Q&A
Council Member Sandy Nurse inquires about the effectiveness of drought warnings on water consumption
0:51:50
·
3 min
Council Member Sandy Nurse questions DEP Deputy Commissioner Paul Rush about the effectiveness of drought warnings on New Yorkers' water consumption habits. Rush explains that while consumption decreased after the warnings, it's challenging to distinguish between the impact of the messages and seasonal patterns. He discusses historical drought patterns, long-term water conservation trends in NYC, and the difficulty in measuring the effectiveness of drought messaging.
- NYC has seen a decrease in water demand after issuing Drought Watch and Drought Warning
- Despite population growth, current water consumption in NYC is lower than during the 1960s drought of record
- Factors contributing to water conservation include investments in infrastructure, customer feedback systems, and more efficient appliances
Sandy Nurse
0:51:50
Only just had one question.
0:51:52
I was just curious what the response has been to the drought warnings from New Yorkers.
0:51:58
Like, have we seen, consumption like, it was it working, the messaging, that was going out?
0:52:05
I feel like, you know, we saw it because we're in the know and we amplified it.
0:52:08
But I'm actually very curious to see, like, did consumption rates go down, or or is there more thinking that needs to go into those kinds of messages?
Paul Rush
0:52:25
That's a really good question.
0:52:27
We saw a decrease in demand after we issued Drought Watch and Drought Warning.
0:52:33
Obviously, we've also been putting out messages encouraging the public to reduce consumption.
0:52:39
Also, city agencies have been doing their best to reduce consumption.
0:52:44
But it's very difficult to piece out what is the actual savings as a result of that message, and what's the course of just seasonal patterns, increased precipitation.
0:52:56
What we are doing is we're taking a look at records, customer records, and billing to see if we can pick up on those trends so we can understand that better.
0:53:07
So we can also plan and react and understand where, you know, where the reductions are.
0:53:12
This time of the year, when we're reducing consumption, when you have compared to the spring summer, where you have a lot of outdoor use going on, that's where you can really reduce a lot and you can see it visibly and monitor it easily.
0:53:26
This time of the year, that's more difficult.
0:53:28
It's a good question, but we're looking to try to decipher that to understand what actually happened.
Sandy Nurse
0:53:35
I would be really interested in just understanding if those messages were working at some point.
0:53:40
Is there any other period in time where you have had to issue something?
0:53:45
And I know you've been talking about this for a little bit, but where there's any other point where you could have measured those kinds of messaging in the past?
Paul Rush
0:53:58
Yes.
0:53:58
I mean, it's tough.
0:54:00
Back when I first started working for the city in the 90s, we were literally having droughts every other year.
0:54:06
So, we had a more frequent opportunity to see how the message was working or how it worked back then.
0:54:13
And, the last drought we had was 2,001 through 2,003.
0:54:19
So, since that time, we haven't had that opportunity.
0:54:23
But consumption in the city right now, even though we have more than a 1,000,000 and a half more people, at this point, it's much lower than it was during the low point during the drought of record in the 19 sixties, which is tremendous.
0:54:39
I mean, we have that we've done that, and it's been the combination of factors I mentioned.
0:54:43
It's, you know, investments the city's made, you know, the AMR system to get feedback.
0:54:49
Customers can get feedback on their water uses.
0:54:52
And if there's a high use, we can notify the customer directly, the investments we've made in terms of encouraging people to move to low flow devices And also the change in standards to, you know, national plumbing standards have become much, much efficient.
0:55:11
And one of the biggest savings we see right now is this transition from the top loading washing machines to those front loading.
0:55:18
I mean, that reduces a lot and we've seen new and everyday new Yorkers are more conscious of this and, you know, the benefits are to, to the system.
0:55:28
It also saves a tremendous amount of energy in our treatment I mean, our treatment costs in pumping at Croton.
0:55:35
But also on the wastewater side, where any water that comes through, you're pumping that and that requires a lot of energy.
0:55:41
There are benefits of that, but testing the message going that far back in time, that's more difficult.
Sandy Nurse
0:55:47
Thank you.
0:55:47
Thank you for that.
0:55:48
Thank you, chair.
