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Arizona Water Meter Table of Contents Clarkdale Prescott Lake Havasu City Payson Peoria Scottsdale Phoenix Mesa Buckeye Chandler Casa Grande Safford Yuma Tucson Sierra Vista 2010 Arizona 10 x1000 GAL Water Meter A Comparison of Water Conservation Programs in 15 Arizona Communities October 2010 2260 Baseline Road, Suite 200 Boulder, CO 80302 Tel: (303) 444-1188 www.westernresourceadvocates.org Western Resource Advocates’ mission is to protect the West’s land, air, and water. Our lawyers, scientists and economists: 1) advance clean energy to reduce pollution and global climate change; 2) promote urban water conservation and river restoration; and 3) defend special public lands from energy development. We collaborate with other conservation groups, hunters and fishermen, ranchers, American Indians, and others to ensure a sustainable future for the West. This report was prepared by Drew Beckwith, WRA’s Water Policy Analyst; and Jorge Figueroa, Water Program Researcher; with assistance from Bart Miller, Nicole Theerasatiankul, and Anita Schwartz (Western Resource Advocates). It was funded through a grant from the Walton Family Foundation. Special thanks are in order for Ruth Greenhouse in the Water Management Division of the Arizona Department of Water Resources; and to several Arizona water professionals for their peer review and comments. We would also like to extend a true thank you to the water resource departments and conservation staff from each of the utilities highlighted in this report. Without their assistance, this report would not have been possible. Design by Jeremy Carlson © October 2010 photo: iStock Aerial view of Phoenix Arizona Water Meter Table of Contents Executive Summary i Introduction 1 Comparative Analysis by Conservation Criteria 4 Per Capita Water Use . 4 Water Rate Structures. .6 Conservation Measures . 12 Conservation Ordinances . 17 Funding for Conservation . 20 Water Loss. 21 Effluent Use . 23 Scoring 24 Utility Snapshots 27 Appendix A — Scoring Criteria 43 Appendix B — Detailed Individual Utility Summaries 47 Town of Buckeye. 47 City of Casa Grande — Arizona Water Company. 51 City of Chandler . 55 Town of Clarkdale . 60 Lake Havasu City . 63 City of Mesa . 67 Town of Payson . 72 City of Peoria . 77 City of Phoenix . 81 City of Prescott . 86 City of Safford . 91 City of Scottsdale . 94 City of Sierra Vista — Arizona Water Company . 99 City of Tucson . 104 City of Yuma . .109 Appendix C — GPCD Adjustments 112 photo: iStock Dry riverbed in Arizona Arizona Water Meter: A Comparison of Water Conservation Programs in 15 Arizona Communities Acronyms and Abbreviations ACC Arizona Corporate Commission GMA Groundwater Management Act, also ACP Alternative Conservation Program known as the Arizona Groundwater Code ADWR Arizona Department of Water Resources GPCD gallons per capita per day (volumetric AF acre-foot (325,851 gallons); also acre-feet rate) AMA Active Management Area GPF gallons per flush (volumetric flow rate) AMR automatic meter reading GPM gallons per minute (volumetric flow rate) AMWUA Arizona Municipal Water Users MGD Association million gallons per day (volumetric rate) MNPCCP AWC Arizona Water Company Modified Non-Per Capita Conservation Program AWWA American Water Works Association NPCCP Non-Per Capita Conservation Program BIC Buckeye Irrigation Company PV photovoltaic (solar electricity system) BMP best management practice PVC polyvinyl chloride (plumbing) BoR U.S. Bureau of Reclamation RID Roosevelt Irrigation District CAGRD Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District SCADA supervisory control and data acquisition CAP Central Arizona Project system SFR Ccf centum (100) cubic feet (volume); one single-family residential Ccf is equivalent to 748 gallons of water sq. ft. square feet CWS Community Water System SROG Sub-Regional Operating Group EPA Environmental Protection Agency SRP Salt River Project ET evapotranspiration (controllers) UPC Uniform Plumbing Code °F degree Fahrenheit (temperature) UVRWPC Upper Verde River Watershed Protection FY fiscal year Coalition HET high-efficiency toilet WOT Water Outreach Team (Yuma) IWA International Water Association WRA Western Resource Advocates GIS geographic information system WWTP wastewater treatment plant Western resource AdvocAtes Arizona Water Meter: A Comparison of Water Conservation Programs in 15 Arizona Communities Executive Summary Water supplies in Arizona are already a precious resource. Given estimates that the state will almost double in population over the next 45 years, water supply challenges are only going to become more difficult. Western Resource Advocates (WRA) supports urban water conservation as a no-regrets strategy to increasing water supplies — one that is often cheaper, faster, and smarter than “traditional” water supply approaches. Maximizing