Phoenix declares water alert

By Mark Carlisle
Mail | Twitter: @mwcarlisle

The city of Phoenix declared a water alert Wednesday, encouraging residents to use water responsibly but not instituting any mandatory cuts.

Phoenix Water Services Director Troy Hayes announced the water alert Wednesday.

“A Stage 1 water alert is a way for the city of Phoenix to signal to its customers that we face challenges with one of our water resources, the Colorado River, and we are calling on our customers to take an active approach to responsible water use,” Hayes said during a Community and Cultural Investment Subcommittee meeting. “Phoenix does not have a current water shortage, and we are not proposing mandatory water restrictions, but we are going to increase water conservation efforts.”

The water alert issued Wednesday is the first of four stages in the city’s Drought Management Plan. It is an indication that an “insufficient water supply appears likely,” Water Services staff stated. It was triggered by the ongoing water shortage on the Colorado River, which is a major source of water to the city, but not the sole source.

The city is still setting aside excess water for future use if the draft worsens. If that happens, Stage 2, a water warning, would be issued. At that stage, the water services director would be authorized to implement mandatory cuts to water usage. Stage 3, a water emergency, and Stage 4, a water crisis, would authorize further water cuts.

The water alert is, in effect, an informational campaign. The city plans to speak about water conservation needs and encourage responsible water use on social media, on the city’s website, through paid ads, at community meetings and events, in city newsletters and on city services bills. Members of city staff may also place door hangars on residents’ doors if they witness irresponsible water use. These would purely informational, not punitive.

Hayes said Stage 1 will mean encouraging residents to enact water-saving efforts that “will minimally impact their lifestyles.”

The Stage 1 alert also triggers increased water conservation efforts by the city, which staff said are already underway as of a few years ago.

Though the Bureau of Reclamation expects the water shortage on the Colorado River to enter a new tier of shortage in each of the next two years, Phoenix does not anticipate elevating to the mandatory water cuts of Stage 2 any time soon.

“We don’t see in the foreseeable future, in the next few years or so, going to Stage 2, but those situations could change depending on what happens on Lake Mead,” Hayes said. He also noted that hopefully with conservation efforts by southwestern states and Mexico, the projected worsening of the Colorado River water shortage could at least be postponed.

The Colorado River water supply, shared by seven states and Mexico, is under “severe stress,” as Deputy City Manager Karen Peters put it. The river’s two main water basins, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are at 31% and 24% of their capacity.

However, Phoenix is not solely reliant on this water. Colorado River water only accounts for about 40% of the water used in the city in an average year. Another 58% comes from Salt River Project water from the Salt and Verde rivers and 2% comes from groundwater.

“We don’t have all of our eggs in one basket,” said Water Resources Management Advisor Cynthia Campbell.

Water conservation efforts

Water Services staff touted the city’s past water conservation efforts as holding off the need for more serious action today.

“While this situation is serious, our previous actions with water resource development, infrastructure investments and water conservation prepared Phoenix for shortage,” Hayes said.

Staff noted that water use per individual has shot significantly down in recent years, offsetting Phoenix’s increase in population.

The blue bars on this graphic show the year-by-year population increase in Phoenix. The green line shows the decline of the per-person water usage rate. [Submitted graphic/City of Phoenix]

Campbell said water conservation is part of the culture of being a desert city.

“We also are always anticipating a hotter, drier future,” she said.

Between the city’s completed efforts in the last few years, its ongoing and planned efforts, staff believes enough water will be saved annually to fill 10,000 swimming pools.

Completed efforts

Water conservation efforts by the city in the last few years include creating an online water budget calculator that lets residents plug in their irrigation needs in order to see how much water is necessary. It is available in both English and Spanish.

The city has started a pilot program to do the same on its property, establishing water budgets for certain sites and tracking the performance of the plants on the site. It also installed smart irrigation controllers at city parks that will ensure the sprinklers don’t turn on when it is raining.

A new educational water resource page was created on the city’s website, with material in English and Spanish for kids and adults. A volunteer group for water conservation education efforts was also created.

The city also created a Water Conservation Subcommittee in 2019 and established a new position of water conservation coordinator last year, held by Max Wilson.

Current phase

The current phase of conservation efforts, with the aim of completion by the end of 2022, include supplying water-friendly desert landscaping materials for free to residents and creating a subsidy for residents to install smart irrigation controllers.

Staff believes a planned campaign to work with homeowners’ associations on water conservation efforts would save 21.5 million gallons per year.

Lastly, the city plans to join with corporate partners to provide low- or no-cost financing to make commercial cooling towers more water efficient. The towers use evaporation to help remove industrial heat in large buildings. The city already implemented some of this technology at buildings at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Future phase

The future phase, which will be started soon and aims for completion by spring 2024, will include expanding the city’s program to subsidize the installation of water-efficient toilets.

The city will work with local schools for more education of youth around water and new water conservation efforts are planned to be written into the city’s building code, likely by 2025.

Mark Carlisle can be reached at mcarlisle@iniusa.org or found on Twitter @mwcarlisle.

Mark Carlisle
Associate Editor | Phoenix
@mwcarlisle

mcarlisle@iniusa.org

Meet Mark

Mark Carlisle joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2017, covering Glendale. He has since moved to the Daily Independent team, primarily covering the city of Phoenix along with other topics affecting the Valley at-large.

Community: Mark enjoys taking his two young sons to parks, the Phoenix Zoo, the Phoenix Public Library  and other fun events around the Valley. He also participates in a local book club.

Education: Chapman University with a BA in English Journalism and one in Screenwriting.

Random Fact: Mark worked at a tuxedo shop in college. Just don’t ask him to tie a bowtie.

 Hobbies: Spending time with his wife, sons and dog, watching sports and TV shows, listening to audiobooks and occasionally writing fiction or designing a board game.