Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Vancouver City Council

FROM:

General Manager of Engineering Services

SUBJECT:

Water Conservation - Rain Barrels

 

RECOMMENDATION

COUNCIL POLICY

On February 18, 1993, Council approved the implementation of a water conservation program. On May 3, 1993, Council enacted a bylaw to restrict lawn watering during summer months. On February 7, 1995, Council approved the purchase of 1,000 rain barrels for resale to residents at approximately half the City's purchase price.

PURPOSE

This report describes the City's activities to achieve a reduction in water use for summer irrigation. It outlines some of the strategies the City is adopting to change the public's attitude towards water use in the urban landscape, and how the rain barrel program contributes to these strategies.

BACKGROUND

Summer water use is the single most important supply issue for Vancouver's water system. The City water system must be designed to accommodate the peak loads, which occur in the summer. This is the result of normal water use plus up to a 40% increase due to irrigation. The cost of expanding the system's capacity is directly related to this design peak. By reducing this peak, costs are also reduced.

In addition, the Regional water supply system is often strained due to high use, coupled with low precipitation, in the summer months. In 1987 the capacity of the GVWD source reservoirs was depleted by 95%, in 1992 by 58%, and in 1998 by 72%. In each of these cases the City was in, or approaching risk of, drought situations and were entirely dependant on the timing of fall rainstorms. This strain on the system has caused the implementation of lawn sprinkling restrictions since 1992.

The City of Vancouver has implemented a multi-faceted water conservation program which focuses primarily on advocacy and education. As one of many initiatives the rain barrel program was proposed and approved in 1995. Its purpose was to begin an advocacy of responsible water use for irrigation during the critical summer months. This approval was for a trial of 1,000 barrels. So far the 1,000 barrels approved have been sold. The subsidized program makes rain barrels which hold 75 imperial gallons available to Vancouver residents at a cost of under $60.00.

DISCUSSION

The water conservation program faces two major challenges: the public's perception that water is always plentiful as a result of high winter precipitation, and non-metered flat rate residential water charges. The result is that the public has no obvious economic reason to conserve, and residential water conservation has to be achieved by changing the public's attitude to water use. This is being pursued through a combination of public education, regulations such as lawn watering restrictions and plumbing code changes, and advocacy tools such as the rain barrel program.

Since irrigation is the largest discretionary water use issue, one of the main thrusts of the program has been in public education with regard to water use in the landscape. Currently, there are two "ecological landscape" demonstration projects, one is complete at City Farmer and one in the design stage for VanDusen Botanical Garden. These projects involve education in the use of native plant materials adapted to our climate, and water conserving landscaping practices. The City of Vancouver rain barrels are an integral part of these demonstrations, showing how a garden can be kept healthy with minimal use of potable water.

Rainwater collection allows the public to take responsibility, at least in part, for their irrigation source. It also heightens awareness of water use on the landscape and is in that sense an education tool. In addition it allows the public some leeway for irrigation during the lawn watering restrictions.

The program has been in place since 1995 and 1,000 barrels have been sold in that time.. This is an average of 300 barrels per year. (We had virtually no sales in 1997 due to work stoppage.) The response to the program has been very positive. In addition to calls from Vancouver residents, there have been hundreds of calls from outside the city. This program has received a lot of positive media attention and has been featured twice by the "Canadian Gardener" television series as well as local TV and newspapers. It is also promoted through the Waterworks website, which is one of the City's most frequently visited sites. The result has been great interest in the design of the barrel from all over the country and abroad. This media attention has allowed the barrels to be sold without the City incurring marketing costs. A telephone survey was conducted after the first year to establish how the barrels were performing. The response was extremely favourable.

Due to these numerous requests, barrels were sold to local governments at our cost plus a 10% handling surcharge. 100 were sold to Delta in 1998 and they are interested in purchasing more this year. Coquitlam are about to start a program and are also interested in the barrel. Our mandate does not include marketing individual barrels outside the City, or selling subsidized barrels to non-residents. There is, however, potential to earn back some of the research and development costs through bulk sales to other municipalities.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to estimate the water saved by rain barrels, as it is dependent not only on the duration and intensity of a rainfall event, but also the time between them, and the discretionary use of the water. That is, if the barrel is full when the next rainfall event comes then no water is saved. We prefer to think of water savings in terms of how the program impacts people's perception of water use, and promotes an overall water conservation ethic. From this perspective, we consider the program very successful.

It is recommended that funds for this program come from the Water Conservation budget.

CONCLUSION

The water conservation program stresses public education on landscaping and irrigation. The rain barrel is an integral part of these programs in that it allows access to a water source other than drinking water, giving residents an opportunity to contribute to ecological landscaping practices. Staff believe that funding this program provides good value as an advocacy tool, and recommend that the City continue to provide up to 300 subsidized barrels per year for Vancouver residents.

Figure 1 Rain Barrel on display at "City Farmer"

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