Currently the City has a bimonthly newsletter that is sent to
all citizens. This newsletter is used to inform the citizens of Grand
Junction of changes the City is planning, such as parks development,
land and water use decisions, annexation policies, water conservation,
upcoming programs or just general “what’s happening.”
City personnel are available to address various civic and service
organizations, as well as school classes.
(Res. 49-96, 5-15-96)
The City offers school programs, including tours of the water
treatment plant, to teachers and students in addition to our customers.
These tours are a vital link to help adults and children understand
the importance of conservation in their lives and the relationship
of water supply and the protection of that water supply.
Teacher training workshops for recertification credits are available
in cooperation with the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
Ute Water’s Annual Children’s Water Festival is
a major activity in which conservation plays a large role. The annual
average attendance is 1,500 fifth-grade students, plus teachers, during
the day-long event. City of Grand Junction and Clifton Water District
participate and contribute to this event. The 1996 event will include
an evening event for adults to attend and participate in festival.
(Res. 49-96, 5-15-96)
(a)
The City of Grand Junction is committed in its effort to provide
an accurate measurement and record of water use as an aid to promote
water conservation. Metering is used to make a customer more aware
of how much water they are using. The Water Department has maintained
an active metering program since its inception.
(b)
The City has over 99 percent of its customers metered. The customers
not metered are Lincoln Park, which is scheduled to become 100 percent
metered by 1997, the downtown shopping park, and numerous median strips
around the City. The City has an ongoing program of meter repair,
replacement and recalibration. Residential meters are presently being
replaced under a program that will see the whole system changed out
within six years. The larger meters of one and one-half inches and
greater will be completely retrofitted to externally read meters (AMRs)
by end of 1997. These meters will be retested a minimum of once every
five years.
(c)
The City’s Water Department reads all water meters monthly
and sends bills to customers approximately 20 days later.
(1)
The City’s Water Department meters over 99 percent of the system’s
services. These meters are read by City’s meter readers.
(2)
The approximate current number of active accounts in the system is
8,500.
(3)
The City currently utilizes two types of meters. On all meter installations
one-and-one-half-inch and larger, an externally read meter (AMR) is
used. On all residential and commercial meters one inch and smaller,
a direct read meter is used.
(4)
The current program utilized by the City is to monitor, repair or
replace meters based on manufacturer’s recommendations and as
follows:
(5)
The only reference available for the City of Grand Junction to compare
the effects of its current metering program is to look at annual water
consumption figures from the past. The records from previous years
indicate that growth rate for customers in the City’s water
system is fairly flat at 0.529 percent annually. A similar trend can
be noted for consumption for past years. A decrease in “unaccounted-for”
water in 1995 is due to large meter replacement program.
(7)
The long-range goals that the City has for improving the metering
program are as follows:
(i)
One hundred percent installation of one-and-one-half-inch and larger
meters by end of 1997 with externally read meters (AMR).
(ii)
One hundred percent installation of one-inch and smaller meters
by year 2001 with direct read meters.
(iii)
One hundred percent installation of one-inch and smaller with
external read meters (AMR) on all accounts that require more time
than normal to access a reading. This includes meters in basements,
meter pits that require pumping monthly, etc.
(iv)
Confined entry meter pit installations are almost eliminated.
This reduces safety hazards and generates more accurate meter readings.
(Res. 49-96, 5-15-96)
The City of Grand Junction employs a full-time maintenance crew
which works eight hours daily, Monday through Friday, and has staff
on call the remaining 16 hours and weekends. This crew responds as
soon as possible to all leaks and breaks. Any equipment found to be
substandard is replaced through a regular maintenance program. One
of the most advantageous aspects of the City’s water system
is that almost all of the distribution system is located along public
rights-of-way. This allows frequent observation of these areas by
people using these areas in addition to normal maintenance checks
by the City’s Water Department.
The City makes every effort to reduce the amount of leakage
to zero percent. The City has also funded the upgrading and replacement
of older, deteriorated water mains. This is possible through the Water
Department capital improvement program. During the 10-year period
1996 through 2005, $10,092,000 is expected to be spent in water system
upgrades.
(a)
The City’s Water Department performs leaks surveys which include
pressure drop surveys, the use of geophones, and the investigation
of dirty water complaints.
(b)
The City’s maintenance crews respond as soon as possible to
reports of actual or detected leaks. They assess each situation individually
by making the appropriate shutoffs to isolate the leak and reduce
the volume of lost water. They then weight the economic factors of
scheduling the repair for normal work hours versus overtime hours.
If the leak or break is substantial and would cause a large volume
of lost water or create any unsafe situation in comparison to the
cost of the repair, they would then repair the break or leak immediately.
Otherwise, the repair would be scheduled for normal daytime work hours.
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(c)
The last year’s efforts were as follows:
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Number of leaks detected:
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92 watermain breaks
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5 service leaks
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Number of leaks repaired
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97 total
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(d)
The problems associated with the City’s current leak detection
and system rehabilitation program are the City’s current personnel
occasionally have difficulty keeping up with the work load when they
are busy performing their normal maintenance duties and additional
incidents occur which require their attention, such as new construction,
water taps, sewer maintenance work, leaks, etc.
(e)
The City of Grand Junction spends approximately 22 percent of the
Water Department’s budget annually on system rehabilitation
and leak detection.
(f)
The financing for capital improvements is allowed through the annual
revenues from the sale of water to the City’s customers.
(h)
The City is incorporating these long-range goals into their planning
by replacing watermains in bad condition with new and/or larger ones.
The City is also eliminating dead ends and looping water mains, where
possible. The Water Department crews either perform these installations
or advertise them for competitive bidding.
