States With Severe Drought Top Water Efficiency, Conservation Rankings

ACROSS AMERICA ? Despite prolonged drought conditions, California, Texas and Arizona led the nation in water efficiency and conservation in a new analysis of state policy released Wednesday by the Alliance for Water Efficiency.

California scored 72.5 out of a possible 89 points in the 2022 U.S. State Policy Scorecard for Water Efficiency and Sustainability report from the Alliance, a nonprofit organization whose members include water utilities, conservation groups and businesses.

Texas had a score of 54.5, and Arizona had a score of 50.

Making sure water is available and affordable is a matter of survival everywhere as drought-fueled climate change threatens water supplies, but especially in drought-stricken states in the West and Southwest, the Alliance for Water Efficiency.

States were surveyed on 23 questions on a variety of policies, including those addressing a wide range of sustainability issues, for the 2022 report. Reports are issued every five years, with the first in 2012.

The Alliance for Water Efficiency scorecard was developed to encourage state legislators to adopt policies addressing water efficiency, conservation, and sustainability.

What?s happening in Colorado River Basin states is a cautionary story as drought becomes increasingly common across the country, the report noted. Nearly every U.S. state experienced some level of drought in 2022.

Atmospheric river storms have put a dent in California?s drought, but not enough to offset the moisture deficits that have been entrenched for two or three years, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. While the improvement is significant, most of the state remains in the ?severe? or ?moderate? categories of drought, with small areas of the far northwest and far southwest in a status described as ?abnormally dry,? the lowest level.

The state ranked first in the Colorado River Basin region, which also includes Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah And Wyoming. In June, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation called on those states to significantly reduce water use or face the prospect of the federal government stepping in.

The Colorado River system supplies water and hydropower to about 40 million people. At a Senate hearing in June, Bureau of Reclamation hydraulic engineer James Prairie said predictions continue to show lower flows into Lakes Powell and Mead, the two largest reservoirs in the United States. Both recently hit the lowest levels on record, and by early 2024, water levels in Lake Powell could be too low for hydropower turbines to operate and generate electricity.

While some states improved since the organization?s last scorecard in 2017, the analysis found little progress overall, even as droughts and other climate change effects increasingly undermine affordable, reliable water service, the report said, noting a state average score of only 23 out of 89 possible points.

?Providing sustainable water services is increasingly costly and complicated because of climate change and other factors,? Ron Burke, the president and CEO of the Alliance for Water Efficiency, said in a news release. ?It?s important that states, as well as the federal government, support local efforts to reduce water use with financial assistance, policies that drive best practices, and planning that facilitates cooperation across watersheds.?

Effective state-level water conservation policies are even more important now that the U.S. Congress has authorized billions of dollars in loans and grants for water services as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, the report said. Many of these funds will be administered by states and can only be maximized with good state policies in place.

Other key findings in the report include:

• Connecticut was the only state that reported using its own funds to support customer water bill assistance
• California is the only state that requires water utilities to plan for climate change
• 18 states use their own revenues to fund water efficiency and conservation
• 16 states provide funding for water reuse.
• 13 states require rate structures that encourage water efficiency
• 19 states require coordination between local land use and water planning agencies.
• 10 states have adopted point-of-sale plumbing efficiency requirements that exceed federal standards since 2017.