AMWUA Blog
Conservation Pros Sharpen Skills To Help Businesses
The AMWUA cities’ conservation pros have worked together for nearly four decades to lead their municipalities toward a culture of conservation. There's very little these professionals don’t know about water-efficient homes or water-efficient residential and commercial landscapes. Together and individually, they have created ...
Oct 30 2017
Words Count When Talking About Advances In Water Technology
Technology is now available to transform wastewater into a purified drinking water source. This advanced water recycling could provide millions of gallons of drinking water a day for urban centers and small rural communities and slow demand for water in aquifers, lakes, rivers and streams. Water professionals are careful about the words they use to describe this technology. They are eager to assur...
Oct 23 2017
Desert City Helped To Launch Green Building Movement
The idea of constructing buildings that use less water and energy and more Earth friendly materials didn’t begin with large commercial projects. Building green started with homes and in Arizona it started with homes in the City of Scottsdale. In 1998, Scottsdale became one of only five cities in the country to offer homebuilders green building certifications. The city patterned its Green Building ...
Oct 16 2017
Arizona Pilot Project Could Help Find More “Lost” Water
The number of gallons of drinking water a utility produces each month is not the same number of gallons paid for by its customers. Each month, a certain percentage of drinking water produced by a utility disappears for a variety of reasons. In Arizona this is called “lost and unaccounted for water” and the state has long had tough regulations in place to minimize lost water in large utilities. Now...
Oct 09 2017
On The Job: Organizer Keeps Wastewater Treatment Reliable
Amy Baker is an organizer. This self-described beer snob can regularly organize a dozen or two friends for a bicycle tour of her favorite craft breweries. Amy just finished organizing her fourth AZ Water Association fundraiser for Water for People, which improves water infrastructure in nine countries. City of Peoria residents have benefited from her organizational skills for more than a decade. T...
Oct 02 2017
Colorado River Shortage: Where We Are Right Now
It is crucial for Arizona to avoid a shortage declaration of Colorado River water by the federal government because our state would take the first cut. Cities would still receive the same amount of water in an initial or tier-one shortage declaration, but any shortage declaration is bad for business because it negatively impacts public perception of our state. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has gathered ...
Sep 25 2017
Diving In: Underwater Work Saves Cities Money & Water
It seems unlikely that divers would be in demand in the middle of the Sonoran Desert, but cities call on them regularly to help keep their water treatment plants operating reliably and efficiently. Don’t picture these professional divers in goggles with air tanks on their backs swimming among fish. These contractors operate more like construction crews who happen to work underwater. ...
Sep 18 2017
AMWUA.org: Bigger, Brighter, Bolder And A Little Smarter
Our first overhaul of AMWUA.org in a decade is big, bright and bold. It’s not all flash and dazzle, although that’s what makes it more fun—and far easier—to explore. Going deep into the new AMWUA website is effortless and well worth your time. The ...
Sep 11 2017
AZ To Permit Purified Wastewater As Drinking Water Source
More than 550 water professionals and researchers from across the country and the world are in the City of Phoenix this week to talk about one subject: reusing wastewater. Recycling highly treated wastewater into a drinking water source is one of the biggest topics at the ...
Sep 04 2017
For A Better Looking Summer Lawn, Plant Winter Grass Correctly
Preparing to overseed your summer bermudagrass for a winter lawn? You’re way too early. That’s just one of the warnings offered by turfgrass researchers at the University of Arizona’s Maricopa County Cooperative Extension program. Overseeding now could leave large bare patches in your bermuda lawn next summer. Avoid these three common mistakes for a prettier, even lawn all year that requires less ...