Pima County - Tucson Water Study Phase II (draft) summary (unauthorized) with links to technical papers
I. INTRODUCTION
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The entire report is available on the Study website www.tucsonpimawaterstudy.com
The Phase II staff report is a synthesis of 14 technical papers that were prepared by staff and outside experts and presented to the Oversight Committee during Phase II.
This report includes joint City/County goals and recommendations. The Phase I and II reports together provide a foundation for the future regional process that is recommended in the scope.
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Phase 2 Scope Guiding Principles
The adopted Scope of Work for Phase II includes a set of guiding principles which are grouped into four categories as follows:
Comprehensive, Integrated Planning:
• Urban form, water and infrastructure planning will directly influence where future population growth will occur
• Locating future population should be done in a manner so as not to disadvantage or adversely impact existing residents
• New growth must be located where it is beneficial to the environment, economy, and conservation of our resources
• Large scale infrastructure systems to support the growth centers must be integrated with existing urban infrastructure systems that are in place
• Land use planning must be integrated with water resources and infrastructure for each jurisdiction
Respect for the Environment:
• Ensure an appropriate and proper balance between the reservation of water for consumption and growth, and the acknowledgement that our environment is also a consumer of water resource, and certain water reservations for the environment must be made and sustained.
Water Supply:
• Long-term water supply cannot occur at the expense of our existing residents or the environment
• Increase the use of reclaimed or recycled water on turf irrigation to substitute for groundwater use
• Enhance regional collaboration efforts to acquire new, renewable water supplies, such as long-term CAP leases
Demand Management:
• Increase consistency of water conservation standards and ordinances
• Water conservation should be viewed as protecting a future water supply, not simply making more population growth possible
• Drought management planning should be consolidated
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Phase 2 Report Writing and Committee Process
Following is the list of the original 14 Technical Reports by major category with the authoring entities noted. The technical papers are included in the appendices of this report which is available on the study website.
1. Integrating Land Use Planning with Water Resources and Infrastructure (City/County staff)
2. Location of Growth, Urban Form, and Cost of Infrastructure (Stantec Consulting, Inc. in cooperation with Curtis Lueck and Associates and City/County staff)
3. Utility Cost of Growth (City / County staff)
4. Environmental Restoration (City/County staff)
5. Riparian Protection (City/County staff)
6. Stormwater Management (City/County staff)
7. Additional Water (City/County staff)
8. Water Quality (City/County Staff)
9. Reclaimed Water (City/County staff)
10. Drought Planning (City/County staff)
11. Water Conservation (City/County staff)
12. Water Conservation (Val Little, Water Casa)
13. Water as an Economic Resource ( Tucson Regional Water Coalition)
14. Population Primer (Jim Barry, Chairman, Oversight Committee)
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II. SHARED GOALS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
__________________Comprehensive, Integrated Planning______________________
This section of the report focuses specifically on Tucson City limits and unincorporated Eastern Pima County, and not the other jurisdictions in the region. The goals and recommendations in this section come from the following background technical papers that were prepared as part of Phase 2 of the Study (see appendix for the papers):
1. Integrating Land Use and Water Resources Planning
2. Urban Form and Population Growth
3. Utility Cost of Growth
4. Economic Value of Water
5. Population Primer
The technical papers were written to address the following guiding principles from the scope of work for the Study.
