WAILUKU - In whatever economic scenarios he draws up for the Water Use and Development Plans, county water consultant Carl Freedman says conservation plays an important role.
The Department of Water Supply has been urging conservation for years, handing out free low-flow shower heads and conducting publicity campaigns. But Freedman said the county needs "a new level of intensity," even going in and replacing old high-flow toilets.
The department has just produced preliminary figures from an aggressive conservation program it funded at Ka Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Resource Center in Wailuku. In September, the water department donated 82 high-efficiency toilets and two waterless urinals to the shelter, as well as 276 low-flow shower heads and 348 faucet aerators there and at Hale Makana O Waiale low-income apartments next door.
Even with some of the fixtures remaining to be installed, the drop in water consumption has been even better than anticipated, according to Tui Anderson, the department's conservation specialist. Indoor water use before the project was 26,000 gallons per day. Now it is 13,000 gpd - just half as much.
The total cost of the toilets was $20,600. Anderson and Freedman calculated the payback period as about one year, on the simplest assumption - figuring $200 per toilet, no cost for installation, and saving on the highest-tier water rate of $3.90 per thousand gallons.
For a single-family house, the payback period would be five to seven years, because with less total usage, the house would not often reach the highest tier.
However, that is the simple calculation. It did not take any account of the savings in energy from using less heated water in the showers.
"It was a valuable project for us," Anderson says.
Executive Director Rebecca Woods says, "We are very appreciative. The project will reduce our overall costs on our water bill and will help us tremendously, especially since we are dependent on state, county, federal and private funds. The money saved will go to providing better services for our clients."
The new toilets use 1.28 gallons per flush, compared with 3.5 gallons.
The current county code calls for 1.6-gallon toilets in new construction, but Freedman says a move to 1.28-gallon toilets could be made as part of a long-range water development plan.
* Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@mauinews.com.
