Innovative Conservation Program

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (Metropolitan) and the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) invites proposals for the Innovative Conservation Program (ICP).

Objective
The ICP provides funding to promote new innovative devices, technologies and strategies that save water, energy and *embedded energy, reduce urban runoff, to help achieve regional water supply reliability within Metropolitan’s service area. Projects are selected on a competitive basis.

Program budget is $250,000. Funding will be provided by Metropolitan and Reclamation. Additional grants may be available if funding is secured from other program partners regarding water and energy.

The number of projects funded will be based on the qualified applicant pool, merits of each proposal and program budget.

Who Can Apply?
Funding is available to public, private or non-profit organizations.

Application Process
Projects will be pre-screened by Metropolitan and Reclamation staff based on the pre-screening executive summary outlined in the Request For Proposal (RFP) prior to being submitted to independent review panel(s).

Independent review panel(s) will evaluate and rank proposals based on scoring criteria outlined in the RFP. Proposal ranking will reflect the panel’s collective scoring based on the criteria.

This program is currently not accepting applications. If you would like to be notified of future opportunities, please email Tim Schaadt. Click here to download an example of a previous RFP.

Mr. Timothy J. Schaadt
WRM Group, Regional Supply Unit
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
P.O. Box 54153
Los Angeles, California 90054-0153
Fax: (213) 217-7911
e-mail: tschaadt@mwdh2o.com

The Innovative Conservation Program (ICP) provides funding in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) for research that will document water savings and reliability of new water savings devices. Below are links to the Final Reports from projects that have completed their work.

Central Basin Municipal Water District
Water Savings in Disadvantaged Communities
This study evaluates water needs, savings and the rebate process, and sought to reduce imported water demands, reduce stress on the Bay Delta, improve water supply reliability and meet conservation objectives.

DC Instruments
Water Leak Detection and Stoppage in an Automatic Sprinkler System
This study designed, tested and developed a marketing strategy for a user-friendly non-intrusive acoustic sensor (LeakBuster®) to detect water leaks.

Irvine Ranch Water District / California Department of Water Resources
(DWR)
Evapotranspiration (ET) Data Protocol
The objective of the project was to provide ET in an easily accessible, standard usable format throughout the entire state.

West Basin Municipal Water District / EcoGreen Services, LLC
Field Study Findings Report: Restroom Retrofit Self-Closing Sensor Faucet Retrofit.
The purpose of this study was to measure the water usage associated with sensor faucet replacements in a major hotel complex.

Koeller and Company
Field Study of the AQUS® Water Saving Device
The AQUS® system captures the untreated graywater from the bathroom
lavatory sink, filters and disinfects it, and uses it to flush a tank-type gravity-fed toilet, thereby conserving the potable water normally used for flushing.