Please Note:   NO WHERE DOES IT SAY WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF WATER!!!

The Setup Line

Tens of thousands of families from Tucson through Pinal County to Phoenix have been living on borrowed water for years.

Payback time is coming.

Sounds pretty ominous doesn’t it? Borrowed water usually means “you didn’t pay for it” I think we pay our water bill every month. So we paid for it. Did we pay as much as we should have? Yes, we paid the amount the water company charged. So we set this argument in the context of something other than a discussion of commerce. We frame it is the form of a postulated argument, based on a bunch of If’s.

The Argument

The Arizona Legislature is considering a bill that would authorize a little-known agency to sell up to $500 million worth of bonds to buy new water supplies to serve these suburban residents.

The bonds, ultimately, would have to be repaid by residents.

This is being made out like it is something new. Bonds have been sold by municipalities for year. They are always repaid by the residents.

Now the argument continues and moves to more conjecture.

One reason the bill is being seriously considered is that most of these homes have no assured, long-term water supply.

No one can assure a long term water supply. Last summer the east coast saw major drought. Water use restrictions were in place in Georgia, Florida and other east coast states. They were running out of water. No Guarantee! If it doesn’t rain there is no water.   But it gets better in the next line.

They are being served by a short-term supply that could disappear in a few years to a decade from now

It could. Yes, it could, will it? Nobody knows.   Remember if there were abundant surface water in Arizona we “could” be over run by wild hogs doing tremendous environmental damage.

The argument continues, but . . .

Read on. I won’t quote any more of it with this one last exception.

More than 260,000 homes, the vast majority still unbuilt, lie within the district’s boundaries. The district expects to have as many as 340,000 homes by the 2030s.

Homes that don’t exist are the vast majority of homes in the district. How much water does a home that doesn’t exist yet use?

Does this mean those unbuilt homes HAVE TO BE BUILT?   Does it mean that we won’t have better ways of utilizing and conserving water by 2030?

This is the kind of argument used years ago for all of us to be charged $3 or $4 a gallon for gas.   Not now, but back then.   Why?   because in the future there would be more cars.   This type of argument goes on all the time.   What it accomplishes is:

1. The sale of newspapers
2. The joy of spreading panic to the public
3. Totally unreasoned arguments perpetuated

My Questions

How many homes are currently in existence?

How much water is being consumed?

Do we have to build unbuilt homes?

Are these figures based on permits for new homes each year in 2006 when there were over 12,000 permits being pulled in Pima County or in 2009 when there were barely 1000?

Oh, facts?   We should never let facts get in the way of a good scare.   After all, “payback time is coming”.

Tucson Living on Borrowed Water ? is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

Monsoon Season Starts Today June 15th

This question pops up a lot.   The answer got a lot easier to answer last years.   A season is a season, is a season.   We know the exact date each year when Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter begins.   Almost every culture or country has seasons and dates when those begin and end.   But for some time Tucson’s monsoon season was different.

It was determined by a calculation that went something like this:

The average dewpoint is 54 degrees or greater for three consecutive days.

Dewpoint where?   At the airport? In the Foothills?   Downtown city hall?   Granted temps are usually associated with the airport.   Why?   Because in the early days they had the equipment that was most accurate.   True today?   Not necessarily.

However, in 2008 the National Weather Service decided to end the endless debate over Tucson Monsoon SEASON and decided it should be like any other season.   It starts on June 15th and ends September 30th. Dewpoint or no Dewpoint.

The average rainfall during Monsoon season is 6.06 inches of rain.   This is about half our annual rainfall in Tucson.   But again, how is that determined?   From the rain fall totals taken at the Tucson International Airport.   Are there parts of Tucson that get more than 12 inches of rain a year.   YOU BET THERE ARE.

Get up closer to the mountains, any of the mountains and during monsoon you will see a lot more rain than what falls at the airport.   Maybe one of these days we will crawl out of the 19th century and into the 21st century on some of these things and instead of using the equivilent of   a horse and buggy approach we will put to good use some of the cheap modern technologies available and have accurate up to date rainfall information.

