Citizen Staff Writer

B. POOLE

bpoole@tucsoncitizen.com

The Water Conservation Alliance of Southern Arizona is pulling together several home show vendors this weekend to showcase ways to save water.

Water CASA, a conservation collaborative made up mostly of area water providers, is sponsoring the Conservation Showcase at the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association’s fall Home & Garden Show.

The gathering of conservation vendors – most in the 1600 block of Exhibit Hall A – will show ways to save money through home improvement, said Water CASA Director Val Little.

“During a season in which much of the development industry is languishing, these merchants skirt that trend by offering products and practices that significantly cut homeowners’ costs while comforting their consciences,” Little said.

One of the gadgets in the conservation showcase is a showerhead that senses water temperature while you wait for it to get hot, said Diane Daly of Water CASA. “As soon as it gets hot, it stops and waits for you.”

Evolve’s $50 ShowerStart head can pay for itself in eight months in utility savings, the company says on its Web site.

Other highlighted products include Oasis water harvesting cisterns that look good, drip irrigation systems that can save water and Aquatain, a silicone-based swimming pool additive that cuts evaporation, Daly said.

“You put a small amount in the pool twice a week, and it cuts evaporation by up to 50 percent,” she said.

This is the first time Water CASA has had a booth at a SAHBA show. The home shows – held each April and October – feature 450 merchants in 350,000 square feet of exhibits.

Water CASA’s goal of joining in this weekend is to spread the word about water conservation, Daly said.

“Our booth is all about questions,” she said. “We’ll never try to sell you anything.”

Water you after? Home & Garden Show spouts ways to save

If You Go

• What: The fall SAHBA Home & Garden Show

• When: 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday

• Where: Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Ave.

• Cost: $8 adults; free to ages 12 and younger; half-price Friday to the over-50 crowd; coupons for $2 off available at Circle K stores and at www.sahbahomeshow.com.

Citizen Staff Writer

B. POOLE

bpoole@tucsoncitizen.com

Tucson Water is about to test sensors that could make your drinking water safer and cleaner by testing for microbes in real time.

Using part of a $420,000 Environmental Protection Agency grant, the city bought a laser-based system that will soon be checking water in the city distribution system, said Bruce Johnson, a Tucson Water administrator leading the pilot project.

“Prior to the past two or three years, those devices were not available,” Johnson said.

Speedy identification of microbes could be critical in protecting the city against a terrorist attack or accident.

Confirming biological contamination in water can take days or weeks because samples must be tested in laboratory cultures. The new sensors can detect microbes in seconds and identify them in minutes, though lab confirmation would still be required.

The city bought two $66,000 sensors for the one- to two-year test – one for the University of Arizona Water Village, a research center near Tucson International Airport that will help with tests, and one for the city water system.

The four homes in the “village” are the core of the National Science Foundation Water Quality Center, launched in 2005 with a $1.2 million grant from the Homeland Security Department. Six other universities have similar centers.

It would likely take two dozen of the biological sensors to cover the city’s water system. They would be an addition to other testing, not a replacement, Johnson said.

Several types of sensors would be needed to monitor for various contaminants, he said.

If the sensors are successful, they could become part of Tucson Water’s overall security plan, Johnson said.

“This is the way we want to go, and as technology evolves certainly it is the way we are headed,” he said.

EPA role in water safety

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the anthrax mail attacks that followed, President Bush issued directives aimed at securing the nation against future attacks.

Under three of the directives, the Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for:

Identifying, prioritizing and protecting the nation’s drinking and waste water infrastructure.

Source: EPA

Citizen Staff Writer

B. POOLE

bpoole@tucsoncitizen.com

Four of six local candidates for the board that manages Colorado River water imports – a college professor, a political consultant and two local water company managers – answered questions as a panel Tuesday in the first public forum in the race.

The candidates are vying for four seats representing Pima County on the 15-member Central Arizona Water Conservation District. They would serve six-year terms if elected. The forum was sponsored by Sustainable Tucson, a local green living coalition.

