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Metropolitan Demand Management Programs <br />Demand management costs are Metropolitan’s expenditures for funding local water resource development <br />programs and water conservation programs. These Demand Management Programs incentivize the development of <br />local water supplies and the conservation of water to reduce the need to import water to deliver to Metropolitan’s <br />member agencies. These programs are implemented below the delivery points between Metropolitan’s and its <br />member agencies’ distribution systems and, as such, do not add any water to Metropolitan’s supplies. Rather, the <br />effect of these downstream programs is to produce a local supply of water for the local agencies and to reduce <br />demands by member agencies for water imported through Metropolitan’s system. The following discussions outline <br />how Metropolitan funds local resources and conservation programs for the benefit of all of its member agencies and <br />the entire Metropolitan service area. Notably, the history of demand management by Metropolitan’s member <br />agencies and the local agencies that purchase water from Metropolitan’s members has spanned more than four <br />decades. The significant history of the programs is another reason it would be difficult to attempt to assign a portion <br />of such funding to any one individual member agency. <br />Local Resources Programs <br />In 1982, Metropolitan began providing financial incentives to its member agencies to develop new local supplies to <br />assist in meeting the region’s water needs. Because of Metropolitan’s regional distribution system, these programs <br />benefit all member agencies regardless of project location because they help to increase regional water supply <br />reliability, reduce demands for imported water supplies, decrease the burden on Metropolitan’s infrastructure, <br />reduce system costs and free up conveyance capacity to the benefit of all the agencies that rely on water from <br />Metropolitan. <br />For example, the Groundwater Replenishment System (GWRS) operated by the Orange County Water District is the