• Urban form, water and infrastructure planning will directly influence where future population growth will occur
• Locating future population should be done in a manner so as not to disadvantage or adversely impact existing residents
• New growth must be located where it is beneficial to the environment, economy, and conservation of our resources
• Large scale infrastructure systems to support the growth centers must be integrated with existing urban infrastructure systems that are in place
• Land use planning must be integrated with water resources and infrastructure for each jurisdiction
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Goals and Recommendations
GOAL #1: ENCOURAGE SUSTAINABLE URBAN FORMS
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Recommendations
1.1 The City and County should require and incent new development and redevelopment projects to implement smart growth principles and concepts and contribute to a sustainable urban form including:
• Mix of uses
• Open space preservation
• Higher densities/density by design
• Housing choice
• Transportation options
• Access to jobs and services
• Reduced water and energy consumption
• Infrastructure efficiencies
A variety of policy and legislative tools as well as incentives should be developed to implement these concepts including:
• General and Comprehensive Plan Policies
• Land Use Code changes
• Other legislative actions
• Incentives
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GOAL #2: DIRECT GROWTH TO SUITABLE GROWTH AREAS
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Recommendations
2.1 The City and County should take steps to encourage growth and new development in areas identified as most suitable for development which include the following:
• Infill into the existing built environment (highest priority)
• Outside of the Conservation Lands System
• Within the Houghton corridor
• Within the Southlands area
• Within the Southwest area
Revitalization of downtown as well as infill and reinvestment in the built-up areas of the community (inside and outside city limits) should be the highest priority for locating future growth in order to make use of existing infrastructure and minimize the consumption of raw land. A variety of policy and legislative tools as well as incentives should be developed to encourage growth in these locations including:
• General and Comprehensive Plan Policies
• Land Use Code changes
• Other legislative actions
• Differential impact fees
• Incentives
City and County staff should involve the public in discussion about location of growth and tools to direct growth to these areas as part of their updates to the City General Plan and County Comprehensive Plan.
2.2 The City and County should influence the location of future growth through where infrastructure is built and public services are provided. The City and County should establish a joint land use/capital improvement planning staff team to plan for the timing, sequencing, location and funding of infrastructure and public services to serve identified growth areas. Financial and infrastructure planning should occur ahead of development pressures. For infill areas, policies should focus on planning for and funding needed investments and improvements that must go along with higher densities and redevelopment. The County has already begun an effort to inventory the planning related activities of its various public works departments, and this could be replicated for the City prior to a joint process getting underway. Updates to the City General Plan and County Comprehensive Plan should set forth policy that requires this process take place.
2.3 The City and County should influence the location of future growth through the acquisition of open space. With the support of voters, the County will continue funding the acquisition of natural areas for conservation, recreation, and the protection of water resources. Natural preserves assist in defining the urban form, as well as providing multiple benefits such as recreational opportunities, conservation of water resources and natural floodplain functions, and protection of scenic views. In some cases, purchasing land outright or through conservation easements is the most realistic way to preserve areas not suitable for development.
2.4 The City and County should continue to work with PAG to do growth and urban form scenario modeling on a regional level (including Marana, Oro Valley, Sahuarita, South Tucson, the Tohono O’odham Nation, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, the San Xavier District and others) similar to the modeling done for the City/County service area in the Growth and Urban Form technical paper. This work could help inform or be done in conjunction with the emerging regional visioning process and could help inform the City General Plan update and County Comprehensive Plan update.
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GOAL #3: INTEGRATE LAND USE PLANNING AND WATER RESOURCES PLANNING
The historic disconnect between land use planning and water resource and infrastructure planning has a number of negative impacts, including (1) continued groundwater level declines in some areas of the valley impacting both existing residents, customers, businesses, and the environment; and (2) the stimulation of growth in places that lack adequate water infrastructure, as well as other types of public infrastructure and services, causing costly impacts to local governments, other service providers, and existing tax payers.
The situation is perpetuated by the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishing District (CAGRD), which was created by the State Legislature to allow development to occur in areas without access to renewable water resources, by requiring that replenishment of water occur but not that it occur in the same location as the pumping (“pumping/recharge disconnect”).
[NOTE: Challenge: How much groundwater pumping is happening in Tucson Basin? Need to know the percentage of groundwater still being pumped in the Tucson Basin where there is only a small amount recharge of CAP recharge. What is the ratio?]
The City and County have made efforts in the past couple of years to better connect land use decisions with water considerations. The City instituted an interim moratorium on extending water service beyond the existing Tucson Water obligated service area until the impacts of such extensions could be fully analyzed. The interim policy brings land use considerations into water service decisions recognizing that the past demand-based service expansion has not been sustainable from a land use planning perspective.
Recommendations
3.1 Outside of the Tucson Water Obligated Service Area, in unincorporated Pima County, the City and County should work together to conduct comprehensive water resource planning to identify sustainable water resources to serve these areas. Water resources should be looked at in a comprehensive manner with the goal of making efficient use of water and matching up sources with needs. This planning effort should address the use of potable, reclaimed, effluent, stormwater, rainwater, and graywater. As an example, the City and County should work cooperatively to explore the development and operation of reclaimed water systems and recharge facilities at the County’s sub-regional wastewater reclamation facilities.