One topic of discussion was the district’s effort to increase the amount of water in the 336-mile Central Arizona Project canal, which brings river water here from Lake Havasu.

The district recently launched a multiyear project called ADD Water, which is an acronym for acquire, develop and deliver water. The plan is to head off competition by having the district seek new water for Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties. All candidates at the forum support the effort.

The project will help ensure that water is fairly distributed, said Arturo Gabaldón, president of Community Water Company of Green Valley.

Research should be ongoing into technology, such as cloud seeding to spur rain or snow, said Sharon Megdal, a University of Arizona professor who is director of the University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center.

Desalination plants are unlikely as a water source in Arizona. They would more likely be in California, allowing Arizona to divert river water for use here, Megdal said.

The state should pursue even outlandish ideas, said Warren Tenney, assistant general manager of Metropolitan Domestic Water Improvement District.

He pointed out that when the CAP canal was proposed in 1922, it was a high-tech option that seemed impossible to critics.

“I think it’s important for us to think big,” he said.

When the CAP canal was built, the Bureau of Reclamation required the district to study river augmentation, said Carol Zimmerman, a political consultant seeking a second board term.

“It’s important to fulfill that commitment,” she said.

When a pipeline to bring in desalinated sea water from Mexico was proposed years ago, people laughed, Megdal said. “Not everybody’s laughing anymore,” she said.

The panel was asked how the CAP system could be made more environmentally friendly.

Tenney called the intersection between water and electricity a “critical nexus.” One way to make the system more green is to use less water, he said.

“The less water you use, the less power is needed to deliver it,” Tenney said.

Gabaldón echoed that sentiment, saying that we have to look to ourselves to conserve.

“We are the problem,” he said.

The district is investigating augmenting power with solar panels, Zimmerman said.

Two candidates faced criticism from questioners.

Zimmerman dismissed criticism of a $200 campaign contribution from Rosemont Copper Vice President Jamie Sturgess. Rosemont has plans to use 5,000 acre-feet of groundwater annually for a mine south of Tucson.

“He’s a personal friend,” Zimmerman said.

Gabaldón was asked if he faces a conflict of interest in running for the board when he has supported Rosemont’s effort to pay for a water line to bring CAP water to the Green Valley area for recharge.

He denies a conflict. His company does not have a stance on the mine, and the pipeline would be built regardless of mine approval, he said.

The candidates agreed that the use of water policy – at least on the district level – is unlikely. The board’s responsibility is to meet demand set by local jurisdictions, not help those jurisdictions set demand, they said.

Diamond Ventures big contributors

Employees of real estate development firm Diamond Ventures are the big contributors so far in the six-person race for four Pima County seats on the Central Arizona Water Conservation District Board of Directors, according to campaign filings for the period Jan. 1-June 30.

Two candidates have no reportable donations or expenses (reporting is required if total contributions or expenses top $500). Diamond employees gave $5,780 of the $13,280 collected by the other four candidates.

Highlights of who gave what to which candidate:

Arturo Gabaldón, president of Community Water Company of Green Valley: Filed an exemption to reporting because he intends to collect and spend less that $500. At a candidate forum Tuesday, he sheepishly said he has collected $50 from his cousin and $150 from a friend.

Pat Jacobs: Also filed an exemption to reporting.

The following candidates are running as a bloc:

Sharon Megdal, director of the University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center: Collected $1,895, with $1,645 coming from 10 Diamond Ventures employees.

Steve Lenihan, land-use attorney: Collected $2,135, with $1,395 coming from nine Diamond employees.

