Water Resources Department Municipal Water Management

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Water Resources Department

Municipal Water Management

The Conservation Corner

A Request for your Consideration and Input for Possible Improvements to the Guidebook for Municipal Water Management and Conservation Plans

It’s been almost 10 years since the “Water Management and Conservation Plans: A Guidebook for Oregon Municipal Water Suppliers (May 2003)” was developed through a joint effort sponsored by the League of Oregon Cities (LOC), the Oregon Water Utilities Commission (OWUC) and the Special Districts Association of Oregon. A Review Committee (consisting of members from LOC, OWUC, the Oregon Department of Water Resources (OWRD) and representatives from municipal water suppliers) provided oversight on development and preparation of the guidance.

Since its publication, many municipal water suppliers have utilized the guidebook to help prepare their Water Management and Conservation Plan (WMCP) for submittal to OWRD for review and approval. OWRD has learned a lot during this time, and while WMCP quality has improved, there are opportunities to provide better direction and guidance to water suppliers that need to develop a municipal WMCP. Click here to find out more.

Purpose

The Municipal Water Management and Conservation Planning program provides a process for municipal water suppliers to develop plans to meet future water needs. Many municipal water suppliers are required to prepare plans under water right permit conditions. In addition, with the revision of the permit extension rules in fall 2002, communities seeking long-term permit extensions will be required to prepare plans. These plans will be used to demonstrate the communities´ needs for increased diversions of water under the permits as their demands grow.

A municipal plans provides a description of the water system, identifies the sources of water used by the community, and explains how the water supplier will manage and conserve supplies to meet future needs. Preparation of a plan is intended to represent a pro-active evaluation of the management and conservation measures that suppliers can undertake. The planning program requires municipal water suppliers to consider water that can be saved through conservation practices as a source of supply to meet growing demands if the saved water is less expensive that developing new supplies. As such, a plan represents an integrated resource management approach to securing a community´s long-term water supply.

Many of the elements required in a plan are also required under similar plans by the Drinking Water Section of the state Department of Human Services (water system master plans) and Department of Land Conservation and Development (public facilities plans). Water providers can consolidate overlapping plan elements and create a single master plan that meets the requirements of all three programs. The state agencies involved in oversight and funding of community water supply projects have developed the Guidelines for Community Water Project Planning (PDF 996 KB) to aid in preparation of these plans.

Program Implementation

The Water Resources Department anticipates receiving as many as 200 municipal water management and conservation plans within the next three years. These plans will be submitted to comply with the requirements under the permit extension process and to secure Department authorization for increased diversion under extended permits.

To aid municipal suppliers in preparing plans and complying with the updated rules, the League of Oregon Cities (LOC), in cooperation with the Oregon Water Utility Council and Special Districts Association, commissioned preparation of a guidebook for developing water management and conservation plans. The guidebook may be ordered or downloaded at LOC´s publications site. LOC also sponsored three workshops (PDF 2.2 MB) to give community water providers guidance on using the manual.

Water Resources Department staff also have conducted workshops to assist communities in preparation of water management and conservation plan. The most recent workshop (PDF 1.5 MB) was held in Bend in 2001. The plan matrix (PDF 135 KB) prepared by Department staff also provides information on plan content and is in the format of the checklist that staff use when reviewing plans

Water Conservation Materials