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The city’s Water Utility is recommending a rebate plan to encourage residents to buy high-efficiency toilets, which could save about 2.3 million gallons of water daily, the output of one well.
The rebate plan, which would offer $100 per dwelling unit — a third of the cost of installing a high-efficiency toilet — is the centerpiece of the utility’s goal of cutting residential water use by 20 percent by 2020.
Similar conservation efforts could be part of La Crosse’s not-too-distant future, said Water Utility Manager Mark Johnson. While neither city has a water quantity problem, the state likely will develop a water conservation requirement during Gov. Jim Doyle’s tenure, Johnson said.
“We in Wisconsin, for so long, have taken it (water) for granted,” Johnson said. “We do have definitely the responsibility of using the resource and managing it. Maybe we have to look at some of our habits.”
In 2007, La Crosse wells pumped an average of 10.8 million gallons per day, down from 12 million or 13 million per day five or six years ago.
“We have enough wells and storage that we’ve never had any major problems when the demand is at its highest,” he said.
Usage levels peak in the summer months and hit lows just after New Year’s Day. The daily high in 2007 was 22.5 million gallons, Johnson said, and the bottom was just over 5 million gallons.
But with wet months through the beginning of August, this summer has yet to break 17 million gallons in a single day.
“It is absolutely dictated by weather,” Johnson said.
The average La Crosse household uses about 200 gallons per day. And older toilets can use between 3 and 7 gallons per flush, said Madison water utility general manager Tom Heikkinen.
By federal law, manufacturers can no longer make toilets that use more than 1.6 gallons per flush, and high-efficiency, “low-flow” toilets use just 1.28 gallons.
Dean Mosiman is a reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison. Samantha Marcus can be reached at (608) 791-8220 or smarcus@lacrossetribune.com.