3.2 The above described planning effort should help inform future City considerations of extending the obligated service area. These expansion decisions should be done on a subregional basis (vs. a parcel-by-parcel basis) in advance of specific water service requests.
Any decision to expand the obligated area should be formalized through Mayor and Council policy. The following factors should be taken into account in making policy decisions regarding expansion of the obligated area within specific sub-regions.
• Suitability of growth area
• Affect of extensions on future water resource needs for the City’s existing obligated area
• Fiscal sustainability of development and potential for future annexation
• Appropriateness of timing/phasing of development
• Economic impact/benefits
• Urban form sustainability
• Environmental implications of development
• Environmental implications of not providing water service
3.3 In addition to the comprehensive, long range planning efforts described above, the City and County should continue to assess and track the impact of individual developments on water resources:
• The County should continue to implement the recent amendment to the Water element of the Comprehensive Plan providing the Board of Supervisors with the necessary water resources information concerning individual development requests.
• The City should continue to implement the “water checkbook” method of tracking and communicating to the Mayor and Council how much renewable water Tucson Water has available to support proposed new developments or businesses.
3.4 The City should continue to pursue discussions with other water providers regarding potential for wheeling and/or recharge agreements. As an example, Tucson Water and Metro Water/Hub should discuss the potential for wheeling of a portion of metro’s CAP allocation to Metro/Hub through Tucson Water’s integrated potable water distribution system at a cost of service price, in order to reduce Metro/Hub’s groundwater pumping in the immediate area.
3.5 The City and County should work together with other jurisdictions to support regional solutions to address the hydrological disconnect between where water is being pumped and where it is being replenished.
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GOAL #4: GROWTH SHOULD PAY FOR ITSELF OVER TIME AND BE FINANCIALLY SUSTAINABLE
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Recommendations
4.1 Future development should be evaluated in terms of fiscal sustainability from both the capital (initial construction of infrastructure) and operating (ongoing public services and maintenance of infrastructure) perspectives to ensure that new development is self-sustaining and not subsidized over the long term by pre-existing residents and businesses.
4.2 The Tucson Water Department and the Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department should continue managing their water/wastewater infrastructure capital improvement programs in a manner that is consistent with the latest nationally accepted industry best practices and continue to ensure that each year’s water/wastewater Financial Plan adequately and demonstrably provides mechanisms so that “growth pays for growth.”
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________________________Respect for the Environment_______________________
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The goals and recommendations in this section come from the following background technical papers that were prepared as part of Phase 2 of the Study (see appendix for the papers):
Appendix (includes regulations, permits, etc.)
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These technical papers were written to address the following topics identified in the scope of work for this Study, and by Oversight Committee members:
• How and where can we best use stormwater and rainwater, effluent and reclaimed water for environmental benefits and quality of life?
• What are the existing and future water demands for the environment and how should the community prioritize these needs?
• Why are environmental projects that improve ecosystem functions important?
• How and where can we best preserve and improve ecosystem functions?
• Where are future opportunities for environmental projects in proximity to existing and future water resources?
• What are the opportunities for protecting environmentally sensitive natural riparian areas, including areas of shallow groundwater and perennial and intermittent streams that support unique riparian vegetation, in Eastern Pima County?
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Goals and Recommendations
GOAL #1: PRESERVE EXISTING RIPARIAN AREAS THROUGH COORDINATED REGULATION, POLICY, AND OUTREACH
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Recommendations
1.1 The City and County continue to preserve existing riparian areas to the maximum extent possible through land acquisition, regulatory land use controls that limit encroachment into floodplains and riparian habitat, and education and outreach.
1.2 The City and County should evaluate the effectiveness of programs and policies, within their respective jurisdictional areas and water service areas, regarding the protection of groundwater-dependent and hydro-riparian areas from groundwater withdrawal and surface water diversions.
This protection will be accomplished by evaluating the feasibility of prohibiting, where legally possible, new non-exempt wells (>35 gpm) and limit pumping of new exempt wells (<35 gpm) within and near shallow groundwater ecosystems and initiating a public awareness and conservation campaign targeting exempt well owners in sensitive shallow groundwater areas to educate them on the important connection between water and riparian areas.
