AMWUA Blog
Water Advocacy: It’s Easier Than You Think
Is this your year to become a water advocate? Yes, I know, we're all pressed for time, but water advocacy doesn't have to take much time. What it takes is a question or a suggestion to the right person at the right time. Sometimes that moment arrives on an elevator with your building's facilities manager, on a golf course with an HOA board member, or in an email to your legislator. Here are a few ...
Apr 03 2017
Groundcover: Green Makes A Better Carpet Than Gravel
Some professional landscapers suggest homeowners design sections of their landscape as they would design each room in their home. This image helps homeowners give their yards dimension with layers of color and texture. Imagine vines as window coverings, group trees and shrubs as if they were furniture, and use groundcover plants as carpeting -a far better carpet than just having gravel. Groundcove...
Mar 27 2017
Partnership Makes Desert Golf Courses Sustainable
Since 1998, the City of Scottsdale has been treating about half of its wastewater to near drinking water standards. It's an expensive process that uses reverse osmosis technology, but the city isn't paying for all of it. The cost to build and operate the plant is shared between Scottsdale and 23 private north Scottsdale golf courses that use the water to keep their greens pristine....
Mar 20 2017
Fix A Leak Week: Time To Hunt Down Leaks That Are Draining Your Budget
Water leaks inside and outside the average American home waste up to 10,000 gallons of water a year. This drain on the country's drinking water supply is so critical that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ...
Mar 13 2017
Good Connection: Goodyear Brings Its Water Home
The City of Goodyear is a 189-square-mile West Valley community with 78,190 residents. Goodyear expects its population to grow significantly. These big city dreams and big city plans present both opportunities and challenges. One challenge relates to water: Goodyear never had direct access to its renewable supply of Colorado River water - until now....
Mar 06 2017
On The Job: Water Treatment Supervisor Uses Brains, Heart And A Little Muscle
Luiza Yordanova appreciates the Valley's winter weather as much as we all do but winter makes her job as supervisor of a City of Tempe drinking water treatment plant a bit more complicated. She sat down on a beautiful day earlier this winter to explain why....
Feb 27 2017
Sen. John Kyl: Compromise Is Key To Water Leadership
This month, former Senator Jon Kyl told a gathering of elected officials and water professionals that Arizona's past water successes had one thing in common: the willingness of competing forces to compromise for the good of the state. Now, Senator Kyl said, it is time we do it again....
Feb 20 2017
Power Switch: Economics Driving New Energy for Moving Water
In 2009, I was a new member of the Board overseeing the Central Arizona Project (CAP) and energy, not water, was the primary focus. I was surprised with my sudden immersion into the ins and outs of energy. Yet, there was a good reason for concentrating on energy....
Feb 13 2017
Wastewater Treatment Plant Turns Gaseous By-Product Into Profit
Arizona's largest wastewater treatment plant already cleans and re-uses nearly all of the waste it receives from 2.5 million people in five AMWUA cities. Now, the cities that own the treatment plant have found one more way to re-use its products. As of spring 2018, the 91st Avenue Wastewater Treatment Plant will stop burning off the mostly methane gas it creates as a by-product. Instead, the plant...
Feb 06 2017
AMWUA Cities Help State Screen Schools To Ensure Safe Water
In the first six months of 2017, Arizona will screen water samples from 7,000 school buildings looking for unsafe levels of lead. The program is designed to determine if drinking water is contaminated by lead that might be present in a school's plumbing lines, water fountains and faucets. Water sits in a school's plumbing systems unused over weekends and during holiday and summer breaks, which inc...