By the way here is a little tidbit for you.   More rain falls on Tucson during Monsoon season than all the water used annually.

Here is another, the drought conditions on the east coast last summer were far worse than in Tucson.   We live in a desert and while we still have a lot of wetlander attitudes about water here, for example: run it all off as quickly as possible instead of harvest it for future use, we do a much better job of water management than most of the country.

When is Tucson going to run out of water? Good question.   When Florida is dry and Georgia is brown, Tucson will be closer to running out of water, but the places that have enjoyed abundance of water in the past century will be in much wosre shape water wise than Tucson way before we are.

Tucson Monsoon Season Starts Today June 15, 2009 is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

I’m sure by now you feel like you are drowning in posts about Tucson water. Fear not, this is the last and it is short. But we shouldn’t forget about it. Water is a precious resource and if we manage the rainwater harvest and conserve usage with management and moderation there can once again be flowing wells in Flowing Wells.

This post is mostly a list of documents and links to resources about conserving water and water usage in the desert.

The monthly Tucson water department has a pretty good little newsletter it puts out each month with news tips and workshops in the community about water. The current April 2007 issue of Your Water Connection is provided here.

A great page of resources provided by the Tucson Water Dept.

Right now you will find:

• Tucson Water Drought Preparedness and Response Plan
• Tucson Water Design Standards Manual
• Tucson Water Fiscal Year 2005 Annual Report (535 Kb pdf)
• 2005 Annual Water Quality Reports
• Water: Treasure It! Beat the Peak 2006 Summer Activity Book
• Water Plan: 2000-2050
• Will We Have Enough Water for the Future?

Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands
by Brad Lancaster
Brad is an excellent source with many great tips and ideas for managing rainwater in Tucson.

Harvesting Rainwater for Landscape Use
Harvesting Rainwater for Landscape Use (PDF)
by PATRICIA H. WATERFALL
Extension Agent, University of Arizona
Cooperative Extension/Low 4 Program
October 2004

Tucson Water Resources is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

If you want to get serious about saving water resources you should

1. require a GFCI outlet under the sink for the location furthest from the hot water heater so an inexpensive recirculating system could be installed easily.
2. require the installation of a hot water recirculating system.   Yes it could cost more but more than going from $200 hookup fee to over $5000?
3. I’m sure you have some regulation against the smaller units you plug-in.   Well you make the regulations.   Change it, if it exists.

Here are the Tucson home design examples.

There is a significant number of homes that do waste a lot of water by locating the hot water heater in the garage and the master bath at the very back of the home.

I already talked about this in the post Tucson Water Recirculating Systems.  

I’m not going to single out the builder because there are many builders here doing this kind of design.

You can see the hot water heater is in the garage while the Master bath and kitchen are at the back of the home.   At least the washing machine will get  hot water quickly.    Now how much water do you think goes down the drain waiting for hot water to the Master sinks and shower?    

 The Commons Townhomes on Allen Road

The Commons Townhomes are  what I consider to be a water conservation design.    

All of the models  have a centralized water supply system.    Here is the 1581 model floor-plan   It is consistent with the layout of the other models when it comes to the location of the hot water heater.

I know this type of design isn’t possible in all situations and locations.   If not, then require wiring and installation of hot water recirculating systems.

Tucson New Home Buyers

Be sure to request a recirculating system be installed in your new home.   At the very least have a GFCI outlet installed under the sink of the hot water sink located furthest from the hot water heater.   You can then install a recirculating system yourself once you move in.   It isn’t hard especially with the outlet already in place.   See the post on Tucson Water Recirculating Systems.  

We all contribute to the issue of water in our community.   Do we contribute by conserving water or by wasting it?

Tucson Wasting Water by Home Design is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

It wasn’t but a couple of month before I was reading articles in the paper about how Tucson was running out of water. As long as I’ve lived here there are people saying Tucson is running out of water. I said to myself then and I say it now. “If Tucson was serious about water they wouldn’t allow so much of it to go down the drain while people were waiting for it to get hot.”

