Implementing ASCE Water-Conservation Policy

In April 1991, the ASCE's Board of Direction adopted the Water Conservation Policy Statement developed by the ASCE's National Water Policy Committee. The Board officially supports the conservation of water as an essential aspect of water-resources management and recognizes that water conservation should include activities that promote the efficient use and management of water. This paper summarizes the results of survey data received from 47 Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies member agencies as an indication of the efforts being made by water utilities throughout the nation to implement the activities encouraged in the ASCE Water Conservation Policy Statement. The paper also contains a brief summary of the Seattle Water Department's current and planned water-conservation programs, and the department's experience with water-use-curtailment measures that successfully augmented the ongoing water-conservation programs during the 1987 and 1992 droughts in the state of Washington.