Warren Tenney, assistant general manager of Metropolitan Domestic Water Improvement District: Collected $3,615. Nine Diamond employees gave a combined $1,195. Other contributors include Dennis Rule, an administrator for Tucson Water ($25); Marana farm empire patriarch Herb Kai ($390); Val Little, director of Water CASA, a conservation collaborative of southern Arizona water providers ($50); David Crockett, manager of Flowing Wells Irrigation District ($25)

Carol Zimmerman, political consultant and incumbent on the CAWCD board: Collected $5,635. Nine Diamond employees combined gave $1,545. Other contributors include: Jamie Sturgess, Rosemont Copper vice president of projects and environment ($200); Herb Kai and wife Diana ($390 each); UA professor and former Tucson mayor Tom Volgy ($50); Southern Arizona Home Builders Association ($390); John Bremond, former president of KB Home Tucson ($100); car dealership owner Jim Click ($390)

District manages CAP

The Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CAWCD) Board of Directors manages the Central Arizona Project, which is the system that brings Colorado River water to southern Arizona.

The system includes the 336-mile CAP canal and the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District (CAGRD) an arm of the CAWCD that replenishes the state’s aquifers with river water to replace pumped groundwater.

In fiscal 2008, which ended June 30, the CAWCD had $282.1 million in revenue from water sales, electricity sales and property taxes and $234.1 million in expenses.

The board levies three taxes. Two of the taxes – the CAWCD and water bank charges – are collected on all homes countywide. The two taxes combined are 10 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

The third tax – for the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District – is collected only on homes in areas not served by providers with assured water supply designation.

Those homes are charged for the cost of having the CAGRD replace the groundwater they use with CAP water. The charge differs home to home based on water use.

The board collected $63.2 million in property taxes during fiscal 2008. Other revenue was from the sale of electricity from the Navajo generating plant the CAWCD co-owns with Salt River Project.

Citizen Staff Writer
IN BRIEF

The City/County Water and Wastewater Study Oversight Committee is sponsoring a series of lectures about water, wastewater, population growth and the environment.

A talk about future water availability is set for 7 a.m. Wednesday in the Copper Room at the Randolph Golf Course Club House, 600 S. Alvernon Way.

Admission is free.

CARLI BROSSEAU

brosseau@tucsoncitizen.com

Citizen Staff Writer

B. POOLE

bpoole@tucsoncitizen.com

A committee aimed at offering water policy advice to Tucson and Pima County plans to ask for two more months to complete an interim report.

The City/County Water & Wastewater Study Oversight Committee had planned to finish its first phase – a water infrastructure and supply inventory and assessment of what population that supply can support – by December.

On Wednesday, the 12-member committee voted to tell the City Council and county Board of Supervisors that it needs until February to finish the document.

“If we want to do our job right, we need more time,” said Jim Barry, the committee chair, who was appointed by City Manager Mike Hein.

The committee started meeting in April. Since June, it has met weekly to hear from various water providers and government agencies to gather information on water supplies, infrastructure and funding.

In coming weeks the committee will assess water resources and try to come up with a common definition of sustainability, Barry said.

Water providers, neighborhood groups, developers and others will be asked for input.

“We want the community to come in and tell us, and we suspect we will get a variety of definitions,” Barry said.

Finding a common set of facts has proved more complicated than Barry thought it would be. Members have come to agree that Pima County will eventually grow beyond available water supplies, he said.

“I think we’re going to find that it’s not all that far in the future – maybe 20 or 30 years,” he said.

The information the panel is collecting is not new, but the city and county jointly examining it in the context of land use is, said Mark Stratton, general manager of Metro Water and a panel member.

Stratton is looking forward to hearing the community’s views on sustainability because he knows what it means to him as a water manager, but he is unsure what it means to others, he said.

The committee has set a schedule of weekly meetings through October, then monthly meetings from November through February.

After reviewing two draft reports, which will be written by committee staff with members’ input, the panel plans to release a final Phase I report Feb. 20.

In Phase II, to be completed by July, the committee will attempt to craft unified city-county water policies on a variety of issues, including land use, conservation and use of recycled water.

Phases III, IV and V will include a broader, metropolitan area assessment of water infrastructure and resources, policy recommendations and suggestions for regional water sustainability.

There is no timeline for the final three phases.

Citizen Staff Writer

CARLI BROSSEAU

brosseau@tucsoncitizen.com

A city map of the old Broadway Pantano Landfill and the plume of groundwater contamination spreading to the northwest of the now-closed site show three big “question marks” at the far western edge.

