Water Conservation Alliance of Southern Arizona

Be Creative - Have Fun - Save Water

  • Promoting the efficient use of water, our most precious resource.
  • The collaborative voice of Tucson area water providers on water conservation issues.
  • Striving to enhance the public’s awareness and understanding of water conservation issues, methods and practices.
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CONSERVATION WHITE PAPER prepared at the request of the City-County Water Infrastructure, Supply & Planning Study, PHASE 2 Val L. Little

RECOMMENDATIONS & OPPORTUNITIES

Though this white paper is written at the request of the City and County’s Water Infrastructure, Supply & Planning Study, it speaks to the entire region.

1. Chart a path to full utilization of indirect potable reuse. Continuing

to ignore wastewater as a future source of supply could cost our

community hundreds of millions of dollars. And, because the

Groundwater Code enables local water utilities to engage in the indirect

recharge of wastewater, and recover that recharge under the same

rules that apply to CAP recharge, there is simply no alternative,

regardless of expense, that is as remotely reliable for balancing our

supply and demand. On top of everything else, this is one of the least

expensive alternatives available to our watershed.

“From a technical and chemical perspective, public health

and safety aren’t issues. Even so, convincing the public

and politicians that the end product of a water

reclamation facility can meet drinking water standards

requires extensive public relations efforts.”

AWWA Opflow, February 2009

2. Develop a plan to achieve the elimination of potable water for

outdoor use in a five to ten year time frame. This means all outdoor

water use must be from harvested rainwater, graywater reuse or

reclaimed water.

3. Institute retrofit upon resale ordinances as an equitable method

to bring existing properties up to the water efficiency standards of new

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construction. Target among other things, toilets, hot water heaters,

and irrigation systems.

4. Establish water efficiency messaging and media campaigns on a

regional basis. We are all in the same media market and coordinated

efforts create consistency throughout the region and increase the

impact of our efforts.

5. Strive for rate adjustments and ordinance development every

year. Just as rate increases should be regular, adoption of increasingly

stringent water use restrictions, coupled with incentives, should be

done regularly (every year something should come forward in every

municipality and utility) and in increments that are meaningful to

customers but not so burdensome that a backlash is created.

Additionally, a long-range plan for these additional requirements or

restrictions should be implemented comprehensively, not piecemeal,

and laid out for a certain time frame so the general public and the

business community know what is coming and when.

6. Embrace a requirement that by a certain date, all toilets sold

and installed in this county be High Efficiency models rated 500 gramsper-

flush or higher by MaP testing.

7. Incorporate the concepts of STRUCTURED PLUMBING including

trunk, branch and twig piping systems, and pipe insulation into the

plumbing code.

8. Fully enforce all the conservation requirements and ordinances

already in place.

9. Establish a method to implement consistent conservation and

water related ordinances throughout the region.

10. Institute addition training and certification requirements for the

entire range of practitoners in water using fields. This includes all

facets of the landscape industry, plumbing industry, water auditors,

managers, etc. as well as field service and customer service staff in our

water utilities.

11. Analyze the outcomes of existing and previous efforts as a way

to inform our next generation of efforts. Has the expected decrease in

water use been realized, have the desired changes in water use

patterns occurred, has the maximum water savings relative to dollars

savings been achieved?

12. In this region we have done all the cheap and easy things to

save water and extend their supplies so everything done from here on

out must be justifiable fiscally, environmentally, and socially (triple

bottom line) and must be weighed against any and all other engineered

or acquisition solutions to water supply issues.

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13. Use each and every one of the tools discussed in this paper.

Decide, how and when and to what extent each tool can most

effectively be used.

14. Target areas of actual high inefficiency rather than just overall

high water use.

As long as it is cheaper in dollars, environmental and social terms to do increased

conservation than to find the next source of water, we have more work to do. The

difficulty rests with the public will. How do we want to be identified? Will we rise as

the Solarcon Valley? Will we be the absolute leader in water use efficiency for this

nation?

And, regionally we need to make a conscious shift from a growth-based economy to

one that is more sustainable: we have entered the uncharted waters of limits and

drastically changing priorities. So, we better pay attention and get busy.

 

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