Arizona Water Conservation

The Arizona Department of Water Resources has issued its Demand & Supply Assessment and, as reported in this newspaper, we are not on track as a region to achieve the 2025 goal of "safe yield" - using no more groundwater than is naturally and artificially recharged - which is the objective of the 1980 Groundwater Management Code.

While we have made great progress toward the goal over the past 30 years, the assessment is an important tool, telling us where we are in 2010, and giving us likely scenarios for how far short of the goal we are likely to be over the next 15 years. But it is just a starting point. This region, meaning each of us individually and collectively, will need to decide if, and how, we want to reach and (maybe more importantly) sustain the safe-yield goal.

Let's assume there is community-wide consensus that we want to achieve the goal of safe yield, since I have not heard anyone willing to say publicly, 'heck no, who cares.' So, how do we get there and stay there? I would encourage everyone interested in our sustainable water future, to consider how we can most equitably and economically make full use of the supplies we have at hand. Three areas are of great interest to me: full use of our effluent, additional conservation and natural recharge.

First, as is discussed in the assessment, is the importance of full utilization of our effluent. This is a constant and increasing water source that we must make full use of as a path to safe yield. How do we get this water source to places and use it in ways that mitigate the pumping of groundwater? The majority of this water supply is controlled by the City of Tucson and the Bureau of Reclamation so influencing their policy decisions seems a fitting effort.

Second, there is still a huge amount of saving to be had through demand management efforts in all sectors (municipal, agricultural and industrial). In most cases it is still cheaper to save water than to use it. I encourage the scrutiny of... [continues]

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