(Res. 49-96, 5-15-96)
The City of Grand Junction has been involved in a reservoir
management group since 1927. This group is formally called the Grand
Mesa Reservoir Pool and is made up of all of the owners of reservoirs
on Grand Mesa which empty into Kannah Creek.
There are 13 reservoirs in this pool which are used for the
purpose of storing irrigation and municipal waters which, during summer
months, are discharged into Kannah Creek, as desired and required
by owners and users thereof.
The City representative has been in control of the operation
of this pool since the mid 1970s and has operated the reservoirs to
maximize water quality along with minimizing evaporation losses. Even
though the reservoirs sit at an elevation of roughly 10,000 feet above
sea level, they have a potential for substantial evaporation losses
due to the shallowness of reservoirs themselves. This shallowness
not only lends itself to evaporation losses but also to proliferation
of algae growth.
It is for both of these reasons that it is critical to time
the releases out of reservoirs to maximize water quality for municipal
usage and to minimize evaporation losses to get the most beneficial
use from water supply.
(Res. 49-96, 5-15-96)
Grand Junction has always tried to maintain a balance between
the economics for the demand side of treated domestic water and capital
costs of delivering this water. In the mid 1980s it was apparent that
the demand on the treated water system was beginning to overtake the
supply side. It was during this time that changes were made that would
increase the supply side of treated water system by lessening the
burden of supplying treated water to the Lincoln Park Golf Course
and municipal cemeteries. In 1986, the municipal cemeteries were converted
to a raw water source that is made up of recycled backwash water from
water treatment facility. The water still comes from Kannah Creek
basin and is a high quality water source, but by converting the cemeteries
to raw water it reduced the impact of treating this water and eliminated
the potential of certain pathogenic organisms from concentrating and
being reintroduced into raw water feed to treatment plant. This change,
which involved the installation of one valve and a few feet of PVC
water line, reduced the demand on treated water system by 50 million
gallons per year and a peak daily demand of up to one-half million
gallons per day.
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The other change made to reduce demand on treated water system
was converting Lincoln Park Golf Course to an untreated raw water
source in 1990. A waterline was constructed from golf course to Grand
Valley irrigation canal during construction of a sanitary sewer project
to help reduce project costs. A lake on the golf course was lined
to prevent losses and new pump system designed to maximize pressure
and efficiency was installed near lake. This new pump system was tied
into sprinkling system for golf course and treated water system was
physically disconnected to prevent cross connection with untreated
water.
This new system was designed to supply adequate water and pressure
for maximum coverage and eliminate the practice of watering that was
more like flood irrigation than a modern underground sprinkling system.
This new system reduced treated water demand by 100,000,000 gallons
per year and reduced daily peak demand by as much as 2,000,000 gallons
per day.
(Res. 49-96, 5-15-96)
The Grand Junction Residential Retrofit Pilot Project began
in April 1991. The Colorado Office of Water Conservation managed the
project with the help of the Grand Junction Utilities Department,
the Office of Energy Conservation and area consultants.
Retrofit projects are not new. A few aspects of this project,
however, made it unique. The project was designed to include monitoring
and evaluation of both water and energy consumption. The project also
set out to determine water savings potential and customer satisfaction
of more sophisticated retrofit devices. The devices used in this project
include the “Future Flush,” a dual-flush (two option)
device, and the “ShowerSpa” shower head.
Approximately 100 single-family homeowners agreed to participate
in an 18-month project to help city officials determine water saving
potential from plumbing retrofit devices. Homeowners were then provided
with 2.0 gallons per minute flow “ShowerSpa” shower heads,
faucet aerators and “Future Flush” toilet devices for
all bathrooms and sinks. Free plumbing help was provided to homeowners
that requested assistance in installing the devices. Water and energy
consumption was collected monthly for evaluation. Surveys of participating
homeowners were conducted as part of the project. An attempt was made
to ensure the pilot project emulated “real life” water
use.
The overall goal of the Grand Junction Residential Retrofit
Project was to develop information regarding the economic impact of
a retrofit program and the water utility’s return on program
investment. The project was designed to accomplish this goal through
the following objectives:
(a)
To determine changes in water and energy usage from a residential
plumbing fixture retrofit;
(b)
To determine the program cost effectiveness for both residents and
the Grand Junction water utility;
(c)
To determine long-term water savings potential from retrofit;
(d)
To evaluate device acceptance levels from homeowners.
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Energy consumption data was collected for an 18-month period
ending in October 1992 while water consumption data continues to be
monitored. The original 18-month period included one full winter water-use
season which is important to isolate interior water use from exterior
use and weather variables.
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Based on the results outlined in this report it is difficult to determine the long-range savings in energy consumption based on any 18-month time period. Gas and electrical consumption have too many variables that do not correlate across to water consumption. We cannot say for sure if this 18-month data collection period and the previous 24-month baseline period were normal, and all variables within both time periods equivalent. The results of the water consumption data (a decrease in water consumption of nine percent to 12 percent during winter months, and overall decease of four percent to eight percent for the entire retrofit project) shows that the retrofit project does make a significant impact for residents. The impacts for our water utility and more information on this project can be found in GJMC § 13.36.340, Appendix 1 and retrofit program summary.
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(Res. 49-96, 5-15-96)
The Mesa County Plumbing Code requires water saving devices
for all new construction. Moderate water saving devices include low
flow shower heads using a maximum of 3.0 gallons per minute, low volume
flush toilets using 3.5 gallons per flush cycle, low flow faucets
using a maximum of 2.75 gallons per minute, and water efficient dishwashers.
(Res. 49-96, 5-15-96)
