In 1991, the nearly 100 urban water agencies and environmental groups that had formed the California Urban Water Conservation Council signed a memorandum of understanding pledging to develop and implement 14 comprehensive conservation best management practices. The council has since grown to 384 members, all of whom have taken the pledge.
Water agencies throughout the state of California are now designing innovative programs to live up to that pledge. They are marketing to high-volume commercial, industrial, and institutional water customers to convince them their businesses will benefit from reducing water use permanently via new and innovative technologies and processes.
Amy Vickers, a nationally known water conservation consultant and author of the Handbook of Water Use Conservation, states, “Engaging C&I [commercial and industrial] customers to participate in water saver programs is often a hard sell. ... Analyzing C&I customer-metered water-use data and then targeting good candidates for water conservation measures with high water, sewer, and/or cost savings potential can be an effective marketing strategy.”
Here are three California water districts and their recent efforts to do just that through industrial water saver programs.
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
“Traditionally, agencies have done projects with defined goals,” says Dana Haasz, water conservation administrator at San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC). “That was my thought in developing this program.” Rather than ask customers to replace fixtures, why not change the goal to water savings, she thought. After convincing a lot of people at SFPUC to change course, she designed a one-year pilot program in which customers identified their own projects.
And there were many reasons for the district to get creative.
SFPUC provides retail drinking water to 2.4 million customers in San Francisco and four Bay Area counties, in addition to providing sewer services and hydroelectric power to the city. Non-residential customers used 37% of the district’s total retail water demand of 75.5 million gallons per day in 2005, according to a 2004 study of water demands and conservation potential.
By 2030, non-residential customers are projected to use 44% of 76.5 million gallons per day. SFPUC’s long-term goal is to reduce water use by 4.5 million gallons per day by 2030 through conservation, an ambitious goal for a city with one of the lowest per-capita water uses in the nation, according to Haasz. The Water Saver Program was designed to help meet this goal through permanent hardware installation and/or retrofit and/or process improvement.
The 2004 study “City and County of San Francisco Retail and Water Demands and Conservation Potential” identified schools, hotels, hospitals, universities, offices, food and grocery retail outlets, restaurants, and dry cleaning and laundry businesses as the eight high-demand industries in the city. These customers used more than 50% of the commercial/industrial water demand.
Non-residential customers are a challenge, Haasz explains. Projects to reduce water use tend to be more expensive, and they require a higher level of expertise to design and install. Ironically, another problem is that water bills are never seen by the decision makers who should be reviewing them.
In a request for proposals, SFPUC asked contractors to propose projects that improved the efficiency of water-using processes among the city’s top 20% non-residential water users. After evaluating the proposals submitted, it hired Intergy Corp. because of the company’s creative technology solutions it sought to offer public utilities commission customers and its understanding of the pay-for-performance model.
SFPUC introduced the Water Saver pilot program to high-volume non-residential customers in the fall of 2006. The intent of the program is to create a market for water savings through a performance-based approach. The program does not specify what the water agency is looking for, Haasz explains. Intergy works with the customers to identify projects themselves and identify savings in terms of dollars per acre-foot of water saved.
The program offers incentives but they are designed for large-scale projects, unlike standard rebates for replacing toilets, says Haasz, which are not included in the Water Saver Program but still available through SFPUC’s rebate program.
SFPUC sent out introductory letters to the targeted high-volume customers introducing the program. It is offering to help them cut overall water usage and water costs up to 20% by implementing projects with paybacks of two years or less. Intergy is now busy marketing the program to those customers and offering free engineering and technical support, plus additional financial incentives from Pacific Gas & Electric (PG &E) if they want to reduce energy usage for hot water processes.
Haasz says customers are happy with the program. “Anything they save in water reduces wastewater and sewage bills.” There is also a conjunction with energy savings, she says.
Cutting Cooling Tower Water by Two-Thirds
Richard Fox, director of engineering at Intergy, says most of the company’s projects are still in the planning phase or are waiting for customers’ decisions. He described two projects that were completed around the time Intergy signed the contract with SFPUC and that he would like to see duplicated with other customers.
