🚰Residential Water Consumption

Goal F: A Healthy Environment

MAPC region: 54 residential gallons per capita daily (rgpcd), 2020 (5% less than in 2010)

Inner Core municipalities: 47 rgpcd, 2020 (6% less than in 2010)

Regional Urban Center municipalities: 53 rgpcd, 2020 (13% less than in 2010)

Developing Suburb municipalities: 56 rgpcd, 2020 (2% more than in 2010)

Maturing Suburb municipalities: 64 rgpcd, 2020 (6% less than in 2010)

During the humid days of summer and the snowy days of winter, it can be hard to imagine that Greater Boston’s water is a limited resource, but it can be. In the summer and fall of 2016, Massachusetts experienced the most severe drought it had seen since 1985, and in 2020 several regions of the state again experienced drought conditions.

The good news is that residential water consumption rates across most of Greater Boston have been declining since 2010. The regional average residential water use in 2019 was 50 residential gallons per capita daily (rgpcd), nearly seven gallons lower than it was in 2010.

In 2020, however, with COVID lockdowns and nearly half of the state’s/region’s workforce working from home, the average water usage rate jumped up by four gallons to 54 rgpcd. Twenty-nine municipalities had an average rate higher than the 65 gallon per day guidelines from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), up from 12 in 2019. Only eight municipalities kept their average usage rates below 45 rgpcd, down from 15 in 2019.

Generally, more urbanized municipalities have lower residential water usage rates, and more suburban municipalities, with larger houses and lawns, have higher rates. Troublingly, MAPC’s Maturing Suburbs, representing 42 percent of municipalities in the region on a public water supply, had the highest residential water consumption rate in 2020 (64 rgpcd) that they’ve had in the last decade. These municipalities have been the least likely to reduce residential water consumption since 2010, while the trend in other municipalities, including those in the Inner Core, Regional Urban Centers, and Developing Suburbs has been steadily decreasing use.

Whether the 2020 trends simply reflect a transference of water usage from the workplace to the home, we have yet to determine. Regardless, it’s clear that as the state’s population continues to grow and has more people drawing off its water reserves, and as climate change continues to make weather less predictable, it is critical that the state, region, municipalities, and residents work together to protect our water resources.

While the actions of individuals to reduce their personal and household water use are critical, it is the responsibility of state and local leaders to create the programs, strategies, and guidelines that encourage, and when necessary, enforce conservation. These strategies should include a more holistic and interdisciplinary approach to water management at the state level; the establishment of a “Blue Bank” – a statewide water infrastructure bank to provide adequate capital investment for municipal and regional water supply, wastewater, stormwater, and green infrastructure – and an approach to water management that prioritizes equity.

MetroCommon goals: A Climate Resilient Region goal C.6, A Healthy Environment goal F.1

MetroCommon Recommendation: Address regional water challenges, actions 1.1, 1,2, 1.4, 2.1, 2.3, 3.3, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4