CMAP Water Conservation Grant

The City of Evanston is working with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning to develop a water conservation and efficiency program to promote good stewardship of water resources in Evanston.

Final Water Conservation and Efficiency Plan Presented to Evanston City Council 

On Monday, August 13th, staff presented the final Water Conservation and Efficiency Plan to the Evanston City Council, which was accepted and placed on file.  The Plan includes nine recommendations that focus on reducing water waste and informing residents and businesses on the value of tap water and the connection between water usage and personal behavior.  A copy of the plan can be viewed here.  A summary table of the recommendations is included in Section 6, page 51 of the document. Click here to view a copy of the interactive Prezi presentation given to City Council on the Plan.

Draft Water Efficiency Plan Now Available for Public Comment

The Draft Evanston Water Efficiency Plan is now available for public review. Comments or questions should be submitted to sustainability@cityofevanston.org  by June 7th. Comments will be incorporated and included in the Final Plan to be presented to the Evanston City Council later this summer.

Overview

The City of Evanston was awarded a Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) technical assistance grant to assist the City in developing a water conservation and efficiency plan. The CMAP staff will be working closely with City staff and community stakeholders to develop a plan to increase water efficiency and improve water conservation efforts of Evanston’s residents and businesses. The development of a water efficiency plan for the city of Evanston is consistent with the Evanston Climate Action Plan. Please check back at this webpage periodically because it will be updated with all of the latest news about chances for public comment during the process and the progress that Evanston is making with water efficiency.

Step 1: Existing Conditions

The first step in this process is to understand the City’s current water supply conditions and current water usage. This includes everything from a review of current water supply related ordinances to water rates history and then finally to a review of water efficiency and conservation best practices. This step will ultimately produce a summary of existing conditions findings.

Status: Completed; Results summarized in draft report. See Step 4 below.

Step 2: Future Water Demand and Population

In this step the future population of Evanston and their water demand will be estimated through the year 2050. Then this will be compared to the water use reduction goal outlined in the Evanston Climate Action Plan to either confirm that this goal is obtainable or to modify the goal in the Action Plan. At the end of this step, future water demand and Evanston population estimates should be produced.

Status: Completed; Results summarized in draft report. See Step 4 below.

Step 3: Community Outreach

The CMAP staff and City of Evanston staff will solicit input from the community during this phase of the project. The feedback received during this time will be incorporated into the final Draft of this Program. There will be a water efficiency advisory team formed during this time including City staff and members of the Evanston Utilities Commission, Environment Board and other community groups. There will also be a water usage survey sent out during this time to engage the Evanston community.

Status: Completed; Results summarized in draft report. See Step 4 below.

Step 4: Draft Water Efficiency Plan

After the community outreach portion of the process wraps up, a Draft Water Efficiency Plan for the City of Evanston will be drawn up using your input from the previous step. Input on the draft plan will be sought from city staff, City Council, and members of the community. Draft recomendations included in the plan were presented at a Public Meeting held on Thursday April 26th at the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center.

Status: Draft Water Efficiency Plan ready for public comment. E-mail comments or questions to sustainabity@cityofevanston.org by June 7th.

Step 5: Final Program

Based on the reviews and comments of the Draft Plan, a Draft Final Plan will be created for key City staff to review and then to present to the City Council. After making any final updates to the program, the Final Program will be presented to City Council for adoption. The Final Plan will be displayed at the Evanston Green LIving Festival on Satuarday, September 29th, marking the beginning of program implementation.

Status: Final plan presented to Evanston City Council on August 13th. 

Resources

CMAP Local Technical Assistance - CMAP's description of the first wave of local communities identified for assistance.

City of Evanston - Evanston's press release outlining the awarded CMAP grant.