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GOAL #2: IDENTIFY NEEDS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR FUTURE RESTORATION
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Recommendations
2.1 The City and County will work with stakeholders to develop a shared regional policy for addressing those regulatory compliance projects that require water for short-term or long term (permanent or seasonal) establishment.
2.2 The City and County will work with stakeholders to develop a regional collaboration for riparian restoration. This effort should include exploring or continuing to pursue:
• Enhancing the value of in-lieu mitigation funds received for compliance with local watercourse protection ordinances to fund restoration activities;
• Opportunities to partner with non-governmental entities that operate mitigation banks and/or undertake restoration activities;
• Continue to evaluate existing County and City-owned lands for suitability for environmental conservation and restoration;
• Opportunities to secure grant funding for environmental restoration;
• Partnering with experts to identify long-term water quality implications for restoration areas, such as the impacts of higher salinity of CAP, effluent, and reclaimed water.
2.3 The City and County will continue to work with ADEQ to develop water quality standards and designations specifically for habitat restoration.
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GOAL #3: ENSURE THAT PUBLIC PROJECTS ARE MUTLI-BENEFIT INCLUDING RESTORATION, STORMWATER MANAGEMENT, RECHARGE AND PUBLIC AMENITY
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Recommendations
3.1 The City and County should pursue cost-effective, multiple-benefit, broad scale public projects that utilize reclaimed water to accomplish goals such as aquifer augmentation, riparian restoration, habitat protection, environmental enhancement, turf irrigation, and recreational opportunities in combination with flood control and stormwater management facilities, parks and trails, and water recharge and wastewater disposal activities.
For example by:
• Incorporating ecosystem restoration adjacent to wastewater treatment facilities;
• Exploring ways for recharge facilities to support restoration;
• Retrofitting existing large stormwater detention basins to support riparian habitat;
• Including environmental restoration opportunities as a component in all new stormwater management projects, so that optimal amounts of stormwater are retained for reuse before being discharged to the respective stormwater conveyance systems; and
• Incorporating, where possible, rainwater harvesting and ecological amenities into other public projects.
• Development of a joint policy that incorporates rainwater harvesting, stormwater detention, non-potable water use, recreation, and ecological amenities to the extent feasible in Capital Improvement Projects budgets, especially in open space areas.
3.2 The City and County will identify areas within the existing built environment characterized by an abundance of impervious surfaces and identify opportunities for additional stormwater management. This would have water quality, stormwater management, and environmental benefits. To accomplish this, the City and County would need to develop a plan that identifies site-specific locations and standards for implementing stormwater management projects.
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GOAL #4: ENSURE THE FUTURE OF RIPARIAN AND AQUATIC HABITAT ALONG THE EFFLUENT-DEPENDENT REACH OF THE SANTA CRUZ RIVER
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Recommendations
4.1 The City and County should advocate for changes to state statutes to grant full recharge credits to the Secretary of Interior for effluent used to sustain the flows in the Santa Cruz River and the riparian corridor.
4.2 The City and County, and other regional partners, should develop a “Lower Santa Cruz River Management Plan” that would identify the most effective and sustainable means for using effluent and other renewable water supplies to support and enhance valuable habitat in the Santa Cruz River corridor.
4.3 As part of the Management Plan, and building upon the Regional Flood Control District’s current cooperative efforts, the City and County should develop partnerships with other effluent rights holders and stakeholders to use our growing collection of pilot restoration projects to demonstrate their potential to maintain and enhance aquatic and riparian habitat along the Santa Cruz River. The City and County can then identify a portfolio of multipurpose projects for long term implementation in the context of the Management Plan.
4.4 The City and County should incorporate into both in-channel and off-channel recharge facilities features which also use the water to support riparian and/or aquatic habitat.
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GOAL #5: DEVELOP WATER SUPPLY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
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Recommendations
5.1 The City and County will finalize the IGA for the Conservation Effluent Pool, which will annually provide up to 10,000 acre feet of effluent for environmental enhancements. This agreement will be delivered to the City Mayor and Council and the County Board of Supervisors for review and approval.
5.2 The City and County will work with stakeholders and other resource experts to link water conservation to the protection of future supplies and to environment preservation/restoration by identifying mechanisms to reserve water saved through conservation programs for specific environmental uses/projects. This will allow community members to directly contribute to environmental protection and enhancement as a result of their individual actions to reduce their use of potable water. It would also provide a mechanism to develop a water source, beyond the CEP, that can be dedicated to projects with an environmental benefit.
