LUDINGTON, Mich. — When the Metalworks company set out a couple of years ago to manufacture office furniture in a more environmentally friendly way, a consultant made a suggestion: Why not use less water?

Managers realized they hadn't given much thought to the roughly 24 million gallons used each year to prepare metal filing cabinets for painting. They reconfigured the Ludington plant's conveyor washing system to recycle water before sending it down the drain.

By 2004, Metalworks' water usage had fallen to 11.5 million gallons. This year's projected total: 8 million gallons -- with no drop-off in production. The company's municipal water bill is down from $45,000 to about $15,000, more than recouping the $10,000 cost of upgrading the system.

"Not only do we save money, but the environment wins, too," said Sidney Shaw, the environmental, health and safety director for Metalworks.

It's no big secret: Saving water is good for the environment. And it helps the bottom line of businesses and households alike. For many in the world's arid climes, making every drop count is second nature.

Now, conservation is slowly catching on around the Great Lakes, an aquatically blessed region where prevailing attitudes toward saving water have ranged from benign neglect to scorn. The lakes contain 20 percent of the world's fresh surface water and their drainage basin abounds with inland lakes, rivers, wetlands and subterranean aquifers.

Even the region's environmentalist groups historically have focused more on water quality issues -- chemical pollution, sewer overflows, exotic species -- than water quantity.

"It's off the radar screen for most people," said Bill Stough, CEO of Sustainable Research Group, the Grand Rapids consulting firm that advised Metalworks. "It's easy to get lulled into a false sense of security when you're living in the middle of the Great Lakes."

But fear of water grabs by covetous outsiders and growing awareness of the lakes' ecological vulnerability are leading policy-makers, business leaders and activists to take conservation seriously.

Conservation gets star billing in a water protection plan being developed by the eight states and two Canadian provinces adjacent to the lakes. The region's governors and premiers are scheduled to sign the plan Dec. 13 in Milwaukee. Commonly known as Annnex 2001, it would need ratification by their legislatures and Congress to take effect.

Annex 2001 calls for conservation programs in each state and province. They would decide the specifics, including whether the programs would be mandatory or voluntary. Among the possibilities: promoting high-tech plumbing and other water-saving methods; offering incentives to use less water and better manage what is used; funding conservation research.

As debate persists over whether meaningful savings can be achieved without government regulation, the search is on for innovative and cost-effective ways to conserve -- from installing low-flow showerheads at home to making sure farm irrigation isn't lowering the water table.

General Motors Corp. is pushing for conservation worldwide, said Susan Kelsey, environmental manager for southeastern Michigan. Its operations in the Great Lakes region slashed water use a combined 14.7 percent from 2002-04, a savings of about 1 billion gallons a year -- the amount used by roughly 17,000 households.

"We're seeing double-digit increases in water and sewer rates," said Reg Sobczynski, manager of wastewater operations for GM's Energy and Utility Services Group. "It makes economic sense for us to reduce water use."

Consumption across the region appears to be declining gradually, according to the Great Lakes Commission, a Canadian-U.S. information clearinghouse that began gathering water use data from the states and provinces in the late 1980s.

Combined daily withdrawals from the lakes and other sources regularly exceeded 900 billion gallons through the early 1990s and even topped 1 trillion gallons in 1989, the commission says. In 2002, the latest year available, the average daily withdrawal was about 846 billion gallons.

More than 90 percent of the water withdrawn from the lakes is used by utilities for electric power generation, and nearly all of that is returned. Excluding hydropower but including other uses such as irrigation, municipal service and manufacturing, daily withdrawals averaged 57 billion gallons in 1989 and 43 billion in 2002.

The improvement can't be chalked up solely to conservation, said Thomas Crane, the commission's interim executive director. The region has lost population and its industrial base has eroded, reducing demand for water.

Also, the data collection and reporting system is more solid than in the late 1980s. It previously made liberal use of estimates that may have erred on the high side; now the numbers come more from meters and other reliable devices.

Still, "we are seeing some signs that water use has actually gone down," Crane said.

Industries such as steel, automobiles and food processing have replaced aging plants with more efficient ones, he said. Some public water systems are educating customers about saving water, mailing tipsheets with the monthly bill.

Aside from economics and environmental protection, there's another incentive to conserve.

Some water law experts warn that sooner or later, thirsty Sun Belt states or even foreign countries will try hooking up to the Great Lakes as population growth further strains their already limited supplies.

Lawsuits challenging Great Lakes residents' authority over their waters might succeed if they preach conservation to outsiders but don't practice it themselves, analysts say. Or perhaps a future Congress or president will draw the same conclusion.

"If we're wasting water here, it implies there is water to waste," said David Dempsey, a policy adviser for the environmental group Clean Water Action. "Getting our own house in order is the best way to hold off those outside the region who view the lakes as a giant canteen for their convenience."

Conservation advocates say there's no reason to wait for ratification of Annex 2001. If public water utilities, industries and other users make enough progress, they may be able to ward off laws and regulations down the road.

"We've never really had in place a government policy regarding water conservation," said Dennis Schornack, co-chairman of the International Joint Commission, a Canadian-U.S. agency for Great Lakes management. "So there's ... a lot of things that can be done toward adopting best-management practices."

Fair enough, said George Kuper, president of the Council of Great Lakes Industries, which represents corporate heavyweights such as Eastman Kodak and Dow Chemical Co. Encourage efficiency, but don't entangle businesses in rules and paperwork. And don't limit access to the abundant water supply that is the region's biggest advantage in the nationwide competition for jobs.

"One problem I've always had with the Annex approach is that in the name of protecting water, we're locking it up," Kuper said. "Water is a renewable resource, like air."

But only 1 percent of the lake water is renewed annually from precipitation, groundwater and other sources, Dempsey said. With levels lower than a decade ago and scientists warning they could recede further because of global warming, people must accept that water is a limited resource -- even around the Great Lakes.

"We think it's inexhaustible, when clearly it's not," he said. "It's all too reminiscent of the lumbering era, when we just kept chopping trees down thinking it would last forever and we ended up with a wasteland."

One thing all sides support is water recycling, as practiced by the 40-year-old Metalworks company.

Inside the sprawling factory on the edge of Ludington, filing cabinet casings dangle from hooks as they move through the five-stage process that cleanses them of dirt and oils and applies a sealant in preparation for painting.

Pipes and valves regulate flow between a series of tanks. The redesigned system channels overflow water from the final rinse cycle back to earlier stages for re-use before sending it to the municipal wastewater treatment plant.

Because the plant now uses less water, it also has cut back on chemicals -- saving even more money, said Shaw, the environmental director. The next step on the road to a greener operation is cutting back on natural gas.

"A lot of companies don't associate environmental improvements with potential cost savings," said Scott Lakari, vice president of operations. "We've finally put the focus on making those kinds of changes. Everything has its time."

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EDITOR'S NOTE: John Flesher, the AP's correspondent in Traverse City, has covered environmental issues since 1992.

Source: Associated Press