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Hydrating Phoenix: Quenching a city in the desert

How Phoenix and its 3.5 million people defied the odds, running on all cylinders without running dry.
By Katy Rank Lev
Wed, Aug 05 2009 at 8:33 AM EST
Read more: WATER, WATER CONSERVATION

Photo courtesy Arizona Department of Water Resources
Mayor Phil Gordon grew up playing in swampy back yards. During summers in central Phoenix, Ariz., he and his friends looked forward to the days when their parents would flood the grass, which meant a day or two of inch-deep splash puddles or soggy baseball games. Today, though the residents use the irrigation canals less frequently, nearby back yards are still separated by trenches, punctuated with pipes and valves that let homeowners flood their lawns about once a month rather than use water for daily sprinkler systems.
 
The network of canals sends untreated water from the Salt River Dam, where turbines generate electricity for the state of Arizona's use, on its way to water treatment facilities. Using nothing more than gravity, city controllers can open up smaller networks of canals on a regularly scheduled basis for landscaping use, currently about two-thirds of the water used in the city, according to the city of Phoenix Water Resource Plan.
 
Gordon reminisces about his aquatic youth, telling me that central Phoenix was once a hotbed for citrus growers because the water was so plentiful. But that was decades ago, before the population exploded to more than 3.5 million residents, all thirsty, all washing laundry, and all wanting things like pools and golf courses and vegetables. Folks like Washington Post columnist Neal Peirce talk of imminent disaster: Arizona might run out of water and dry up like the desert surrounding its capital city.
 
Gordon shakes his head. "Phoenix is using less water today than we were a decade ago and less per capita than we were two decades ago," he says. He recognizes that the huge growth in his city did strain the infrastructure, however — pushing out agriculture, causing low water pressure, and forcing city officials to retrofit homes and buildings with conservation mechanisms.
 
So how could it be possible that a million additional people use less water than their late-'90s predecessors? Can the "mellow yellow" flushing mantra, requests to only do laundry at night and demands for "xeriscaping" really make that much of a difference? Evidently, yes.
 
According to the city's Water Resource Plan, individual and business conservation efforts made for a 20 percent reduction in water use since 1980. Everything from leveling agricultural fields with lasers — on an angle to collect runoff — to developing an EnergyStar-like rating for consumer appliances that conserve water has made for a conscious community respecting its water supply. Gordon says "other cities are just now piloting such programs. Phoenix has been utilizing 'green and sustainable' practices for decades."
 

 
Despite the doomsayers' predictions, Phoenix and the state as a whole have a 100-year plan to meet the water needs agriculturally, residentially and commercially — a plan that's updated and revisited every five years. Phoenix currently gets its water from several sources: the Colorado River (36 percent), the Salt River (54 percent), groundwater (3 percent) and reclaimed water (7 percent).
 
Arizona is one of seven states sticking straws into the Colorado, which is predicted to experience a dry spell over the next decade. The canal system routing its waters through the arid West, called the Central Arizona Project, may not be as plentiful over the coming years. But that's OK, says Jack Lavelle of the Arizona Department of Water Resources. "We've got several million acre feet in the ground," Lavelle says. "We're ahead of the game, and that's something that's unique to Arizona. No other state has done it."
 
He's referring to aquifers — alluvial basins that hold great lakes' worth of water — banked over the years when Arizona had excess. The Department of Water Resources focuses on reuse and conservation while the minerals scrub the stored water clean, storing more than a years' supply for future emergency use. In the meantime, Lavelle focuses on public education.
 

 
His programs range from educating homeowners about rain barrels and down spouts to implementing restaurant kitchens with high-pressure, low-flow hoses to cut their water use in half. In March, Phoenix kicked off the nationwide "Fix a Leak" campaign, where EPA WaterSense folks visit people's homes and help them curb the trillion gallons of water we collectively waste each year. "We have to reset our mental expectations and understand that [we] can get by on far less water than we think," Lavelle says.
 
Phoenix is leading the charge in conservation as the city plans for its future. Gordon's son Jake will grow up with different rules about water use than his father, and is unlikely to play around in canals, but he can rest just as easily that his desert city home will stay quenched for a long time. 


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Comments(16)

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Posted By Natural - Fri, Nov 13 2009 at 1:03 PM EST

Cities are NOT natural

Cities are artificial environments created by humans and are in no way natural or part of nature. In fact cities disconnect humans and other animals from nature and the environment.

Posted By Will Novak - Fri, Aug 21 2009 at 1:22 AM EST

Desert cities...

...are quite 'natural' (whatever it means to have a natural city). Human life sprung forth in a desert after all. The Fertile Crescent of the Tigress and the Euphrates is very much like the Salt and Gila River Valleys of Central Arizona. Perhaps those living in the rust belt are the ones in the 'unnatural' places.