This isn’t the way it is done most place in the East or Midwest.

• There the water heater is more centrally located.
• The hot water pipes are insulated
• The hot water heater is located in the basement.

Hot water is never more than a few feet away. Even when it is cold in the dead of winter.

Here in Tucson and much of the southwest, we have no basements.

• People don’t want to give up living space for a hot water heater
• The don’t mind that it is in the garage for safety reasons

The end result, the shower and sinks at the furthest point away from the heater often are turned on and left to run for several minutes while the water warms up.

Add a Hot Water Recirculating System

It isn’t hard to add a recirculating system to the home. Doing a quick search on line I’ve found two systems sold right here in Tucson at Home Depot; one for $199 and one for $219. Both systems got high marks and great reviews for performance and ease of installation.

Here are the links to see the systems, read the reviews and I’ve provided links to the Installation manuals for each system.

The Watt Hot water system

Watt Installation Manual

Autocirc Undersink Instant Hot Water Circulating System

Autocirc Installation Manual

Each of these units require a plug in.   Since the furthest point is often the bathroom you would want to have a GFI (ground fault interrupt) outlet under the cabinet.   If the laundry room is located at the back of the house, that might be an alternative location.

I think it should be a requirement for all new construction that a recirculating system be in place if the hot water heater is going at the one end of the house and hot water usage at the opposite end.

Not only does a recirculating system save water, it makes everyone happier to have hot water on demand.   I would call that a “Win, Win” situation.

Tucson Water Recirculating System is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

Brad is a very interesting guy and I would recommend his book “Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands Volume 1 Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain into Your Life and Landscape” You can learn more about it at Harvesting Rainwater.

Brad shared the following information:

Tucson Rainwater

1. There is more rainwater falling on Tucson than we consumes each year.
2. Flowing wells got its name because there used to be artesian wells there.
3. Tucson had gotten hotter by an average of 6 degrees since 1940
4. The more water we harvest the less we need.
5. Water harvesting isn’t water hording, it is just slowing it down.
6. 25 – 35% of Tucson is paved over. Water runs off hard surfaces.
7. The “living sponge” has been lost from much of our land in Tucson.
8. The “living sponge” can be restored.
9. A street will collect 1 million gallons of water in a mile of pavement.
10. The aquifer drops between 4 and 6 feet a year.
11. The aquifer around Tucson is approx. 300′.
12. People used to get lost in the trees at the base of A mountain.
13. The Santa Cruz river had running water year round in 1901
14. I didn’t want to end the list at 13 so I added this one : )

The Living Sponge

The living sponge is usually the top 4″ of soil that holds and slows water. It is made up of a lot of living and organic material. Here is a good example of what happens when the living sponge is lost.

Tucson Water Conservation

We can conserve water by limiting our consumption of potable water and we can slow down the natural rainwater when it falls on the land.

We can rebuild the living sponge through

1. less consumption with
   • good home design,
   • recirculation systems,
2. with rainwater harvesting
   • grey water reclamation systems
   • landscaping practices
   • to restore the living sponge

Is Tucson going to run out of water? No
Could water become very expensive? Yes
Could we manage our water resources better?
We already know the answer to that one.
Who is responsible to take action?

We all are.

Tucson Rainwater Harvesting is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

Tucson definitely has water issues, but probably not what you would think. The good news is there is hope. I’ve spent most of the last week reading and attending meetings and seminars on Tucson water issues and know I’ve just scratched the surface. There are some incredible efforts and result in Tucson when people stop thinking and acting like wetlanders and begin thinking like drylanders.

Wetlander thinking

• Rainwater is channeled off our homes,
• away from our property,
• out into the street,
• down the storm sewers and carried away
• Whew, now it can’t destroy our homes.

Wetlanders don’t think about landscaping or water usage beyond, “Is it pretty and do I want it in my yard”.

It is a multi-faceted issue. There is no single cause but there is a single effect. Tucson has miss managed its water resources. It is now more a desert than it has ever been in its recorded history. We have more than enough rainfall every year to sustain Tucson, unfortunately with our wetlander mentality we force that water to drain away in hours and minutes of its falling. We channel water down our streets and shooting right out of Tucson in a matter of hours.