“We just don’t know what’s out there,” said Nancy Petersen, the deputy director of the Tucson’s Department of Environmental Services.

There are several wells in the area near the “question marks” that could be pumped for drinking water. But those sites have been assigned “last on, first off” status – to be used only in an emergency or during peak demand – because the city has no way of knowing how much contamination from industrial solvents that water has, Petersen said.

It will soon. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality has agreed to help Tucson install three new wells to monitor the levels of industrial solvents such as tetrachloroethene (PCE), trichloroethene (TCE), cis-1,2-dichloroethene (cis-1, 2-DCE), methylene chloride and vinyl chloride in the water, state ADEQ spokeswoman Laina Dolin said. Those chemicals are known carcinogens.

In the past, four Tucson Water wells and St. Joseph’s Hospital well were shut down because of industrial solvents that seeped westward from the two former landfill sites near the intersection of Broadway and the Pantano wash.

Petersen said the water – and potentially the contaminants – moves northwest at a pace of about 12 inches a day.

City policy is to stop using wells if the contamination level reaches half the level acceptable under state law, she said. The wells are tested for contaminants four times a year at $200 per test, and if more than 2.5 parts per million of contaminants are found, the well is taken out of use.

The effort to contain the contamination began 10 years ago. The contaminated area – between Speedway Boulevard and Broadway, Sahuara Avenue and Pantano Wash – was designated a state Superfund site in 1998.

Since then, the city has used a vacuum-like technology to clean the soil under the landfill sites, extracting 5,000 pounds of contaminants, city engineer Jeff Drumm said.

With the help of the state, the city also installed a $3 million system that, for $800,000 a year, pumps out dirty water, cleans it and pumps it back into the ground, creating a “wall of water” that keeps the contaminated water from moving farther westward, he said.

But the chemicals have since been found beyond that barrier.

Drumm said engineers used information from the surrounding wells to decide where the containment system would go, but it’s possible there was contamination beyond the barrier even before it was constructed.

The contaminants also could have seeped through, Petersen said, during a power outage, which would stop the pumping that creates the high-pressure zone that keeps the chemicals from moving.

Those outages aren’t so rare, and neither are the moments of peak electrical demand that would prompt the city to use the wells closest to the western edge of the contamination plume, she said. The wells were called into service twice in 2006 – once because a water line broke in Avra Valley, and once because demand outstripped supply.

That the state paid-for wells are set to go in now is not because the city just noticed a problem. Rather, Tucson was only recently able to persuade the state Department of Environmental Quality to help pay for it.

“We are sympathetic to ADEQ’s budget constraints,” Petersen said. “Broadway has historically received a lot of funding. . . . But when we both bring our dollars to the table, suddenly we have a solution.”

ADEQ’s budget last fiscal year was $191.4 million, with about $90 million spent on waste programs.

The new wells are expected to cost about $85,000 each, with the state and the city sharing the cost, ADEQ spokeswoman Dolin said.

The wells’ exact locations have not been set, but they will be placed between the water containment system and the drinking wells, Drumm said. That will likely be east of Craycroft Road, south of Speedway Boulevard, west of Wilmot Road and north of Fifth Street.

There is no plan now for action or cost-sharing if contamination is found, Dolin said. “How contamination might be dealt with depends on the distribution and concentration of the contamination,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Citizen Staff Writer

GARRY DUFFY

gduffy@tucsoncitizen.com

A decision by a federal agency to suspend the designation of two 54-mile stretches of the Santa Cruz River as navigable – and the potential effects of that action on the environment and development – will be discussed by the Pima County Board of Supervisors at a special meeting Friday.

The action by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – if made permanent – could minimize restrictions on growth near the river or its tributaries, lessen protections against contamination of those flows, and throw the future of environmentally sensitive riparian area lands into question, county officials said.

Board Chairman Richard Elías is concerned that the agency’s action may reflect a “bigger picture” – a Washington, D.C-based political assault on clean water protections in the West in the waning days of the Bush Administration.