Posted By Anonymous - Sat, Aug 08 2009 at 12:14 PM EST

Uninformed

Phoenix is a river town, not a desert. The fact that the rivers have been dammed and used for power does not mean that no water would exist in this area to support life. When people imagine deserts as barren wastelands forget that enormous green oases like the Salt River area exist and are more than large enough to support this population. Animal and plant life have been thriving here "naturally" long before we joined them, merely by using less water, which is what we are doing here. People.... More

Posted By Steve Olson - Fri, Aug 07 2009 at 7:47 AM EST

I find it a bit sensational

to simply say that a city in the desert isn't natural. Couldn''t the same be said for cities in the arctic, in the delta, or on islands? Yes, of course, the desert is a harsh environment, but it is just one of many that humans call home. I think the most natural thing people can do is attempt to live wherever. The should-have-could-have-would-have mind set of "people should have never lived in the desert" gets us nowhere. The unchangeable fact is, we do live here, and there, and just about.... More

Posted By Eon Flux - Fri, Aug 07 2009 at 1:49 AM EST

Let's kidd ourselves

I am so happy that Phoenixians(?) are consuming 20 % less water!!!

So, lets see, there were 1.6 million people in 1980 and now there are 3.2 million, for a whooping 200 percent increase in population.

Can some body explain how this is susteinable? or even "rational"

Posted By Sam Hall - Thu, Aug 06 2009 at 11:50 AM EST

RE: RE: A city in the desert

Humans are animals, and we evolved naturally. Our cities are as "natural" as the ones other animals build, like ant colonies, bee hives, and coral reefs. We just need to get better at integrating them with the surrounding ecosystem instead of ramming them down the desert's throat and expecting everything to somehow work out.

Posted By Anonymous - Thu, Aug 06 2009 at 11:15 AM EST

RE: A city in the desert

"A city in the desert still isn't natural." LOL, a city anywhere isn't "natural."

Posted By Oi - Thu, Aug 06 2009 at 8:09 AM EST

It's easy...

when you allow the rest of the state to die of thirst.

Posted By LD - Wed, Aug 05 2009 at 7:47 PM EST

Duh.

Let's be realistic here, you live in the desert. You would think from earlier then a couple decades ago they'd be thinking about ways to drastically reduce water usage. It is after all, a scare resource. I am sometimes amazed by the wasteful habits America has rutted themselves in.

Posted By John Neville - Wed, Aug 05 2009 at 6:25 PM EST

Sustainable Arizona

It is good to see the news about the Phoenix water conservation efforts. While their improvements are good, people still use around 4 times the water some people in Europe use - 35 gallons per day per person. So you can have a modern lifestyle without using a lot of water.

Also, we should note that 70% of the water used in Arizona is for agriculture while less than 1% of those products find their way to the local dinner tables. Arizona could cut their agricultural water use in half.... More

Posted By Elizabeth - Wed, Aug 05 2009 at 12:04 PM EST

Good for Phoenix

Saving water is important, whether you live in the desert or not.

Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Aug 05 2009 at 11:01 AM EST

The 'Naked Gun' guy

Love the random Phoneix-water-Leslie Nielson video. That guy looks exactly the same as he did 15 years ago.

Posted By GreenErinF - Wed, Aug 05 2009 at 10:48 AM EST

water conservation in Phoenix

It's sad that it has to come to a water crisis to put people to do something about water conservation. I hope they have continued success, but people tend to get complacent about water conservation when there seems to be enough water. But it sounds like they are asking people to make a complete lifestyle change, which is the only thing that will really make a difference.

Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Aug 05 2009 at 6:21 PM EST

it's not sad, it's

Realistic. I think you'd be surprised to know that I've got a rainwater collection system, and I live in North Texas, we get about 35 inches of rain per year. I do it because it's fun, it's cheap, and because I feel cool doing it. I definitely don't need to do it, maybe I feel guilty because I have a pool.
Anyway, the water issue is still at a stage where it is highly localized to areas that lack water. When water cost goes up, or areas grow enough to hurt the water supply, people in.... More

Posted By Pamela Drake - Wed, Aug 05 2009 at 10:44 AM EST

A city in the desert...

still isn't natural. Yes, it's nice to read about Phoenix and their water conservation steps....let's face it...they really have no choice....they're in the desert!!! But the reality is that they have too many people doing too many things that require water.

Posted By Sean Roberts - Wed, Aug 05 2009 at 10:37 AM EST

Re: Save water

Some other areas of the country could learn a thing or two from Phoenix. I hope they do.

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