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______________________________Water Supply___________________________
Tucson Water
Water Resource Type Annual Water Supply (AF)
CAP 144,191
CAGRD 12,500
Incidental Recharge 5,500
Local Groundwater 24,750
Effluent 30,500
Total 217,441
The information in this section comes from the following background technical papers that were prepared as part of Phase 2 of the Study (see appendix):
1. Additional Water
2. Reclaimed Water
3. Drought
4. Water Quality
This section addresses the following guiding principles listed in the scope of work for the Study.
• Long-term water supply cannot occur at the expense of our existing residents or the environment
• Increase the use of reclaimed or recycled water on turf irrigation to substitute for groundwater use
• Enhance regional collaboration
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Goals and Recommendations
GOAL #1: WORK COLLABORATIVELY TO ACQUIRE NEW WATER SUPPLIES FOR RELIABILITY
The most likely sources of additional water that could be acquired through the ADD process are excess CAP water, leading contracted CAP Indian water, main stem Colorado River Water, and imported groundwater.
NOTE: All based on an unreliable or unsustainable water source. The imported groundwater is from a couple of aquifers in western AZ. When that supply is gone, what will happen? And what will happen to the habitat that the aquifer is sustaining over in western AZ? Apparently, this is a very unpopulated area. We need to stay on top of this one. NF
Recommendations
1.1 As the ADD Water stakeholders’ process proceeds, local water providers and users should maximize opportunities to acquire ADD Water Supplies and explore options to finance these additional supplies when they become available.
1.2 All Municipal and Industrial priority CAP allocations will be vulnerable in times of severe shortage on the Colorado River. Therefore, Tucson Water should take the necessary steps to have additional, more reliable water resources to reinforce and buttress its CAP water allocation to serve growth in the existing built environment and yet undeveloped areas of Tucson Water’s Obligated Service Area.
1.3 The City and County should continue to jointly plan for the acquisition of additional supplies to maximize shared system efficiencies and to achieve their respective sustainability goals. These goals should collectively take into account social, economic, and environmental factors to ensure that all costs and benefits are taken into account.
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GOAL #2: MAXIMIZE AND MAKE EFFICIENT USE OF EFFLUENT AND OTHER LOCALLY RENEWABLE WATER SUPPLIES
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Recommendations
2.1 The City and County should continue to balance the uses of effluent, dedicating it to the reclaimed system, to environmental purposes, and for aquifer augmentation/recharge credits.
2.2 The City and County should evaluate the use of reclaimed water for particular sites with the goal of maximizing the community’s overall water resource portfolio by matching up the most effective and resource-efficient water source with a particular site and its needs.
2.3 Tucson Water and Pima County Wastewater should continue to assess the potential water supply benefits as well as the adverse consequences of expanded gray water use within their respective service areas.
2.4 The City of Tucson and Pima County will continue encouraging rainwater harvesting on both residential and commercial properties to defray the high costs associated with stormwater management, and to develop a new source of local, renewable water supply.
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GOAL #3: ADDRESS REGULATORY BARRIERS TO MAXIMIZING LOCAL SUPPLIES
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Recommendations
3.1 Refine policy and regulations governing the accrual of groundwater credits to provide incentives to groundwater turf users proximate to reclaimed lines to convert to reclaimed water in lieu of pumping.
3.2 Develop alternative operational and permitting strategies to achieve a Class A+ or equivalent water supply for the reclaimed system.
3.3 The City and County should continue to work with ADEQ and ADWR to develop water quality standards, permits and designations specifically for riparian projects.
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GOAL #4: FOSTER INCREASED USE OF RECLAIMED WATER THROUGH
SYSTEM EXPANSIONS, INCREASED EFFLUENT ALLOCATIONS AND INCENTIVES
Page 26-17
Recommendations
4.1 Expand financing options, including considering the use of General Obligation Bonds to pay for extensions to the reclaimed system without relying solely on paying customers and revenue bonds.
4.2 Maintain the current policy that a private customer with a revenue source (e.g. golf courses, industrial) who can pay the full costs of reclaimed water should pay; explore options to encourage potential customers who currently have no financial incentive to join the system to join, such as phased-in rates and expanded potable water ratepayer subsidies.
