The relationship between long-term conservation and shortage management is an issue to which water supply agencies will have to pay increasing attention in the future. Long-term conservation will be playing a more prominent role in utility resource plans at the same time that planners and policymakers are recognizing the periodic carefully-managed shortages will be a fact of life. While demand-hardening is being recognized with increasing frequency, it is still not a well-understood phenomenon. Utilities will have to give this impact of conservation programs more attention as it becomes a more serious issue for consumers.