AMWUA Blog
Water Transfers: Transporting Water in a Desert
In a dry land, water is the most precious of resources. So when you start talking about transferring water rights and moving large quantities of water from one region to another, the issues, headlines and rhetoric can get heated. ...
Mar 19 2018
Fix A Leak Week: Time To Save Water And Money
Fix a Leak Week is a funny name for a week with a serious message. U.S. homes waste a startling amount of drinking water. The average household’s leaks can account for more than 10,000 gallons of water wasted every year. Ten percent of homes have leaks that waste 90 gallons or more per day. Over the course of a year, those leaks can waste nearly 1 trillion gallons nationwide – as much as the annua...
Mar 12 2018
10 Pruning Tips To Healthier, Prettier Desert Trees
Investing in a tree adds shade to your yard, value to your home and is a gift to your city. The ...
Mar 05 2018
Well Managed Cooling Towers Can Save Water, Energy and Money
There is a good chance that a cooling tower system helps to cool the buildings where you work, shop and play. There are about 12,000 cooling towers operating in Phoenix Metropolitan area schools and office buildings, hospitals, industrial facilities, movie theaters, libraries and grocery stores. By design, these systems demand a high volume of water to operate. How these systems are routinely mai...
Feb 26 2018
SRP Water Conservation Expo: Meet A Fish, See A Robot, Save Money
On March 3 about 1,000 people will pick up a new weather-based smart irrigation controller for their home at a fraction of the retail cost. These ...
Feb 19 2018
Partnership Protects Water Supplies For Phoenix And Avondale
AMWUA cities routinely build partnerships to make sure they can deliver safe, reliable and affordable water to their residents all day every day. The cities share the cost of building and expanding water and wastewater treatment plants and share underground storage and recharge facilities that replenish aquifers. More recently, cities have been collaborating to make sure they can efficiently bolst...
Feb 12 2018
Lessons from Cape Town: Avoiding Arizona’s Day Zero
Cape Town, home to 4 million people, may become the first major city in the world to run out of water ...
Feb 05 2018
Free City Classes Brighten Large And Small Spaces
Container gardens of cactus and succulents can add color and dimension to a yard, drama to a small patio, and life to an apartment balcony. They also can be frustrating and leave you with dead and dying stumps and withered leaves in dirt pots. A few tips can take the mystery out of maintaining potted plants. The City of Avondale’s free class about the dos and don’ts of container gardening is just ...
Jan 29 2018
On The Job: Water Tech Works His Way To A Comeback
In the economically disastrous year of 2009, Chris Harris lost his job in the wholesale automobile business. He was 43 years old and his wife was pregnant with twins. Chris had no college degree, but he did have a mortgage. Life was a mess, but Chris created a way out. It wasn’t easy. “It could have gotten derailed anywhere along the line,” Chris said. ...
Jan 22 2018
Science And Math Help Balance Tempe’s New Water Rates
Setting water rates is never easy. There are two overriding considerations for a city when calculating a new rate structure. First, city water departments need to cover service costs. These costs include replacing aging infrastructure and operating, maintaining and expanding water and wastewater systems, and loan payments for capital improvements. Second, cities recognize that water is a limited r...