Saving Water—and Money—With the Power of Plumbing

side of a conference on sustainable water management. So the word sustainable means different things to different people. For a lot or maybe most people, something is sustainable when it doesn't ruin the environment, But others think of sustainability in financial terms. Something is sustainable if I can continue paying for it without going broke. The water utility in the city of San Antonio has an interesting sustainability program that

actually gets it of these definitions of the word. The program is called Plumbers to People and it provides free plumbing services to low income homeowners. That's right, the water utility will send a plumber out to your house for free. So what does the utility get this Well, water is not exactly abundant in San Antonio, so every leaky toilet or shower that gets fixed is less water that the

utility doesn't have to provide. I spoke to Karen Guzz, head of conservation with the San Antonio Water System, to find out more about plumbers to people and about the overlap between water affordability and water conservation. Unfortunately, in San Antonio we have some families that are suffering economically. There are federal guidelines that we have offices in the city that qualify people at one hundred and twenty five percent

of poverty for various services and programs. When people qualify and they own and live in a home, then they qualify for free plumbing repairs that reduce their water bill. Why did San Antonio start this program? What problem did you guys realize and we're trying to solve. Well, it was the first conservation program that San Antonio did over

twenty years ago. We've got a twenty year history of working to reduce our per capita consumption and that program came about out of awareness that we have very socioeconomically diverse community. San Antonio Water System wanted to take care of the people who needed help the most first, so that program went out ahead of any other ones that

we launched to help other customers save water. One of the things that I thought was really notable when you were talking about this is that it seems like it's a win win win for everyone because the person whose homes they get free plumbing, their water bill is reduced. And also San Antonio, the city that you work for, has to supply less water because of in Texas and especially in San Antonio, water is not abundant. Is that the way that the city sees it is that this

is just there's very little downside to this. There isn't much of a downside. You're right, and water conservation is the biggest water supply project that San Antonio has ever accomplished. If we still used water today the way we did twenty years ago, we would need a trillion gallons more every year to meet our community needs. So as long as we can come up with a reasonably cost effective way to save water, like plumbers to people, then that's

a good bargain for the whole community. Tell me about how you guys identify people who are really good fits for this program. Do you figure out who's using the most water or do you just try to spread the net as far and wide as possible. Really, it's networking in the community because people who are struggling economically don't use a lot of water and they may even turn off the water at the meter if they know they have a leak, and that's not a great way to live.

But so we can't just go by a eyebill, so we try to network with other organizations that are helping people in need. That can be churches that can beat the food bank and other social service ages who are going to be aware of who it is may need our help, as well as the city offices where people get qualified. Where does the funding come from for this? Is this donated from charities? Is it tax revenue? Where

does the money come from? We do have a donation fund called Project Agua, but that's not where the money comes from for Plumbers to People. Because Plumbers to People is a conservation program. We have dedicated revenue that are in our reach structure. We have these tiers, and the biggest tier is for use over twenty thousand gallons a month and for water that is charged at that highest price. A small portion of what is charged goes into a

restricted fund, and all of the residential conservation program. Budgeting comes from that fund. That's interesting that you mentioned it's a conservation program that San Antonio doesn't see this as a welfare program or a charitable program. This is a conservation program. What's nice that it's both is honestly how we see it. We listed under our suite of programs that we call Uplift, so we have billing discounts, we

have opportunities to pay on a different schedule. We have a whole suite of things that help people who are in need, and we're proud to list plumbers to people there. But the Conservation Department runs this one because it helps save water. What are some of the challenges to implementing this program. I imagine that any program that involves sending someone onto private property that always is tricky. Can you talk a little bit about that. Yeah, it's administratively a

complicated program. We've been doing it for a long time. Though. We have a plumber under contract with a pretty strict set of guidelines for they have to be vetted to make sure they're okay to go in our customers' homes. Of course in terms of prices, and the customer knows they're coming, they have a time certain appointment. They know exactly who the plumber is and what time to expect them as a security measure. So those are just a

few other basics. And then we have to be certain that we are working with a customer who is a in poverty, has been qualified. It's not a rental property. It's somebody in poverty and they live in the house. That's the intent of the program. So you're not repairing you know, the plumber or the fixtures at that are owned by a landlord. You're preparing the fixtures that are owned by the homeowner. Correct, And so that is a

limitation of the program. Is that what makes sense? Yes, and so landlords really should be fixing their own property that they're renting out. And so this is that is one of the limits. And there are people think we'll do people in poverty own their own homes. Yes, they do. Sometimes the family home has been in the home in the family for generations, or they are seniors and now they're fallen on hard times and they still have that house. So finally I wanted to expand this a little bit.

We're talking about plumbers to people, but you know, low income was supplying water to low income households is a big problem across the country, in some communities more than others, and I wanted to get a sense of is this a solution that could work anywhere and what are some other ways that this could be targeted to deal with this problem, Because if a homeowner can't pay their water bill, that's bad for the homeowner, of course, but it's also bad for the city and bad for the water utility

in particular. Is this something that could be broadened out? We think so. We think this is a program that other utilities are probably going to start looking to in the future. Water prices are going up for very good reasons. We need to improve our water infrastructure in this country, both the water and the sewer infrastructure. And for most of us, the cost of that is not going to be a big deal, probably less than two percent of our income, and so for something so valuable, that's all right.

But for households that are in poverty, every increase is a much bigger chunk of their very limited discretionary income to pay another bill. Water's getting more expensive, and then who who pays for that? I guess that's the question. Yeah, And for most of our customers. We have a conversation with them about what is the value of water? What are you getting when you turn on your faucet at twenty four seven and you know you can drink that water?

And wastewater is an environmental service to the community. Most people get that, they value it, they can accept a reasonable price increase when it has to come along, and so that's there's kind of two issues. One is talking to people about the value of water, and then part of that same value of water conversation is nobody should do without it and what do we do to make sure that that very valuable life giving product that everybody needs to have a reasonable life in the United States

remains in place, even for people struggling. That was Karen Gudz, head of conservation with the San Antonio Water System, talking from the American Waterworks Association Sustainable Water Management Conference in Tucson, Arizona. For more of our reporting on water issues, visit our

website at newsdop Bloomberg Environment dot com. That website, once again is Newstop Bloomberg Environment dot com and if you want to reach out to us on social media, don't forget to use the hashtag parts per b today's episode of Press Pavilion with produced by myself and Just Coombs. Our editor is Marissa Horne, and our audio engineer is Nicholas and Zelada. The music for this episode of Parts Pavilion is a message by Jizarre. Thanks for listening.