The Texas Living Waters Project, a partnership of the National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, and Galveston Bay Foundation, has released the first-of-its-kind Texas Water Conservation Scorecard. It’s an in-depth analysis and ranking of the water conservation efforts of more than 300 water utilities in Texas.
Based on publicly available information, the Scorecard revealed a wide disparity of effort and information on what is being done to conserve the Lone Star state’s most precious resource.
The Scorecard is primarily an evaluation of utilities based largely on their level of effort to advance water conservation, and to a lesser extent on their achievements.
“San Antonio Water System has done an amazing job in terms of reducing water use over the past 20 years,” according to Ken Kramer, Water Resources Chair of the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter. He adds that SAWS still has a ways to go in terms of curbing water loss in its distribution system.
“This scorecard is meant to be a positive thing for water utilities. We’re not trying to embarrass utilities.”
The findings of the report will be provided to state officials, including the Texas Water Development Board and state legislators. Kramer says they will be communicating with the city utilities with suggestions on how they might enhance their water conservation efforts.