“I am absolutely concerned about that,” Elías said.

Congressional members Raúl Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords, both Democrats, have strongly criticized the agency’s suspension of the navigable waters designation for those sections of the Santa Cruz River.

“I am sure you know, if this suspension were to become permanent, it would leave the entire Tucson watershed without protection under the Clean Water Act,” Giffords wrote in a July 10 letter to John Paul Woodley Jr., assistant secretary of the Army for civil works.

Giffords noted that the agency on May 23 issued a memorandum affirming the 54 miles of the Santa Cruz to be “traditional navigable waters,” and questioned the Army Corps’ apparent turnaround since then.

The affected river stretches are near Tubac and the county’s Roger Road and Ina Road wastewater treatment plants.

“The story we get is that this is in fact from the Washington level,” John Bernal, deputy county administrator and director of the Pima County Public Works Department, said Friday.

Bernal said he will brief the supervisors at the meeting on potential implications of the agency’s action – if it became permanent – on the county’s development, transportation and environmental policies.

The supervisors’ special meeting is at 9 a.m. Friday at the Pima County Administration Building, 130 W. Congress St.

Citizen Staff Writer

Cody Calamaio

calamaio@tucsoncitizen.com

An old neighborhood south of the University of Arizona is conserving water and fighting pollution with the help of a local nonprofit group and a $100,00 grant from the state.

The main goal of the project is to improve the quality of water that flows from High School Wash into the Santa Cruz River, said Lisa Shipek, executive director of the nonprofit Watershed Management Group.

The Rincon Heights neighborhood, bordered by East Sixth Street, North Campbell Avenue, Broadway Boulevard and North Park Avenue, floods quickly during summer storms.

Project volunteers are digging retention basins and planting trees and bushes in the strips between the curbs and the property lines in an area known as the right of way, Shipek said.

The water trapped in the basins will irrigate the plants there, said Carrie Sturm, landscaping coordinator with the Rincon Heights Neighborhood Association.

The barriers are also an effort to slow and capture water pollutants such as motor oil or pet waste before they go into the wash, Shipek said.

Sturm has been interested in water conservation and sustained landscaping since 2005 and has been working since then to improve such things in her neighborhood.

She is excited that the new vegetation will give the neighborhood a nicer look while addressing the greater issue of improving Tucson’s water quality. The neighborhood association has held environmental responsibility as one of its top values, she said.

“It has given us great hope that we can make our neighborhood better,” Sturm said.

The grant money – $103,240 from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality – will fund a two-year project that includes the landscaping, free public workshops on water pollution and yearly volunteer trash pickups in the wash, Shipek said.

The Watershed Management Group is a nonprofit organization of about 300 volunteers who assist and educate communities in the management of their water resources, Shipek said.

The group and the neighborhood association have a history of working together.

Neighborhood volunteers had already started planting vegetation in the rights of way in the past but, after attending Management Group workshops, realized there was a more effective way to retain water and started adding basins, Sturm said.

The neighborhood association started the landscaping work with the help of the Youth Volunteer Corps’ sustainability crew, AmeriCorps, and volunteers from UA Professor Jim Riley’s Environmental Science classes.

Sturm said there is a lot of interest in water conservation in her neighborhood, even from the high population of student renters.

She said she is thankful Watershed Management Group is providing its expertise and time to help teach the residents.

Citizen Staff Writer
IN BRIEF

A local nonprofit group is offering a class to train water-harvesting instructors.

The Watershed Management Group’s apprenticeship program – which runs from July-December – taps local experts to teach the ins and outs of cistern installation, graywater recycling systems, landscape design and desert gardening, according to a news release.

The $300 course includes workshops on setup and maintenance at real-world water harvesting sites. The apprenticeship program prepares instructors to teach the group’s classes for homeowners, said Lisa Shipek, the group’s executive director.

B. POOLE

bpoole@tucsoncitizen.com

The Associated Press
IN BRIEF

The city of Nogales has been ordered to correct violations for failing to monitor disinfection byproducts from treating drinking water.

