EPA's Strategies to Meet Its Federal Requirements

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EPA Strategies to Meet Its Federal Requirements

To meet its federal water conservation requirements, EPA has developed a Water Conservation Strategy. This Agencywide Water Conservation Strategy calls for identifying facility-specific annual water reduction targets and goals. To accomplish this, EPA is conducting water assessments and developing Water Management Plans (WMPs) at each reporting facility. EPA’s Energy and Environmental Performance, Leadership, Accountability, and Neutrality (E2PLAN) Strategy for Sustainability reinforces the Strategy as the tool the Agency is using to reduce water use at its facilities.

Because EPA had already reduced its water use significantly by FY 2007, the Water Conservation Strategy calls for the Agency to identify new opportunities to further reduce water use in its laboratories, provide water efficiency training to facility managers, and educate all EPA employees on water conservation. Learn more about the strategies EPA has developed to meet its federal water conservation requirements:

EPA's Water Conservation Strategy
Water Management Plans
Best Practices

EPA’s Water Conservation Strategy

Using the WMPs that the Agency created for each of its facilities, EPA identifies water reduction opportunities at all of the Agency’s reporting facilities, focusing identified projects to nine main project areas:

Cooling Towers
Sanitary Water
Irrigation
Single Pass Equipment Cooling
Boiler and Hot Water Systems
Steam Sterilizers
Reverse Osmosis
Laboratory Processes
Mechanical systems

Specific project initiatives are being implemented to achieve water savings in each of the areas identified above. Best management practices are being pursued at each EPA facility, and education and training activities are being conducted to give facility managers and EPA employees the information they need to make saving water a priority.

Understanding the water savings potential from identified projects, best management practices, and education and training activities and analyzing historical water use, the Agency assigns annual water reduction targets, on a gallons per square foot basis, to each reporting facility. This approach ensures EPA’s continued success in meeting its Agencywide required annual water savings, with efforts from each facility to meet water savings goals on an individual basis.

Water Management Plans (WMPs)

To identify new opportunities to further reduce water use in each of EPA’s facilities, EPA creates a WMP for each one of its facilities. WMPs identify key areas in which specific facilities can reduce their water use. Learn how EPA develops its water management plans or view EPA’s water management plans.

Best Practices

EPA facilities draw on best practices to design, implement, and evaluate their water conservation efforts.

Previous Goals

A number of previous goals also helped EPA reduce water use in the past. EPA had an internal goal of 15 percent reduction of water use by 2010 from 2000 consumption levels. This goal was superseded by E.O. 13423. However, between FY 2000 and FY 2008, water use at EPA dropped from 187,252,376 gallons to 156,608,075 gallons, a reduction of 16.4%, surpassing the internal goal two years early.