Redmond WMCP and Water Conservation Program Support

GSI helped the City develop its WMCP (approved by the Oregon Water Resources Department in 2013), which described the City’s current and future water needs, water rights, water curtailment plan, and water conservation measures. GSI also helped the City develop a required 5-year WMCP Progress Report in 2018.

GSI now provides outreach and communications support to help the City of Redmond improve its water conservation program and meet water conservation benchmarks outlined in its WMCP. We develop consumer-friendly content to increase awareness about concrete actions that Redmond water customers can take to reduce water use. Outreach materials include newsletter and web content, billing messages and inserts, brochures and door hangers, and content for the City’s annual water quality report. We also have collaborated with Redmond elementary schools to develop and teach lessons about Redmond’s groundwater supply and water conservation. Additionally, GSI currently is helping the City to develop and launch a rebate program that will provide incentives to customers to buy and install devices to improve irrigation system efficiency.

Measuring the Impact and Value of Conservation

As part of our work for the City, GSI teamed with a water conservation engineering firm to conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis of several potential water conservation programs. We used a modeling tool to develop water demand projections with and without water savings from conservation and to compare projected financial benefits, costs, and water savings of individual water conservation measures. We also used the model to project benefits and costs through 2042 of three conservation programs, each consisting of an array of different indoor and outdoor water conservation measures. The resulting analysis helped the City prioritize investments in conservation programming and focus on elements that provide the most value, such as measures that help residential and commercial customers reduce summer water use.

GSI’s work involved:

• Developing a suite of consumer-friendly outreach materials, and providing ongoing support for the development of new content.
• Creating elementary school-appropriate lessons and teaching students about the City’s water supply and the importance of protecting it.
• Using a modeling tool to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of various conservation programs the City could implement.
• Helping design a new rebate program for weather-based irrigation controllers, rotating sprinkler nozzles, and soil moisture sensors.
• Analyzing the City’s code and building permit review process to find opportunities to encourage water conservation.
• Assisting with development of a plan to monitor conservation program costs and water savings.