Some Salem households use millions of gallons of water – in a year

It takes 6 1/2 years for the average American family to use 660,000 gallons of water – the amount contained in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

In a single year, 16 Salem households used more than that – some much more.

Five Salem residents guzzled more than a million gallons last year, a Statesman Journal analysis of city utility billing data found.

Two of those consumed around 7 million gallons. That’s four times as much as Portland’s thirstiest resident, and enough to supply 70 average households.

At the same time, as the West enters its fifth year of drought, much of Oregon is running low on water.

The state’s snowpack last year was the lowest on record, and it began to melt earlier than ever, draining the natural reservoirs that serve much of the state.

In July, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife curtailed fishing hours on most rivers to help fish dying from low stream flows and high temperatures.

Wildfire season began three weeks early, and by mid-August, for the first time ever, campfires were banned in all state parks and on beaches along the entire coast. The bill for firefighting was the second-highest in state history, behind that for 2013.

By mid-September, water levels at Detroit Reservoir and Green Peter Reservoir fell below minimum winter elevations, leaving the low-water ramps out of the water and affecting recreation.

In late September, Gov. Kate Brown declared a drought emergency in Marion County – the 25th Oregon county to qualify for help. And she ordered all state agencies to draft plans for saving water.

Many cities across the state, including Silverton, Molalla, Lake Oswego and Bend, asked residents to curtail water use.

But there’s little incentive for Salem or its residents to conserve.

“Salem has a huge water supply. Salem has a couple of centuries' worth of water at current use and development rates,” said John DeVoe, executive director of WaterWatch of Oregon. “There are other cities in Oregon that aren’t in that position. They are being much more careful with their water supplies.”

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Salem has the earliest and best water rights on the North Santiam River. The city’s drinking water comes from both surface water and groundwater. The city also has junior water rights on the Willamette River but will have to build a new treatment plant to use them.

The water itself, of course, is free. The city and its customers pay only for the infrastructure to treat and deliver it.

That may be one reason for Salem’s relatively high “leak rate.”

The city estimates that 23 percent of the water it treats, or 1.2 billion gallons per year, is lost to system leaks – in pipes, joints, valves or service connections – before it even reaches a meter.

The state frowns on anything more than 15 percent, and if attaining that rate is feasible, cities are directed to take steps to get to a 10 percent leak rate.

“So 23 percent means that the city still has some work to do,” DeVoe said.

Salem conducts leak detection surveys on 10 percent of its system each year, said Lacey Goeres-Priest, water quality and treatment supervisor.

However, it’s impossible to set a timeline for meeting that 15 percent goal, she said.

“It’s going to depend. How often are they finding a leak, how significant is it that they’re finding, and so on,” she said.

Salem also failed to meet many of its own five-year water conservation benchmarks, laid out in its 2009 state-required Water Management and Conservation Plan.

Oregon requires the plan and the conservation goals to make sure municipal water providers are doing everything they can to conserve water before it allows them to access more – including water to which the provider currently holds rights but has not yet developed.

Salem requested, and last November was granted, authority to divert an additional 30 cubic feet per second under one of its existing groundwater permits.

In an update to its plan submitted to the state the same month, the city said that because of budget and staffing issues, it had not met its goals of:

• Offering irrigation audits to residential, commercial and industrial customers.
• Developing a demonstration garden in a city park.
• Developing an evapotranspiration educational training program.
• Providing financial rebates for water efficient landscaping tools.
• Developing conservation materials for businesses.
• Developing partnerships with conservation-based stakeholders.
• Advertising its water conservation program.
• Updating its portable outreach display.
• Sponsoring or hosting landscaping workshops.
• Offering cost-share programs to commercial and industrial customers.
• Distributing residential leak detection surveys.

For the same reasons, the city discontinued its water conservation calendar and bus ad artwork contests and stopped providing garden hose nozzles at outreach events.

Also because of budget issues, the city does not have any staffers dedicated to conservation.

Perhaps most significantly, the city dropped its goal of considering rate structures that promote water conservation – and bring in additional revenue.

Other cities in Oregon and elsewhere encourage conservation by raising rates in summer or by implementing tiered pricing – meaning the rate per unit (a unit is 748 gallons) increases as more units are used.

For example, in Ashland, the first three units per month used by a residence are $2.43 each – a little less than Salem’s flat rate of $2.58 per unit. The next seven units in Ashland cost $2.99 each. Units 11 to 25 are $4 each, and anything over 25 is $5.17 per unit.

In Salem, 2,764 households averaged more than 25 units per month last year (224,000 gallons per year.)

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City officials were unable to say whether funding and staffing for the uncompleted water conservation activities were in place when the goals were submitted to the state in 2009, or whether it was something they were planning to add. They also could not say who made the decision not to fund the activities or not to review rate structures that promote conservation.

But in general, the 2008 financial crisis affected the utility’s budget for many years, Salem Public Works director Peter Fernandez said.

That wasn't the case for all of Oregon’s municipal water suppliers.

In nearby Washington County, for example, the Joint Water Commission – made up of Hillsboro, Forest Grove, Beaverton and the Tualatin Valley Water District – accomplished all of the water conservation goals it laid out in its 2010 plan.

Salem Mayor Anna Peterson declined to respond to questions about the City Council’s policy and budgeting for water conservation.

Lisa Jaramillo, of the Oregon Water Resources Department, said Salem is meeting the minimum bar set by the state.

“We want them to continue to improve, but things happen that are out of the city’s control sometimes,” Jaramillo said.

But WaterWatch’s DeVoe said the city isn’t doing enough.

“Salem as a municipality may not feel like it’s very important to stress conservation,” DeVoe said. “I think that’s missing the point. These rivers belong to all of us, and it’s everybody’s responsibility to keep them healthy so we can all realize the benefits they provide.”

Although Salem's conservation pieces fell to the wayside, Goeres-Priest said, residents still are getting the message.

“During the summer months, you can drive around and notice a lot of people are letting their lawns go dormant,” she said. “We see our customers responding even if we have not necessarily put forth a tremendous amount of outreach and education.”

And water use in Salem has been declining, she said.

Salem utility customers, here's what you're paying for � besides water

Metered consumption across all users, not just residential, fell 13 percent between 2009 and 2012, from 8.24 billion to 7.15 billion gallons.

While that’s good for the environment, it’s not necessarily good for Salem or its water customers, Goeres-Priest said.

“If folks really, really reduced water use or we saw large water users stop or move out of the area, it does impact the amount of revenue we see and we adjust accordingly,” she said.

That could mean reducing staffing and programs, delaying infrastructure replacement, or even raising rates.

So, who are Salem’s biggest residential water guzzlers?

Unsurprisingly, they’re some of the city’s wealthiest and most prominent residents, with big houses, expansive properties, extensive plantings and pools. Here’s the list (yearly bill is for water only; the city charges other fees):

Who are Salem�s biggest residential water guzzlers?

tloew@statesmanjournal.com, (503) 399-6779 or follow at Twitter.com/Tracy_Loew