PA Among Nation's Worst In Water Efficiency, Conservation, New Study Says

PENNSYLVANIA — As droughts, floods, contaminated water and other climate change impacts become a part of daily life in Pennslyvania, a new study places the state among the worst in the nation for water efficiency and conservation. It's a grim report that reflects poorly on the environmental legacy of both Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-led General Assembly sessions of the past decade, and puts increased pressure on newly inaugurated Gov. Josh Shapiro to take action.

The Alliance for Water Efficiency's new report analyzes state policy on a wide range of conservation and sustainability issues. Pennsylvania ranked 44th nationally with a score of 5 out of a possible 89 points, and was dead last in the local region. It's score is nearly identical to the "6" it earned six years ago, in the 2017 report.

The report comes as Pennsylvania has still refused to join the NRDC's Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the only state from Maryland to Maine to do so. While the intiative is focused on carbon outputs, it requires strict limits on pollution and regulates industry in a way that environmentalists say would have a positive holistic effect. However, advocates of the deal remain split on whether or not new Gov. Josh Shapiro, who prosecuted corporate polluters as attorney general but who has expressed hesitations similar to Wolf on taking a harder stance.

RELATED: As The World Warmed, PA Produced Record Amount Of Natural Gas In 2021

The Alliance for Water Efficiency scorecard was developed to encourage state legislators to adopt policies addressing water efficiency, conservation, and sustainability. Here’s how Pennsylvania ranked in various categories:

1. Plumbing fixture standards and codes: 0 points out of a possible 12
2. Water loss control: 0 points out of a possible 11
3. Water conservation planning: 0 points out of a possible 27.5
4. Drought preparedness planning: 0 points out of a possible 8.5 points
5. Climate action planning: 0 points out of a possible 4
6. Water-land use planning integration: 0 points out of a possible 6
7. State-funding for water efficiency programs: 0 points out of a possible 4
8. State-provided technical assistance for water efficiency: 1 points out of a possible 3
9. Rate structures that encourage conservation: X points out of a possible 4
10. State funding for water bill assistance: X points out of a possible 2
11. State funding and support for water reuse: X points out of a possible 4
12. Accounting for energy savings for water efficiency: X points out of 1 possible
13. Completion of survey: 2 points out of a possible 2

The report offers three key recommendations to the state to improve it's abysmal ranking:

1. Adopt laws and codes for high efficiency fixtures
2. Adopt policies to reduce water loss in utility distribution systems
3. Require water utilities to develop and implement conservation plans

Pennsylvania leadership, particularly Democrats, has paid plenty of lip service to environmentalism. But Pennsylvania's parternships with major natural gas producers has drawn plenty of scrutiny and ire from environmentalists, particularly the billions of dollars in tax credits given to companies who promised to build manufacturing facilities in the state. It amounts to "slapdash industrial policy at its worst that will perpetuate Pennsylvania’s addiction to fossil fuels,"Patrick McDonnell, the former DEP Secretary under Gov. Tom Wolf, told NPR.

A big reason Pennsylvania produces so much natural gas is because of fracking, a process banned in other states, including neighboring New York.

In 2015, Gov. Wolf did ban fracking in Pennsylvania state parks and forests. He proposed an increased tax on natural gas mining to pay for his public schools initiative. But he opposed then NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo's ban, and later, controversially, he worked with state Republicans on a bill that will allow treated minewater discharged from coal mines to be used for fracking, without making gas companies responsible for the entire watershed, but only the water they extracted. Environmentalists, such as representatives from the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, derided the bill because they said it would allow gas giants to pilfer from streams that already have an interrupted flow due to coal mines. These watersheds, they argued, will never again have a healthy flow if the fracking industry is allowed access.

The Colorado River basin and beyond

Nationally, the Colorado River Basin situation is a cautionary story as drought becomes increasingly common across the country, the report noted. Nearly every U.S. state experienced some level of drought in 2022.

Atmospheric river storms have put a dent in California’s drought, but not enough to offset the moisture deficits that have been entrenched for two or three years, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. While the improvement is significant, most of the state remains in the “severe” or “moderate” categories of drought, with small areas of the far northwest and far southwest in a status described as “abnormally dry,” the lowest level.

The state ranked first in the Colorado River Basin region, which also includes Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah And Wyoming. In June, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation called on those states to significantly reduce water use or face the prospect of the federal government stepping in.

The Colorado River system supplies water and hydropower to about 40 million people. At a Senate hearing in June, Bureau of Reclamation hydraulic engineer James Prairie said predictions continue to show lower flows into Lakes Powell and Mead, the two largest reservoirs in the United States. Both recently hit the lowest levels on record, and by early 2024, water levels in Lake Powell could be too low for hydropower turbines to operate and generate electricity.

While some states improved since the organization’s last scorecard in 2017, the analysis found little progress overall, even as droughts and other climate change effects increasingly undermine affordable, reliable water service, the report said, noting a state average score of only 23 out of 89 possible points.

“Providing sustainable water services is increasingly costly and complicated because of climate change and other factors,” Ron Burke, the president and CEO of the Alliance for Water Efficiency, said in a news release. “It’s important that states, as well as the federal government, support local efforts to reduce water use with financial assistance, policies that drive best practices, and planning that facilitates cooperation across watersheds."

Effective state-level water conservation policies are even more important now that the U.S. Congress has authorized billions of dollars in loans and grants for water services as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, the report said. Many of these funds will be administered by states and can only be maximized with good state policies in place.