AMWUA Blog
Try Living A Day Without Water
Here's a dare: Spend a day without water. The truth is you can't. Even if you are willing to give up showering, brushing, flushing, washing your hands, doing laundry, using your dishwasher, watering your yard, jumping into your pool, cleaning your house and car, it's not enough. That tee shirt you just pulled on, the gas in your car, the hops for your beer take many gallons of water to produce....
Sep 05 2016
Defying Mother Nature: Creative Solutions To Avoid Shortages
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation recently confirmed Arizona would not face a declared shortage of Colorado River water in 2017. This is good news but Arizona's cities, farmers and industry leaders must continue to plan for an eventual shortage on the Colorado River, which could come as soon as 2018....
Aug 29 2016
Scottsdale Offers Arizona's First Pool Removal Rebate
As you fly into Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport bright blue dots mark thousands of backyard pools. For decades, backyard pools have been as common as sunshine in Valley neighborhoods. Many families can't imagine living in the Phoenix Metro area without a swimming pool, while others have outgrown their pools. Over the last 20 years the rate of new pools being put into homes has declined. U...
Aug 22 2016
Peak Demand Dictates How Cities Build Water Infrastructure
It's no surprise that demand for water in the Phoenix Metro area reaches its peak during the summer months. What may be surprising is that demand nearly doubles from the winter months to the summer months. In February 2015, City of Peoria customers - businesses, apartment buildings and homes - used 2,940 acre-feet of water. In July, Peoria’s peak rose to 6,516 acre-feet of water. (One acre-foot of...
Aug 15 2016
Water: A Conversation with Scottsdale's Mayor Lane
Jim Lane's...
Aug 08 2016
Monsoon Season: 5 Common Landscape Mistakes
In writing about the monsoon season, I'm hoping we do not jinx having more storms. The monsoon season in the Valley is a great time of year for suddenly cooler temperatures and extraordinary sunsets, but it makes caring for desert landscapes a bit more mysterious. There's more weather than usual: humidity, dust, rain and high winds. With lots of anticipation for more monsoon activity, we asked con...
Aug 01 2016
Water Bank Recovery: Preparing for Shortages on the Colorado River
For many years, the State of Arizona has been storing water underground to prepare for times of drought. One way Arizona has accomplished this is through the efforts of a little-known state agency called the Arizona Water Banking Authority, commonly known as the ...
Jul 25 2016
Water Bank: Arizona’s Emergency Savings Account
In the early 1990s, Arizona was not using all the water it was legally due from the Colorado River. Instead, much of Arizona's unused water flowed down the Colorado River to California. Here's why: Under the law that governs the Colorado River, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior can give water not used by one state to other states. As a result, each year California was the beneficiar...
Jul 18 2016
Safe-yield: A Balancing Act For Arizona’s Aquifers
The goal of safe-yield has motivated Arizona's cities to maximize their use of renewable water supplies - such as river water or recycled wastewater - and to minimize pumping groundwater. Safe-yield means the amount of water pumped out of the ground is the same as what goes back into underground aquifers. The efforts of Arizona's cities to use renewable supplies and to protect groundwater have hel...
Jul 11 2016
Salt River: Bringing Life To A Desert Valley
A likely shortage of Colorado River water in Arizona is big news. It should be. Colorado River water makes up 44 percent of the state's water supply delivered through 336-miles of canals and pumps known as the ...