The San Francisco Chronicle installed a chemical-free cooling water treatment unit to treat the water running between its dual 250-ton cooling towers and chiller system. Joe Simpson, the newspaper’s chief engineer, discovered the Dolphin system, manufactured by Clearwater Systems LLC, at a trade fair two years ago. After reviewing test sites at state facilities where it was installed he decided to go ahead with the installation at the newspaper. The system reduces water use by about two-thirds, he says, because water can be circulated 15 times before the increasingly contaminated water needs to be discharged rather than the typical five times with chemical treatment.
Dan Daniel, with Advanced Cooling Tower Technologies Inc. in Concord, CA, the northern California distributor for the Dolphin system, describes it as an inline treatment system that uses electric pulses to control scaling, biological growth, and corrosion. It is a PVC module that is fitted into the circulation water line running from the chiller to the cooling tower. A small control panel installed nearby generates 30-kilohertz pulses, which run through coils on either side of the PVC module. The system installed on the Chronicle’s circulation water line pulses 60 times per second. The new Dolphin 3000 system pulses 240 times per second for increased bacterial control, Daniel says.
Daniel explains that the electrical pulses strip the charge off mineral molecules, changing the way the minerals precipitate in the water. A non-adherent mineral powder ball is produced, thereby preventing hard-line scale from forming. Bacteria are encapsulated in the mineral powder ball and cannot reproduce resulting in low bacteria populations. Dissolved calcium also sticks to the mineral powder ball. The powder ball is readily filterable and is easily flushed out with the cooling tower’s automatic bleed. Daniel also says when calcium comes out of solution it forms a natural cathodic corrosion inhibitor.
Daniel says yearly savings with the Dolphin system at the Chronicle are estimated at $14,480. This includes savings of $1,485 on water, $1,485 on sewer disposal, $1,200 on maintenance, and $4,000 with the elimination of chemicals. Furthermore, there is $7,560 in energy savings, based on a 5% improvement in chiller and cooling tower efficiency due to the elimination of the slime layer. The increased electrical costs of $1,250 are subtracted out.
The total cost of the Dolphin system installed was $17,100, producing a payback period of 1.2 years. Simpson says he wouldn’t know what the actual savings are for a year, given that it went online in November 2006.
Cutting Sterilizer Hot-Water Use
St. Mary’s Hospital in San Francisco hired American Energy Assets (AEA) to install thermostatic control valves on each of its eight sterilizer units to control water input and output of “tempering condensate,” according to Jack Pecoraro, project engineer with AEA. Hot water has to be drained from sterilizer jackets, which are steam-heated, and cooled before it runs into steam traps 24 hours a day to pass regulations. The thermostatic control valve allows water to be drained only when it needs to be drained. Completed at a cost of $1,500 per unit on the eight sterilizers in August 2006, water savings were estimated to be 628,336 gallons per year, says Pecoraro.
AEA also replaced 1,200 toilets at St Mary’s with new low-flow toilets, which flush water at 1.6 gallons per flush and installed aerators on faucets.
Intergy’s Fox is eyeing laundry water treatment and recycling systems that could save up to 80% of laundry water usage. Fox says a linen service in San Francisco is considering this technology that would save 30 acre-feet per year or 10 million gallons of water annually. Smaller laundries could save 10 acre-feet per year, says Fox.
Metropolitan Water District
Fox might take a cue from Republic Master Chefs in Los Angeles. Republic received incentives from the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) after the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power referred the company to the regional water district. Starting in March 2005, Republic and its parent company, American Textile Maintenance, installed $390,000 of new equipment to reclaim wastewater leaving tunnel washers. The project was completed in September 2005.
Wastewater is collected and pumped to a shaker to separate out solids. Next, suspended solids are removed before the water passes through ceramic filters for purification. The water is then pumped into a holding tank, without any heat loss, before being returned to the tunnel washers for reuse.
This new system was estimated to save the company 16.5 million gallons of water per year or as much as 38% of the laundry’s annual water usage. After one year’s monitoring by the MWD the new system saved 20 million gallons. Republic qualified for almost $40,000 in incentives. The MWD paid 50% of the incentive, $19,500, to help the company with upfront installation costs. The balance of the incentive was paid following completion of the monitoring to verify the savings.
According to Republic, it had earlier reduced water use when it installed the tunnel washers that move laundry through a series of modular units, dispensing the precise amount of cleaning agents at the proper time, thereby requiring far less water than conventional washers.