water conservation efforts and programs across the state will allow Arizona to do more with less. This report highlights the water conservation programs of 15 Arizona communities and evaluates their programs by seven important water conservation criteria. The communities are Buckeye, Casa Grande, Chandler, Clarkdale, Lake Havasu City, Mesa, Payson, Peoria, Phoenix, Prescott, Safford, Scottsdale, Sierra Vista, Tucson, and Yuma. These communities represent a diverse cross-section of municipal water providers, and are varied with respect to size, budget, geographic location, ownership structure, and regulatory program. By presenting a broad sample of current conservation practices, utilities, researchers, policy makers, and local communities can make informed decisions about the possibilities that exist for improvement in their own programs. Everyone benefits when we learn from one another. Per Capita Water Use One of the most common measures of a utility’s water use is how much water is used by each person in the service area each day often described in gallons per capita per day (GPCD). Several communities in Arizona are currently using less than 100 GPCD in the single-family residential (SFR) sector, including Buckeye, Payson, Clarkdale, Prescott, and Casa Grande. Extensive turf landscaping is not the norm in these communities, and several are predominantly composed of newer homes that were built with more water-efficient appliances and fixtures than what was available even 10 years ago. photo: iStock Urban development in Chandler Western resource AdvocAtes i Arizona Water Meter: A Comparison of Water Conservation Programs in 15 Arizona Communities Land use planning policies that limit the amount of Water Rate Structures high-water-use landscaping or ensure that plantings come from a desert-appropriate list are a few of the ways these Water rate structures play an essential role in communities are achieving low water use in the SFR communicating the value of water to utility customers. sector. In Arizona, the vast majority of SFR water use They are also one of the most powerful conservation goes to outdoor irrigation, so methods and practices that tools. There are a number of ways to structure water rate target and reduce outdoor use can be very effective at consumption charges, including uniform (flat), seasonal, improving water use efficiency. and inclining block rates — all of which are used in Arizona. Trends in system-wide water use are also important because they show how cities are becoming more water- Inclining block rates are generally the most effective efficient overall. The majority of communities evaluated at communicating the value of water, but they are not in this report reduced system-wide water use by more the only factor affecting the price paid by consumers. A than 10% between 2003 and 2008 (Figure ES-1) — a customer’s bill includes volumetric consumption charges, notable achievement. Interestingly, communities with fixed service fees, and, sometimes, additional service the lowest SFR rates in 2008 are not necessarily the same charges. All of these charges are reflected in the average ones that achieved the greatest reductions in system-wide price of water, the total bill divided by the total gallons use, pointing to the variable effectiveness of different used. Conservation-oriented rate structures have an water conservation approaches. average price curve that slopes upwards, communicating that the more water a customer uses, the more expensive each gallon of water becomes. There is tremendous variation in the design of water rate structures for communities in this report, and Figure ES-1. Reduction in System-Wide Per Capita Water Use (2003-2008) Buckeye 77.0% Casa Grande (AWC) 19.0% Prescott 18.0% Safford 16.5% Lake Havasu City 14.2% Tucson 12.1% Phoenix 12.0% Sierra Vista (AWC) 11.5% Chandler 9.5% Mesa 8.9% Payson 8.0% Clarkdale 6.5% Peoria 1.5% Yuma 1.0% Scottsdale -7.9% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% ii Western resource AdvocAtes Arizona Water Meter: A Comparison of Water Conservation Programs in 15 Arizona Communities a commensurate variation in their effectiveness at landscape consultations, and smart irrigation, are communicating the value of water. In general, water appropriate for Arizona, given the large quantity of water consumption charges across Arizona are cheap, with some used for outdoor watering; however, less than a third utilities charging as little as $1.00 per thousand gallons. of the communities in this report sponsor this type of Tucson, Prescott, and Buckeye have exemplary water rate conservation measure. Large landscape programs and structures for incentivizing conservation, which all could commercial and industrial conservation measures also serve as a model for how to price
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