Coppell unveils water‑use dashboard; New Tech students propose a 1.67 buffer for non‑watering days

Coppell — City staff on March 11 presented a new water‑conservation dashboard designed to track daily consumption across service types and make restrictions more transparent; students from New Tech High School then presented a classroom analysis recommending a 1.67 multiplier as a buffer above winter average for non‑watering‑day enforcement.

City presentation

Jerry Young, business analyst in strategic financial engagement, said the dashboard was developed after the 2023 heat wave (more than 30 days exceeding 100°F) pushed daily demand close to the city's allocation from Dallas Water Utilities (DWU). Young said the dashboard will be accessible from the City of Coppell website under the utility‑billing tab and will display interactive charts including previous‑day consumption by service type, historical monthly consumption and recent five‑day totals.

James Meyer, assistant director of public works, said conservation measures implemented in 2024 — notably a mandatory two‑day‑per‑week watering schedule — likely helped reduce peak demand in 2024 compared with 2023. Meyer said the city’s maximum allocation is 18.5 million gallons per day (MGD) and that in 2024 the city did not reach that maximum; the closest approach was within about 1.7 million gallons per day on July 16, 2024. He said the dashboard will refresh weekly and the city will encourage residents to use the myH2O portal to track household usage and sign up for leak alerts.

Student project — a statistical buffer

New Tech AP statistics students presented a class project titled the Ripple Effect: Water Awareness for the Future. Students sampled multiple properties from the city’s dataset and applied statistical techniques to propose a buffer that allows some household variation on non‑watering days without triggering a violation. The students’ recommendation: permit water use up to 1.67 times a property’s winter average on non‑watering days.

Students described their method: they calculated the winter average for properties, computed per‑property standard deviations and combined standard deviations across sampled properties (the combined result equated to about 3.039 standard deviations in the students’ analysis), then tested the proposed buffer by marking histograms of sampled household usage. The students said the 1.67 buffer would accommodate day‑to‑day variation while offering a clear threshold for enforcement.

Why it matters

The dashboard gives residents and city staff better transparency into daily consumption trends and violations during drought or restriction periods. The student analysis provides a candidate statistical rule that the city could test to reduce false positives when enforcing watering restrictions — a practical example of how classroom analytics can support municipal policy.

Speakers

- Jerry Young, Business Analyst, Strategic Financial Engagement (staff presentation) - James Meyer, Assistant Director, Public Works (staff commentary) - Mr. Porzio, New Tech High School (teacher) and students Rebecca McKay, Sarah Volker and Ananya (student presenters)

Clarifying details

- City allocation and 2023 stress: city has an 18.5 MGD allocation from DWU; 2023 included multiple days at or near the limit. - 2024 outcomes: city did not reach the maximum allocation in 2024; closest approach approximately 1.7 million gallons below the maximum on July 16, 2024; only three days exceeded 16,000,000 gallons in 2024 (presenter statements). - Dashboard features: four interactive charts (previous‑day consumption by service type, historical monthly consumption, previous five‑day totals, consumption by service type), terms/definitions and ability to display table views; dashboard refresh set to weekly. - Student recommendation: buffer of 1.67× winter average on non‑watering days based on sampling and combined standard deviation analysis (students’ class methodology).

Provenance

Dashboard presentation: transcript segment beginning s=5505.07 (Jerry Young introduction) through s=6078.15 (staff questions). Student presentation: transcript segment beginning s=8158.555 (intro to New Tech presentation) through s=9187.320 (student Q&A and close).

Topics scoring: {"topic_relevance":1.00,"depth_score":0.85,"opinionatedness":0.05,"controversy":0.20,"civic_salience":0.85,"impactfulness":0.70,"geo_relevance":1.00}