4.3 Work to lower the costs of operating the reclaimed system through efficiency improvements.
4.4 Incorporate the consideration and evaluation of the use of reclaimed water into the City and County development review processes.
4.5 Tucson Water and Pima County will continue to evaluate opportunities to expand reclaimed water and remediated groundwater use to meet both municipal and environmental-enhancement supply needs.
4.6 The City and County should increase the amount of their effluent allocations used in the reclaimed system.
4.7 Identify, prioritize and pursue additional reclaimed customers based on the following criteria:
• Proximity to existing reclaimed infrastructure
• Cost to join the system
• Energy, operating and maintenance costs
• Potable and groundwater savings
• Opportunity to mitigate environmental impacts of existing groundwater pumping
• Turf areas that provide greatest public benefit
• Availability of other water resource options
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GOAL #5: BE PREPARED FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND DROUGHT
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Recommendations
5.1 Continue multi-pronged planning approach that includes diversification of water supplies, increased demand management, and development and maintenance of necessary infrastructure.
5.2 Use scenario planning as a tool to assess the changing planning environment including the potential for extended drought or permanent climate change, and other types of uncertainties, such as new technology, changing regulations, or altered patterns of development in the Tucson area.
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_________________________Demand Management_________________________
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Goals and Recommendations
GOAL #1: INCREASE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CONSERVATION PROGRAMMING THROUGH COORDINATED PLANNING AND EVALUATION
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Recommendations
1.1 The City and County partner with ADWR and other stakeholders in collecting uniform data on existing water use patterns to identify conservation potential and to support development of water efficiency and conservation goals. Measures are communicated through the coordinated information campaigns to ensure widespread public awareness of progress towards goals. Potential water use trend evaluation elements include:
• indoor versus outdoor water use
• lot size
• persons per household
• commercial and industrial accounts
• non-potable use vs. potable use
1.2 The City of Tucson and Pima County continuously improve the effectiveness of their conservation programming through integrated resource planning techniques, including triple bottom line analysis and evaluation of cost / benefit economic thresholds. Results of evaluations are used to revise programs as needed.
1.3 In the face of uncertainty related to drought and climate change, the City and County should employ an adaptive planning approach that incorporates the following:
• Bringing experts together to brainstorm current and future vulnerabilities under range of scenarios;
• Scenario planning as a tool to assess the changing planning environment including the potential for extended drought or permanent climate change;
• Periodic review and frequent updates to the Drought Response Plans to incorporate the latest information on drought and climate change;
• Integrating climate change impacts over time to re-define “normal conditions” when assessing drought;
• Evaluation and consideration of the social and financial impacts of drought on the utilities and their customers and ways to address them;
• Employing conservative approaches and a multi-pronged preparedness strategy that includes diversification of water supplies, demand management, and development and maintenance of necessary infrastructure to preserve options or the future.
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GOAL #2: ESTABLISH COMMON WATER CONSERVATION GOALS AND TARGETED METHODS
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Recommendations
2.1 The City of Tucson and Pima County should evaluate options for working with regional stakeholders to establish common, measurable water efficiency* and water conservation goals community-wide. Although the City and County can initiate the dialogue, ultimately this goal needs to be advanced through a regional process. Such a process might be convened by an existing regional entity such as Pima Association of Governments (PAG), Southern Arizona Water Users Association, the University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center, and/or Water CASA.
2.2 Building from the community-wide water efficiency goals, City of Tucson and Pima County, in cooperation with regional stakeholders, develop a menu of water efficiency and water conservation options such as targeted strategies, policies, actions, regulations, and programs.
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GOAL #3: MANAGE DEMAND THROUGH DESIGN OF BUILT ENVIRONMENT
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Recommendations
3.1 A joint City/County staff team, working with stakeholders, reviews their existing water conservation regulations for consistency with water efficiency goals. Where appropriate, the team recommends new requirements with a priority focus on landscape requirements that maximize non-potable water sources and water harvesting techniques. The team also evaluates the feasibility and benefits of
• Developing joint landscape, building and zoning standards that increase the potential for on-site capture, storage and use of rainwater. Incentives to residents, Home Owners Associations and builders should be considered (this is further described under Goal 4,Recommendation 4.1)
• Updating standards for high efficiency toilets.
• Incorporating the concepts of structured plumbing including trunk, branch twig piping systems, and pipe insulation into the plumbing code.
