Related articles:

Tucson slips in ranking of sustainability

General
Drexel Height Fire District
Firefighter General
MEDLEY COMMUNICATIONS
INSTALLATION PROFESSIONAL Part Time Employment
AVIVA Children's Services
Monitor: Parent-Child Visits

Best Place to Retire. Best Place to Work. Most Bicycle-Friendly City. These rankings usually seem pretty silly.

That's one reason we're not distressed that Tucson's ranking as an environmentally sustainable city fell over the past two years, according to the national SustainLane rankings for the 50 largest cities.

The Star's Tony Davis reported that Tucson fell from 20th to 22nd largely because the survey added water supply as a category this year.

"In these celebrations of ranking that seem to be so popular, cities like ours that haven't changed much except for one or two factors will go into the top 15 or drop way down in one cycle," Dave Taylor, a demographics expert with the Pima Association of Governments, told us Tuesday. "That just tells you how unstable the ranking thing is."

We agree. However, it can be useful to look more deeply into such rankings, hoping for a glimmer of guidance or a gleam of insight. It's worrisome that in this report, our community took a hit on conserving water, a precious desert resource, coming in at 47th out of the 50 cities.

Our community scored badly because SustainLane found the city is too far from its principal long-term water source, the Colorado River, has not been as aggressive as other cities in water-conservation policies and has been growing rapidly, Davis reported.

"Your originating source of much of your water is the Colorado River . . . one of the farthest away of any of the cities ranked from their water supply," Davis quoted James Elsen, SustainLane's CEO as saying. "It's dependent on snowpack, which is declining. That puts you at great risk. You are like at the end of the pipe."

Tucson Water's Mitch Basefsky conceded to Davis that Tucson is vulnerable to long-term drought in the Colorado River watershed, but said it was a choice made with eyes wide open.

The city chose "to move to a supply that for now is renewable, preserving our groundwater supplies as a long-term resource for ourselves," he said.

Davis also reported that SustainLane said Tucson's total water use ranked 33rd, at 169.7 gallons per person per day.

But according to Tucson Water, the true figure is 163 gallons when reclaimed water used on parks and golf courses is included and 150 if reclaimed isn't included. Either figure would move Tucson's rating into the 20s, Davis reported.

Furthermore, the SustainLane playing field apparently wasn't quite level, comparing Tucson's policies with draconian conservation measures imposed in places with drought emergencies — like Atlanta and California.

Basefsky noted in Tuesday's Star that most of Tucson's water-conservation efforts have been voluntary, except for changes in plumbing codes and xeriscaping requirements for new development added in the '90s.

Add to that a new ordinance passed by the City Council Tuesday requiring that new homes be plumbed to enable homeowners to install graywater systems for use in landscape irrigation. Such irrigation accounts for 45 percent of Tucson's residential and commercial water use, Leslie Liberti, director of the city's office of conservation and sustainable development, told Davis.

Unlike "Best Place . . ." rankings, there's nothing silly about water in our arid environment.

While we disagree with SustainLane's low ranking of Tucson's performance, our community can and must do better.

Tucson and Pima County are constantly exploring water-sustainability solutions. The issue is at the forefront of local policy discussions. We are on the right conservation path of reasonable regulation and voluntary compliance.