The Municipal Water Management and Conservation Planning (WMCP) program provides a process for municipal water suppliers to develop plans to meet future water needs. Many municipal water suppliers are required to prepare plans under water right permit conditions. In addition, with the revision of the permit extension rules in fall 2002, communities seeking long-term permit extensions are required to prepare plans. These plans will be used to demonstrate the communities´ needs for increased diversions of water (also known as “greenlight water”) under the permits as their demands grow.
A Municipal Water Management and Conservation Plan provides a description of the water system, identifies the sources of water used by the community, and explains how the water supplier will manage and conserve supplies to meet future needs. Preparation of a plan is intended to represent a proactive evaluation of the management and conservation measures that suppliers can undertake. The planning program requires that municipal water suppliers consider water that can be saved through conservation practices as a source of supply to meet growing demands if the saved water is less expensive than developing new supplies. As such, a plan represents an integrated resource management approach to securing a community´s long-term water supply.
Many of the elements required in a plan are also required under similar plans by the Drinking Water Section of the Oregon Health Authority (water system master plans) and Department of Land Conservation and Development (public facilities plans). Water providers can consolidate overlapping plan elements and create a single master plan that meets the requirements of all three programs.
A guidebook and other helpful tools to aid municipal water suppliers in preparing plans and complying with requirements of a WMCP are available under "Other Resources".