• Developing common green building standards
• Continuing to coordinate the review and update drought ordinances
• Explore the possibility of requiring new facilities funded by County or City bonds to maximize LEED Silver water conservation credits.
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GOAL #4: MANAGE DEMAND THROUGH CHANGING BEHAVIORS
The staff technical paper on Water Conservation answered this question as follows:
• To protect and restore current groundwater conditions
• To preserve options for the future
• To conserve energy used to deliver water
• To preserve quality of life
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Recommendations
4.1 The City and County, working in cooperation with regional stakeholders, gather public input regarding water efficiency measures and goals and consider it in the planning and decision making process. An initial step should be to define a list public opinion survey questions to explore public perceptions of quality of life trade offs associated with water efficiency measures and preferred strategies to achieve shared goals. Methods for gathering public input on these questions should also be explored.
4.2 The City of Tucson and Pima County should explore the feasibility and benefits of consolidating existing programs and fostering regional approaches and partnerships for advancing water conservation and drought education, communications, pilot projects, and training.
Key Educational Topics
• Raise awareness of progress in achieving goals
• Link between water consumption and energy
• Drought response measures
• Reasons for conserving and uses of saved water
• Coordinated media messages & education for all sectors of the community including youth
• Local training and certification requirements for all facets of the landscape, industry, plumbing industry, water auditors, property managers, etc.
• Rainwater harvesting
• Greywater use
• Common vocabulary for communicating about water, stormwater, wastewater, environment, etc.
• Joint pilot projects featuring best practices and new technologies
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GOAL #5: INCREASE RAINWATER AND STORMWATER TO REDUCE DEMANDS
The intent of this goal is to reduce use of potable water to meet outdoor needs to the maximum extent feasible through optimization of harvested rainwater, graywater reuse and/or reclaimed water. Additionally, as projects with multiple benefits are developed, the impacts of these benefits, such as use of water harvesting for increased floodwater retention, limiting the migration of contaminants, reduction in demand on potable resources, mitigation of the urban heat island effect and habitat restoration, must be considered rather than evaluating only the costs and benefits from a water supply perspective.
The Water Casa technical paper on water conservation recommends adopting a goal to eliminate potable water for all outdoor water use. Although staff supports a strong emphasis on maximizing use of renewable water resources, such as reclaimed water, rainwater and graywater, for outdoor needs, further analysis of potential unintended consequences of such a goal is recommended. Some issues to consider include examination of tradeoffs in terms of balancing the allocation of water to meet social equity and environmental goals. For example, could this impact the region’s ability to support recreational turf in areas (potentially low income areas) without access to non-potable supplies? Additionally, there may be areas where the -cost effective approach is to use groundwater supplies to shore up depleted aquifers that threaten sensitive ecosystems and to balance those withdrawals with recharge of effluent in other areas.
The balancing of water needs and water availability requires flexibility and adaptability and a one size fits all policy may not accommodate our ability to optimize resources in meeting the broad range of human, environmental and economic supply needs and goals.
Recommendations
5.1 The Pima County Regional Flood Control District in cooperation with the City of Tucson and other regional stakeholders develops design guidelines/standards to maximize the potential for use of stormwater at the neighborhood scale.
Supporting vegetation using harvested stormwater will eliminate the need for some landscape watering. Stormwater flow paths can be depressed to encourage the potential for infiltration and native vegetation can be planted that will thrive in these depressed flow paths. Such a strategy will have the additional benefit of reducing flood peaks and improving stormwater quality. To accomplish this, the City and County will review existing policies and regulations and:
• Identify opportunities to increase the incidence of water harvesting in private developments through new or expanded incentives and improved consistency between City and County requirements;
• Evaluate how development standards and HOA regulations may need to be modified to accommodate this strategy;
• Develop retention/detention standards that allow these areas to be better utilized as mini-restoration sites, including maintenance standards and siting of basins within a development/project; and
• Develop restoration standards that encourage the creation of higher-value habitat areas without sacrificing the retention/detention function of the basins.
5.2 The Pima County Regional Flood Control District, in cooperation with the City of Tucson, continues to conduct research and analysis on estimated volumes of harvested rainwater available at the lot scale and costs and benefits of water harvesting as a source of additional water supply and as a stormwater management tool.