The U.S. Environmental Protection agency, which recently issued the order, could fine the city up to $32,500 a day for failing to comply within 30 days.

The EPA says the city has violated the Safe Drinking Water Act. It says the city didn’t submit a plan on how to monitor and sample byproducts that could be produced from disinfecting the water with ozone, chlorine or chlorine dioxide.

An EPA official says public water systems have to comply with the disinfection byproducts rule to ensure the public gets safe and clean drinking water.

Nogales City Manager Jaime Fontes did not immediately return calls for comment Monday.

The Associated Press

Citizen Staff Writer

B. POOLE

bpoole@tucsoncitizen.com

Four Tucsonans are teaming up to run as a bloc for the Central Arizona Water Conservation District board, which manages the Central Arizona Project.

Sharon B. Megdal, Warren Tenney and Stephen Lenihan hope to fill spots that will be available because three of Pima County’s four representatives are not running for re-election. Carol Zimmerman, who this fall will finish her first six-year term, is running for re-election.

The four are running together to show the public that, if elected, they will bring a united front to the board, which includes four members from Pima County, 10 from Maricopa County and one from Pinal County, Zimmerman said Wednesday.

Members are elected at large, meaning that voters in each county can vote for all seats. In a news release Wednesday, they explained why they are running:

• Sharon B. Megdal, director of the University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center: “I am running for the CAWCD board because I believe my knowledge of water policy and management and experience on public boards can contribute to the deliberations of this important board.”

• Warren Tenney, assistant general manager of the Metropolitan Domestic Water Improvement District: “I have had the opportunity to work in the water business for 15 years, which has shown me the importance of the CAWCD board to Pima County and to the state of Arizona.”

• Steve Lenihan, land-use lawyer: “I will use my advocacy and financial experience in ensuring that southern Arizona keeps its fair share of water and that (the) Central Arizona Project, our largest sustainable source of water, is managed in the interests of all Arizonans.”

• Carol Zimmerman, a political consultant and six-year veteran of the board: “This might be the most important time for Pima County to have strong and experienced representation on the CASP board. In the next few years, decisions critical to Tucson will be made about additional water supplies, replenishment and reliability.”

The Central Arizona Water Conservation District board manages the Central Arizona Project, which is responsible for bringing Colorado River water into Arizona through the 336-mile Central Arizona Project canal.

Citizen Staff Writer
OUR OPINION

One school of thought about why the ancient Hohokam people disappeared from our desert is that drought drove them away.

It’s a lesson to be considered as usage increasingly strains our water supply and projected growth only makes the picture worse.

Other lessons also must be considered, especially the success that Orange County, Calif., is having with treated waste water for household use.

On the face of it, using recycled waste water strikes one as unpleasant, at best. But as it turns out, it is clean and safe, if expensive.

Tucson Citizen staff writer B. Poole reported Monday that Orange County uses a multistep process to purify water from its sewage system, with excellent results.

“It’s the cleanest source of water we have,” Orange County water official Shivaji Deshmukh told Poole.

That includes comparison with Orange County’s allotment of water from the Colorado River, which also supplies Tucson via the Central Arizona project.

There are measurable but allowable levels of arsenic, two kinds of radium, uranium and trichloroethylene in Tucson’s current water supply – but all are undetectable in Orange County’s treated waste water.

Half of Tucson’s treated sewage water now is dumped into the Santa Cruz River bed and flows downstream, away from our water supply.

Officials have discussed the need to treat it and use it as drinking water at an unspecified point in the future.

Orange County was dumping its sewage into the ocean. Its treatment success should spur Tucson to begin earnestly working on the process.

The key to success will be long-range planning to find ways to pay for the system and get it in place.

Our sewage water could be treated to the level of purity being achieved in Orange County and added to the water supply, Tucson Water Director David Modeer said.

With such treated water, “you could offset” the widening gap between current supply and usage, he said.

By 2030, Tucson Water officials estimate, enough sewage water will be generated in the metro area that, if treated, could supply 150,000 families.

