanding water use efficiency in 2010. Each business worked with EBMUD to assess their water use, implemented water saving measures at their facilities, and made ongoing water management a priority. Together, these EBMUD customers reduced their annual water use by more than 69 million gallons in 2009—that’s enough water to serve approximately 650 households for an entire year. Saving water also improves the bottom line, slashing thousand of dollars of costs.
Finding Leaks in Underground Pipes
It’s expensive to fix leaks on large pipes that serve thousands if not hundreds of thousands of customers. Finding the leak early reduces the cost of repairs and the amount of customer inconvenience resulting from the repair work, while saving our valuable water supply. EBMUD is one of the first water utilities in the nation to conduct thorough research on new technology that can detect underground leaks.
Within the city of Berkeley, EBMUD installed acoustic leak detection equipment covering 240 square miles of pipeline designed to listen for running water and to report findings via a computer uplink. The research project, funded with the assistance of a federal grant, has helped locate leaks not only on EBMUD pipelines in the streets but also on homeowner pipes in neighboring yards. EBMUD is also conducting water leak detection research on large pipelines that carry water throughout its service area. This grant-funded research implements state-of-the-art technology to look inside pipelines, utilizing acoustic listening equipment that monitors and locates potential leaks for further investigation and repair. Early detection of leaks saves water, money, and customer aggravation.
Conservation for Tomorrow
From 1995 -2010, EBMUD and its customers have achieved an estimated 26 million gallons per day (MGD) of water savings from EBMUD-sponsored conservation programs. Looking forward over the next 30 years to the year 2040, EBMUD is committed to saving an additional 39 MGD by providing residential and commercial, technical assistance, leak detection, and incentives, and through on-going customer education and outreach.
To learn more about AWE Charter Sponsor EBMUD and their conservation efforts, visit their "WaterSmart" Center on their web site at www.ebmud.com.