Residential water use spikes
Commercial water consumption drops, likely due to pandemic; city says heat could be behind higher home use
At first glance, the numbers make sense: Commercial water use in the city of Santa Fe has plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic — when many businesses were forced to close for weeks — while water use in homes has increased significantly.
City water officials are confident the 29 percent drop in commercial use between March 11 and June 30, compared to the same period last year, is related to business closures and cutbacks amid the ongoing pandemic.
But they’re not certain the increase in residential water use during that time frame — a jump of 18 percent — is due to the governor’s statewide stay-athome public health order.
The state order did lead to Santa Fe residents spending far more time at home as school buildings closed, workers suffered mass layoffs and many other employees began working from home.
However, officials say much of the spike in residential spring and early summer water use between 2019 and 2020 is more likely because higher temperatures are prompting people to use more city water outdoors on thirsty gardens, trees and lawns.
“I would say probably more than half of that increase is probably a result of temperatures and not just the fact that people are using extra water at home during the pandemic,” said Jesse Roach, the city of Santa Fe’s water division director.
The theory is based on an analysis of four years of water-use data.
There are strong correlations between water-use figures in 2020 and 2018 — both years with above-average summer temperatures.
Data from the National Weather Service in Albuquerque show temperatures in the last week of June 2018, when city residents used over 9 million gallons of water per day, hovered between the mid-80s and the mid-90s, similar to this year’s temperatures for the week, when residents used about 8.5 million gallons a day.
In comparison, amid cooler temperatures for the same week in 2017 and 2019, Santa Fe residents used
just over 8 million gallons of water per day.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an initial emergency health order March 11, when cases of the novel coronavirus were first reported in the state. Between that day and June 30, commercial water use deceased by 29 percent over the prior year — an average of about a half-million gallons of water per day.
Residential water use, meanwhile, went up by 18 percent — an average of just under a million gallons per day.
Along with higher temperatures, the city has seen lower-than-average levels of rainfall this year.
The city sits in an area of Santa Fe County where it straddles “abnormally dry” and “moderate drought” conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
But the amount of rainfall does not figure easily into the wateruse equation, Roach said, in part because it’s difficult to accurately gauge rainfall across the city.
“We can get one-half-inch of rain on one side of town and no rain on the other,” he said. “Whereas, if it’s hot on one side of town, it’s hot on the other side.”
Rising temperatures and less rainfall due to climate change are expected to put increasing pressure on the city’s water resources in years to come.
“We believe that climate change is and will continue to make our water supply less reliable, and is and will continue to increase demand for outdoor water use,” Roach said in an email. “We are planning for these challenges and are focused on reclaimed water as a key to future resilience.”
He was referring to a $20 million project to build a pipeline that would carry treated e±uent from the wastewater treatment plant on the city’s south side through a 17-mile pipeline to the Rio Grande rather than releasing into the southern end of the Santa Fe River — as the city does now.
Roach and other officials have said this would give the city “return flow river credits” that would, in essence, allow it to draw more water for residential use from the Rio Grande through its Buckman Direct Diversion.
The design and construction phase of the proposed project, part of the city’s long-range water plan, was approved by the City Council in December.
Melissa McDonald, the city’s river and watershed manager, said officials also hope to get a better understanding of rainfall across the city and how it relates to water use.
The Santa Fe River Commission is working with the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network — better known as CoCoRaHS (and pronounced ko-ko-roz) — to initiate a citywide water gauging program, she said.
The network’s volunteer weather observers take daily precipitation readings.
Ideally, the city would rely on up to 50 volunteers, each with a gauge, who would monitor rainfall levels all over the city at the same time every day.
This would help city officials figure out just how much rain the city actually gets every year and what impact that might have on outdoor water use among residents.
“We’d hoped to kick this off prior to this monsoon season but have been delayed with the COVID-19 restrictions,” McDonald said. “This will be a perfect outlet for weather enthusiasts, river stewards, scientists and students who want to help us collect valuable data.”
Like Roach, McDonald doesn’t believe the extra residential water use is the result of people bathing more while they remain more isolated in their homes.
“They’re probably washing clothes more,” she said. “They may be drinking more water because they’re home and not at work.”
But, she added, “My girlfriends tell me, ‘I don’t have to wash my hair every day anymore. I don’t have any place to go.’ ”
HOW TO HELP
◆ To participate in the city of Santa Fe’s upcoming rainfall gauging effort, which aims to help determine the exact levels of precipitation the city receives each year and how that correlates with water use, email river and watershed manager Melissa McDonald at mamcdonald@santafenm.gov or call 505955-6840 to schedule training.