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Pasco hears plan to cut potable water use 10% over next decade
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Summary
City staff and RH2 Engineering presented a potable water use efficiency update that recommends keeping leakage at or below 10% and a goal to reduce average residential demand from about 330 to 300 gallons per ERU over the next 10 years, while continuing education and targeted customer leak notifications.
Ryan Withers of RH2 Engineering told the City Council and workshop attendees that Pasco’s potable water system shows a sharp seasonal peak in summer, using about 800,000,000 gallons in a peak month, compared with about 200,000,000 in winter. He said Washington’s water‑use‑efficiency rule (first adopted in 2003) requires metering, a program to maintain distribution leakage below 10 percent, and regular updates to the efficiency program. “The main requirements of the rule are to meter all of your source and service connections,” Withers said, “and to maintain less than 10% distribution system leakage.”
The consultant reviewed trends showing the city’s annual potable use rose from about 4.5 billion to 5.5 billion gallons over the last 15 years as the system added roughly 20,000 customers, while average daily per‑household demand declined from about 470 to 330 gallons per ERU. That reduction, Withers said, reflects successful conservation measures and denser housing patterns. He proposed two primary goals for the next 10‑year plan: reduce average day demand per ERU from ~330 to 300 gallons (a roughly 10% drop) and maintain distribution system leakage at or below the state 10% requirement.
To reach those goals, Withers recommended continuing the city’s conservation education, keeping customers’ consumption history on bills, adding proactive customer notifications for suspected leaks, continuing the free low‑flow fixture program, and offering a voluntary lawn‑watering calendar rather than mandatory lawn bans. He advised against a broad leak‑detection program now given Pasco’s ~7.9% three‑year rolling leakage figure (reported as 2024 data), and cautioned a tiered water rate structure could unfairly burden households without access to alternate irrigation supplies.
Council members asked about aquifer storage recovery and whether the city could store winter water for summer use; Withers said ASR is technically possible but costly because the water must be treated to drinking standards when injected and when recovered. He also noted that mandatory watering calendars require enforcement resources and can create neighbor complaints. Staff and Withers told the council the presentation was the first of multiple public forums and that adoption of measures is targeted for later in 2026 after more community feedback. The presentation closed with the city opening public comment; local groups including the Pasco Chamber of Commerce and the Franklin Conservation District urged continued conservation education and exploring irrigation‑specific fixes for large potable use customers such as schools.