Early discussion and planning, followed by decisive action, will make it so that, unlike the ancient Hohokam, those 150,000 families and others will not be driven away by a lack of water.

Water needed growth or not

Overly simplistic is the best way to describe the idea that
expanding Tucson’s water supply with waste water purified through
treatment will encourage growth.

Anti-growth gadfly John Kromko admits that waste water treatment and
use can add to supply but asks why we would want to, because it will
encourage growth.

His extreme thinking is impractical, unrealistic and unpopular.

The unpopularity was proven last year when Tucson voters decisively
rejected his anti-growth proposals to stop water service expansion and
ban waste water use to extend supply.

Practically speaking, long-range supply is questionable for the
current population of Tucson metro area, even without any growth.

Reality is that supply must be expanded for and conservation made
more pervasive with the existing population, and these matters are made
more urgent when one considers those yet to arrive.

The idea of slamming the door on newcomers is totally unrealistic.

But it also doesn’t take into account that new and developing
technologies will improve conservation and perhaps lead to new sources
of water.

That’s through multilevel treatment of waste water, by making seawater conversion affordable or something not yet conceived.

Freelance
TECH TALK

With Earth Day still giving everyone the warm fuzzies, now would be a good time to look at how Tucson can become ecologically friendly.

It seems as though “Going Green” is the buzz phrase of the month, but there are real concerns behind it. While other parts of the globe place a priority on going green, Tucson should probably focus on going clear. Yes, our carbon footprint is important, but many would agree our ecological priority is water.

There are already serious talks taking place to address these concerns, and it won’t be long before we as a community have to face the reality of these issues. This is when technology enters stage left.

A possible tech solution comes from Dean Kamen, and his recent invention could provide an option for individuals to address potential water shortage issues. His name may be unfamiliar, but he is arguably our generation’s Thomas Edison.

Kamen is most associated with the Segway, but I believe his latest invention will be of particular interest to Tucsonans. It’s called the Slingshot, and what it claims to do is nothing short of amazing. The Slingshot is reported to produce drinking water from any source of liquid or moisture.

This means drinking water could be extracted from countless sources, including reclaimed liquid waste and sewage. You may be thinking yuck, but don’t think there aren’t discussions to do it on a municipal level.

The difference is that with the Slingshot, at least it is your waste and not from the neighbor down the street that you don’t like and are over 60 percent sure has some incurable infliction.

In my mind, reclaiming waste would still not be high on the list of potential liquid sources. Water from the ocean can be desalinized at an affordable price for individuals. The Slingshot doesn’t use filters like many desalinating devices on the market. Vapor distillation compression is used by the Slingshot to produce roughly 264 gallons of potable water a day.

The Slingshot has another valuable function. It can produce a kilowatt of energy per day. Smaller than many washer and dryers, the Slingshot could become just as essential, and at an estimated price between $1,000 and $2,000, could sustain millions around the planet.

Including in Tucson.

Quincey Hobbs has more than 10 years of experience as a team member at the University of Arizona’s Center for Computing and Information Technology and as an instructor at Pima Community College. Send questions to quinceyresponds@yahoo.com.

Citizen Staff Writer

B. POOLE

bpoole@tucsoncitizen.com

Water conservation measures that will go to a City Council vote in May went on the road Thursday in the first of a series of public meetings to get input on the measures.

About two dozen people came to hear about the 22 rebates and incentives, rules for new construction and real estate resale and other programs included in a new Tucson Water conservation fund. The fund will go to a City Council vote with new water rates in May.

Under the plan, all of Tucson Water’s conservation efforts would be funded by a fee of 3 cents per 100 cubic feet of water used. The fund will cover existing conservation efforts, such as the Zanjero program, and the 22 new measures focused mainly on toilet replacement and landscape management.

The town hall meetings are vital, said Ward 2 City Councilman Rodney Glassman.

“We want to make sure that this is what the people of Tucson want us spending that money on,” Glassman said after the 90-minute presentation and question-and-answer session.

