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126 the city talk about water conservation and how it was promoting it, Mr. Culver <br />127 advised that staff would be seeking feedback from the City Council on what they <br />128 would be comfortable pursuing or committing to and directing staff on what options <br />129 they should explore, such as those outlined by Mr. Sandstrom. Mr. Culver stated <br />130 that staff was seeking feedback from the PWETC to present or recommend to the <br />131 City Council for possible implementation. As an example, Mr. Culver asked if the <br />132 city should focus on education or explore a rebate program, funded either through <br />133 grant or through the water utility rate structure to promote conservation. <br />134 <br />135 Further discussion included identifying the target residential household or <br />136 commercial user; focus on residential users if appliance rebates; focus on <br />137 commercial or higher density residential users; restrictions on lawn watering or <br />138 rebates for water sense technology for irrigation systems. <br />139 <br />140 Specific to commercial water users, Chair Cihacek opined they could and would do <br />141 a much better job in using their irrigation systems if there was a cost for them not <br />142 using an irrigation management plan, including taking weather and precipitation <br />143 into consideration. However, Chair Cihacek noted the need to review their <br />144 management plans before fering any subsidization. <br />145 IW <br />146 Specific to residential users, Chair Cihacek expressed his interest in a rebate <br />147 program once the cost was better defined; opining it was hard to consider a <br />148 recommendation without knowing what specific rebate was considered and its <br />149 long-term impact to the city's asset management program. <br />150 <br />151 From an infrastructure standpoint, Mr. Culver responded that it was difficult to <br />152 realistically correlate water conservation and the use of less water with <br />153 infrastructure savings. With the exception of less wear and tear on the pumps in <br />154 booster stations or use of smaller pumps with reduced water usage, Mr. Culver <br />155 reported it would require a signAWt reduction in water use to make any <br />156 significant impacts to the cost of the city's infrastructure and its ongoing <br />157 maintenance. Mr. Culver n d the city was still required to distribute water to <br />158 every household and business within the community, with all pipes already in the <br />159 ground and sized for a certain amount of use. Mr. Culver noted the only <br />160 infrastructure savings would therefore be at the booster stations if the city wasn't <br />161 pumping as much water daily, also impacting energy savings realized by the city <br />162 for pumping a certain amount of water. <br />163 qW <br />164 Mr. Culver suggested while there may be some potential usage savings for residents <br />165 long-term, the overall cost of water would only continue going up as it becomes a <br />166 more valuable resource in the future and exponentially more restrictions are <br />167 mandated on groundwater pumping. Obviously, Mr. Culver noted the less water a <br />168 community used, the less money was spent, but with the current pricing structure, <br />169 the city paid for the water it used and that cost was passed on by the city to its <br />170 customers. However, Mr. Culver noted the interest in promoting long-term savings <br />Page 4 of 17 <br />