Wetland Water Management

It is unfortunate but Wetlands management systems have been built to maximum efficiency in Tucson.

I attribute a lot of this to culture. Almost no one living in Tucson now or in the past has been from here. Many, many people have moved from much wetter parts of the continent and when they moved here they brought along with them their practices and culture integrating it with Tucson’s. However, when you bring a wetlands water management system to drylands it causes a scarcity of a precious resource.

I mentioned in the first post on Tucson water that I would be writing about the issue of Tucson water resources. I’ve learned there is much to be done. But it is all possible.

Becoming Drylanders in our Thinking

I can almost garantee that people in Tucson who want restrictions put in place on growth and water usage are just a much a part of this issue as the rest, they probably just don’t know it.

Tucson’s adequate water supply isn’t just about how much water we use or recycle. It is about how we manage the resources of:

1. groundwater
2. and rainwater

Here is where we can all make a difference.

The first thing we wetlanders have to do:

• Stop thinking like wetlanders
• Stop managing our water resources like wetlanders
• Start thinking like drylanders

This is where it begins, we can learn about rainwater harvesting, recirculating systems, homes designs and landscaping to restore our water supply. All of which is possible and is being done in Tucson right now, one home at a time.

I’ll close this post with a couple of websites that can help begin this process of shedding our wetlander attitudes and actions about water and begin thinking like a Tucson drylander should.

Brad Lancaster’s site is www.harvestingrainwater.com. Brad is a great resource for learning how to think and act like a drylander.

Desert Harvesters is another great resource on this issue of Tucson water management resources.

Tucson Bringing Wetlanders to Dryland is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

The session I was most interested in was on Water in Arizona. The state knows it is located in a very dry desert area of the country. It also knows it has to manage this resource so our state and economy are sustainable.

 I spent quite a few hours at the session and on the Arizona Department of Water Resources web site. There are a lot, and I mean a lot of great resources on that site.

If you are wondering about:

• water conservation and what can be done
• draught preparedness
• assured and adequate water supply
• just about anything dealing with water in AZ

This site has many great resources.

There presentation and references on their web site and statutes in the law show a redundant system to assure adequate water for the state. If there is a shortage due to a prolonged draught there is a draught preparedness plan already.

Arizona Department of Water Resources Assured Adequate Water is another page. I’ll provide you with a synopsis of today’s presentation in the Office of Assured and Adequate Water Supplyhandout from today. I’ve scanned it into a PDF format for anyone that is interested.

Tucson Assured and Adequate Water Supply is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

Here is a quick summary of the various article in the news this past week on water issues in Tucson and the Southwest. This is the second post in a series on Tucson Water issues. The series began with:

Tucson Running out of Water

April 4, 2007
“Arizona Daily Star”

Tucson Region Water Crisis Possible here within 3 Years

“Tucson businesses, apartment complexes and industries may face water-use restrictions by 2010 because of the relentless drought, the city’s water chief said Tuesday. …

Because spring runoff into Powell has been below normal for nine of the past 11 years, a state water official said Tuesday that the Central Arizona Project could have its first shortage as early as three years from now. That would trigger restrictions for many Tucson Water customers, although not homeowners.

Tucson and Phoenix would likely not face shortages until 2015 to 2020, said state water official Tom Carr, and Tucson homeowners wouldn’t face restrictions until such a shortage were declared.

‘Right now we are 10 feet higher in Powell than a year ago,” because last summer’s rains sent good flows from Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, said Tom Ryan, a bureau hydrologist.’ “

Reminder, we do live in the desert, water is always going to be an issue. One very big word in that title is “Possible”

I could say “A water crisis is possible in the next year”

If it didn’t rain for a year in Tucson or Arizona a water crisis is possible.

April 6, 2007
“Arizona Daily Star”

Tucson Region: Study Predicts Dustbowl Southwest

This is based on a computer model. The interesting thing about many computer models, the model is based on the bias of the scientist programming the computer.