The measures include rebates for residents who replace old toilets with low-flow ones or install graywater harvesting systems. Ordinances would mandate plumbing changes when businesses or multifamily residences are sold, and a pilot program for hot-water recirculation systems would test their water savings.

Sheila Silverberg, a retired high school teacher from Massachusetts, has lived in Tucson for about 10 years. She’s OK with the plans but thinks the city needs to do more.

“A policy of limiting growth has to go along with conservation,” she told Glassman.

Tucson Water spokesman Mitch Basefsky urged residents to take part in the conservation efforts and support the changes. Eventually the city will have to find new water sources, such as treated effluent or leases from Indian tribes, to meet demand.

“Conservation is the way all of us can have a role in delaying that need for new supplies,” Basefsky said.

Many of the new programs focus on changing to native landscape vegetation. About 45 percent of Tucson’s water is used outdoors, said Ann Audrey of the city Office of Conservation and Sustainable Development.

“There’s tremendous potential for reducing the amount of water we are using outside our homes,” Audrey told the audience.

The city will hold seven similar public meetings in coming weeks.

IF YOU GO

Tucson Water has scheduled eight public meetings to discuss conservation and an update to the city water plan.

• Ward 6 office, 3202 E. First St., 2-4 p.m. April 14

• William Clements Center, 8155 E. Poinciana Drive, 7-9 p.m. April 23

• Ward 6 office, 3202 E. First St., 7-9 p.m. April 24

• Desert Sky Middle School, 9850 E. Rankin Loop, 7-9 p.m. April 30

• El Rio Neighborhood Center, 1390 W. Speedway Blvd., 7-9 p.m. May 1

• Ward 3 office, 1510 E. Grant Road, 6:30-8:30 p.m. May 8

• Mission Library, 3770 S. Mission Road, 10 a.m.-noon, May 17

Citizen Staff Writer

GARRY DUFFY

gduffy@tucsoncitizen.cm

You can start an argument in the West by mentioning control of water resource policies in an empty room.

The room likely won’t be vacant for an August public hearing of Pima County and city appointees who are charged with charting existing and future water supplies and how they ought be allocated in coming years.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved formation of the joint committee with the city.

On it are some members of the city and county planning and zoning commissions, the Tucson Water Advisory Committee, the Pima County Wastewater Advisory Committee, and a former deputy to County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry who also is on the city water advisory committee.

Not on it are representatives of any other area jurisdictions – Marana, Oro Valley, South Tucson, and Sahuarita – or the Tohono O’odham Nation and Pascua Yaqui Tribe.

“The committee we are putting together today is charged with seeing that everyone is sitting at the table,” Supervisor Ann Day said of suspicions that the city and county will seek to dominate water conservation and use policies.

The committee is to meet later this month to set up procedures for tackling its mandate – looking at current water supplies and infrastructure, looking ahead at future groundwater and renewable water supplies and needs, population growth trends, preferred future land-use planning, and conservation standards.

Discussion then will include how to get information from neighboring communities and also provide them with data, Huckelberry said.

“We will be sitting in to monitor and follow what does come out of the committee,” Marana Town Manager Mike Reuwsaat, said Tuesday afternoon.

Officials there do not believe the committee poses a threat to the town’s water supply, Reuwsaat said.

But the town has interconnected lines with Tucson Water in some areas that should be monitored in future policy recommendations and decisions, he said.

Renewable water supplies, such as treated wastewater, will be an important commodity as alternatives to groundwater use become more vital, Reuwsaat said.

“The city has control over most of the renewable resources. The question is, how are they going to use it,” he said.

Other concerns have been raised over how treated wastewater – effluent – might be used in the future.

“As a citizen, I am drawing a line in the sand over drinking toilet-to-tap water,” Debbie Collazo said when she addressed the supervisors during a public portion of Tuesday’s meeting.

Supervisor Ray Carroll cast the lone dissenting vote on the committee’s formation.

“It should have had more input from all sectors of the community,” Carroll said.

Another concern was the quality of water area residents will be drinking in coming years.