Rapid City isn't alone in promoting water conservation.

Whether it's because to drought or just the desire to use less, other cities in the West offer public education and awareness programs to customers about benefits of conserving the valuable resource.

Most have restrictions spelling out when people can water lawns or wash cars. They also offer varying incentives for installing low-flow toilets and shower heads, rain sensors and other water-saving fixtures.

Fort Collins turns toilets into roads

Fort Collins, Colo. doesn't offer a rebate yet on low-flow toilets, but it does have a recycling program that lets people who have installed the new toilets turn in their old commodes to be crushed and combined with aggregate for use as road base.

Laurie D'Audney, water conservation specialist, said Fort Collins got serious about conserving in 1992 when it adopted a management policy spelling out a dozen conservation measures and water-use goals designed to improve the city's own use of water and educate the public about conservation's benefits.

The city offers a public education and tips about water conservation and energy savings for homes and businesses, and provides landscaping workshops, xeriscaping information, a lawn watering guide and sprinkler system tips. It also offers zero-interest loans to utility customers who make home improvements that save energy or water or improve air quality.

D'Audney said the city is considering measures over the next year or so that could include rebates for low-flow toilets and irrigation systems, and grants for homeowners associations that update their irrigation systems.

"It's something our customers want," she said. "We're not real short of water here in Fort Collins, but we did have a pretty good drought from 2002 to 2004. We don't have a lot of storage so even if we have a good water year we don't have anyplace to put the extra water."

Conservation appears to be working. From 1998 to 2001 the average total annual water use in Fort Collins was about 200 gallons per person, per day. Since 2003, it's been an average of about 155 gallons per person, per day. Rapid City's 67,000 people used an average of 139.5 gallons per person, per day in 2008.

Water users cut back in dry Cheyenne

Winds whipping through the plains caused Cheyenne to ban outdoor watering during the heat of the day as part of a water conservation and drought response program begun in 2003.

"If you've ever been to Wyoming, you know why," said Clint Bassett, water conservation specialist. "The wind is fierce. You lose the vast majority of water just through evaporation during the day."

Watering is limited to three days per week, recycled water is used to irrigate athletic fields and parks and people are prohibited from using water to clean hard surfaces like driveways. Sometime this year, Cheyenne plans to offer low-flow toilet rebates.

Bassett said Cheyenne was hit hard by drought in 2002 but the reservoirs that collect snowmelt from watersheds along three mountain ranges have recovered and are now about 5 percent above average.

Conservation efforts allow the city to extend the life of its water system and delay expensive plant upgrades, Bassett said.

"We're also demonstrating stewardship. A water utility in a community really has stewardship over the community's investment in the water system," he said.

Five years ago, Cheyenne was using about 18,000 acre feet of water per year. Since the conservation effort began, use has dropped to about 13,700 acre feet per year, Bassett said.

"It had a huge impact. That's a 20 percent decrease," he said.

Drought pushes Boise to save and educate

The city of Boise does not own or operate its water system - the private United Water Idaho handles that. The company provides free rain sensors and hose timer/trigger spray nozzle kits to its customers, along with an extensive education program about water-efficient landscaping and drought-tolerant plants.

But Boise does promote saving water, through a conservation and source-protection education program that has grown over the past 15 years.

The city recently built a nearly $3 million, high-tech watershed environmental education center using a combination of public and private funds.

Catherine Chertudi, Boise's environmental programs manager, said the city works extensively with United Water on conservation programs, but also incorporates low-water landscaping at its airport, installed rain sensors for its parks irrigation system, and uses surface water or shallow groundwater wells for its outside watering needs to preserve drinking water for public consumption.

"We've been in a fairly serious drought for a number of years," Chertudi said. "Last year we broke even, which everybody thought, 'Now, we have plentiful water,' and we didn't. Groundwater supplies seem to be less stressed, but we do have areas with significant declines," she said.

Boise requires new developments to use surface water for irrigation systems rather than treated drinking water. The city also offers water-efficient landscaping classes through a partnership between the city, United Water and the county extension service and University of Idaho.

Each year about 5,000 sixth-grade students participate in a water awareness week that covers the water cycle, conservation, budgets and supply management. The program has been recognized as one of the top 10 water education programs in the nation, Chertudi said.

Contact Scott Aust at 394-8415, or scott.aust@rapidcityjournal.com