Do you have any idea how many “scientist” live off the grants they receive?

Even this model has some interesting bits:

“Dust-bowl conditions of the 1930s could become the norm in the Southwest by the end of this century, or sooner, because global warming will bring drier weather, a new national study said Thursday. …
Scientists who prepared the report predicted that most of the Southwest will get 10 percent to 20 percent less rain and snow by the end of the 21st century.”

The comments on this article are some of the most interesting reading.

There will always be alarmist among us.

April 6, 2007
“Tucson Citizen”

Water Initiative Could Curb Growth

“A group of residents wants to place on the November city ballot an initiative that would limit new development during lengthy water shortages. …

The “elephant” is the growing population and demand for water in times when climate forecasters are warning that the Southwest may be at the beginning of a decades-long drought that could leave the region in desperate straits if demand exceeds supply. “

You don’t have to live in Tucson very long to realize a couple of things:

1. Almost no one living in Tucson was born here
2. Once here there are some that don’t want anyone else here

When I see a sentence like the one above “May, Could, If” hummm!

I think of all the things that may happen given the right conditions that I could say things about if other things and conditions were to come to pass.

Tucson Water in The News is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

This week the Tucson news for a change didn’t have some outlandish article on the decimated housing market. Instead, mostly using print from national news feed and not talking much about what is going on in the local market. We received a steady stream (pun intended) of Tucson and Southern Arizona running out of water.

Last October I wrote this post on:

Is Tucson Running out of Water It is a good place to start reading about the issue. It is time again to address this issue as I’m certain there are many people wondering what is going on in Tucson, is it going to be a desert? Is it going to be as portrayed in “Final Fantasy” “The Great Wasteland of Tucson”? Oh, by the way, it is a desert.

Ever since I moved to Tucson in August 1999 there have been articles and news pieces that appear every few months saying there is a giant conspiracy to keep the lid on the “fact” that Tucson is running out of water. It is spring and that time of year for the issue to raise it’s head once again.

Is water an issue in Tucson? OF COURSE IT IS WE LIVE IN A DESERT.
Are Hurricanes an issue in Florida?
Are Floods an issue in the Midwest?

Every part of our great country has issues, how those issues are met, considered, and dealt with is important.

Tucson Water where to start

There is more information on this subject than I can cover in a single post. Therefore, I’m going to take the time to write several posts on this issue during the course of the week.

• Tucson Water In The News
• Conserving Water (by Home Design)
• Wasting Water (by Home Design)
• Harvesting Water
• Water Issues (Politics)
• Water Resources (Learning about water use in the desert)

This week in Tucson Water

I’m going to be attending a series of meetings this week all around our community where the main topic, or one of the topics covered is going to be water and water related issues in Tucson.

April 9, 2007 (Monday)
Location: Tucson Association of REALTORS ®
2445 N. Tucson Blvd., Tucson
Time: 9 am – 1 pm

The Arizona Department of Real Estate
presents
Community Outreach & Education (COE) Services
Presentation will include:
• Information relating to subdivision law
• Moving company scams
• Contractor issues
• Water and waste-water concerns

April 10, 2007 (Tuesday)
Geasa-Marana Branch Library,
13370 N. Lon Adams Road.
6 to 8 p.m.
Brad Lancaster will present:
“Rainwater Harvesting for Dry Lands: Turning Water Scarcity into Water Abundance”

April 11, 2007 (Wednesday)
Pima County Cooperative Extension
4210 N. Campbell Avenue, Tucson
9:00am–12:00pm Desert Landscaping
1:00pm–3:00pm Harvesting Rainwater for Landscape Use

I’ll be reporting back what I learn from each of these meetings and forums.

It should be an interesting week. I’ll keep you posted.

Preview of the next post. Check out the bottom of the right hand navigation “Tucson In The News” there are links there to all the articles in the paper this week about water.

The picture above is a wash in Tucson, not a river.
We do have fishing in Tucson, mostly sand trout.

Tucson Running out of Water is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.