The City of Laredo's water conservation program is designed to provide practices,
techniques, and technologies that help reduce the consumption of water, reduce the
loss or waste of water, improve the efficiency in the use of water, and increase the
recycling and reuse of water for the ultimate purpose of making available a water
supply for future or alternative uses. The program is comprised of a water conservation
planner and water conservation inspectors, who are responsible to implement water
conservation requirements and enforce all regulations established in the water conservation
and drought contingency plans, also known as the water conservation and drought contingency
ordinance.
Activities currently implemented by the water conservation program consist of elementary,
middle school, and high school presentations and career day events, participation
at local civic events, publications of department flyers, and other water-related
documents. In addition, the water conservation program coordinates water and wastewater
treatment plant tours, creates water conservation videos and slide shows that are
aired on the public access channels, prepares press releases, advertisements and other
public relations messages, and it also enforces the water conservation plan and the
drought contingency plan through its water conservation staff.
The water conservation program not only handles public education and enforcement activities,
it also manages the WaterSense High Efficiency Toilet Rebate Program, which is a consumer-oriented
and incentive program. This program is designed to encourage water customers to replace
old water-wasting toilets with new high-efficiency toilets (HETs) that carry the WaterSense
label. For each toilet replaced (maximum two (2) per household—per year if more than
two (2) toilets in home), the City of Laredo Utilities Department provides the water
customer with a standard one-hundred dollar ($100.00) rebate, which is applied as
a credit to the participant's water account. Each installation of toilet is verified
by water conservation inspectors as a condition of the rebate approval, and the old
water-wasting toilets are destroyed (tank only) by the participating customer. The
old water-wasting toilets are reported to the solid waste department and are scheduled
for collection at each participant's address to be transported to the City of Laredo
Landfill. The WaterSense HET Rebate Program is available only for residential customers
who have an active water account through the City of Laredo Utilities Department and
are current on their water bill. This program is specifically for single-family dwellings,
including manufactured homes, that were built in 1993 or prior. The goal of this toilet
rebate program is to replace old water-wasting toilets, from 1993 and prior, with
new WaterSense HETs that use 1.28 gallons per flush in an effort to reduce the gallons
per capita per day consumption and the amount of sewer discharged into the sewer collection
system in Laredo. It is also designed to help reduce water use in the homes and help
preserve the nation's water resources, while saving the customers some money. This
program began on March 12, 2012, as a pilot program during the 2012 EPA's Fix-A-Leak
Week celebration and was incorporated as an ongoing program within the water conservation
program. The life of the WaterSense HET Rebate Program will depend on the demand of
the program and/or funding availability.