Recycling Paper Mill Water
Kimberly-Clark’s mill in Fullerton, CA, produces facial tissue on two paper machines that use some 500 million gallons of water annually. Two projects in the final stages of construction will eventually reduce the company’s annual $1.4 million water and wastewater treatment costs by 40% according to Brian Keating, facilities services team leader at Kimberly-Clark.
First, a reverse osmosis filtration system is being installed to reduce total dissolved solids in the incoming water supply. That supply is notoriously hard, containing high levels of dissolved solids that reduce the productivity of the mill’s manufacturing and cooling processes, Keating says.
In the second project, plant engineers plan to install water recovery and recycling systems that are designed to improve water-usage efficiency in the non-contact cooling and tissue machine whitewater loops. Recycling the process water will save up to 200 million gallons of water annually, according to Stewart VanHorn, manager of the Fullerton mill. “Recycling will also reduce the amount of wastewater and solids generated by the mill, reducing the stress on municipal sewer and treatment facilities,” he says.
If the projected water-use savings are verified, Kimberly-Clark will earn up to $540,000 in incentives from the MWD, says Keating.
The MWD’s Industrial Conservation Incentive Program, begun in 2005, offers businesses $2.36 per 1,000 gallons of water saved for one year, 50% of the project’s water-related improvement costs, or buy-down of project cost to reduce the simple payback to two years—whichever is less. This program is open to all businesses in the MWD’s six-county, 5,200-square-mile southern California service area. More information can be found at www.bewaterwise.com.
East Bay Municipal Utility District
Across the bay from San Francisco, the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) has created a program to encourage commercial and industrial businesses to install equipment that will reduce water use.
Charles Bohlig, supervisor of water conservation at EBMUD, says, “It’s a heck of a lot easier to get people to reduce water use instead of building a dam or reservoir.” He mentions two projects for which his department is providing incentives. Svenhard’s Bakery has identified a custom-made dishwasher, which would reduce water usage from 36,000 gallons per day to 13,000 gallons per day. EBMUD, as part of its service, has been monitoring the bakery’s water usage and verified the savings potential.
However, the Svenhard’s Board of Directors is nervous about spending the $300,000 to buy the dishwasher. Bohlig says the job of the water conservation program staff is to show Svenhard’s all of the savings potential, not just regarding water but regarding reduced energy use and detergents as well. Should Svenhard’s go ahead with the project, Bohlig estimates the company will receive over $10,000 in incentives.
Reusing Wastewater
Bayer Pharmaceutical, a large customer in EBMUD’s service territory, needs super-clean water to manufacture its medicines. It uses reverse osmosis to super-clean the water and has been dumping the wastewater down the drain. The company now circulates the wastewater to the cooling tower, saving 6,000 to 7,000 gallons per day. Bohlig says the wastewater caused no additional scaling in the tower walls. The payback was so quick, primarily because it involved changing controllers and valving, that Bohlig says no rebates were spent. “It made a good business case,” he says.
Bohlig explains that incentives are paid out only if the payback is longer than two years. Customers should not subsidize what should be a clear business decision, he says, adding that the district has to be involved from the beginning of the project and monitor the water use for a year.
EBMUD also offers water surveys to its commercial and industrial customers. “Typically a customer calls us,” Bohlig says. The staff develops a record of historical water usage going as far back as 1975, if the company was in business then, and analyzes summer and winter baselines and peaks.
Then an EBMUD engineer meets with key decision makers and determines if they’ve been doing water accounting. “If not, they need to integrate it into their business operations,” Bohlig says. The EBMUD engineer, after reviewing the water-usage history with the company managers, tours the plant and looks at the processes that use water, including cooling towers, and the water fixtures. He makes educated estimates, explains Bohlig, of the percentage of water used by appliances and informs the company about the available technologies it can check out and the potential water savings available.
Then it is up to the company to make the choice to move ahead with the recommendations or not.
Energy/Water Saving Synergies
As everyone has commented, there are great synergies between water and energy savings. When water use is reduced, energy to run pumps and heat water is reduced. A water district’s pumping and water treatment expenses are also reduced. To this end, PG&E is designing a program for commercial customers in conjunction with water utilities.
Expected to start up in July, Keely Wachs, a PG&E spokesman, says program details are not yet available. He does say the utility will provide audits and study how water use can be reduced while at the same time reducing energy use at the sites. “If we can reduce total water use, it will also reduce energy use. We see tremendous environmental benefits,” he says.