Related articles:

Tucson Water wants rates to go up 10%

Other articles by Tony Davis:

AZ Senate fails to act on gas-storage cavernVote pending on exemptions for underground gas storage Killing lions to save sheep faulted Natural gas threatens water, critics sayAZ wanted a jaguar collared despite 2 deaths in Sonora Ex-Gov. Castro, 93, reflects on AZ issues Audubon: Climate change is shifting bird migration Lawmakers decry US stance that it can't block Rosemont mine Bear, lion track count ends after 20-year run$900M financing sought for mine

General
A1 Communications
Cable Techs Health Care
Sierra Tucson
Eating Disorders Program Coordinator Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION

Growth and drought ratcheted up the amount of water pumped from the ground and uphill from the Colorado River last year in the Tucson area.

Three of the area's four biggest water utilities — including the largest, Tucson Water — reported increases ranging from 1.3 percent to 16.7 percent in 2007, compared with 2006.

Still, some utility officials took heart in the fact that per-person water use in their communities dropped or that total use rose less than what had been expected.

That suggests people keep growing more water-conscious, more than three decades after conservation efforts began, officials said.

"A lot of people, no- growthers, will say, 'Why should we use our water more efficiently, because it just enables us to provide more water to more people?' " said Val Little, director of the non-profit Water Conservation Alliance of Southern Arizona. "I would say for a lot of reasons it is the right thing. Think of what would have happened if we hadn't had conservation and we all used 100 more gallons per capita per day."

But a longtime Tucson environmentalist, Gayle Hartmann, said any water use increase "seems to me to be moving in the wrong direction when we have a limited water supply. We have to combine conservation with a change in land-use policies, so people who live here conserve and we don't continue to grow in an endless fashion."

Among the major utilities, Marana, perennially one of the area's fastest-growing towns, reported the biggest percentage increase in water use.

Metro Water, an independent utility serving the Northwest Side, reported a sharp decrease. Utility officials weren't available to comment on why.

A fifth major area water utility, Community Water Co. of Green Valley, didn't have 2007 figures.

"Growth is probably the most important factor in increased sales," said Brad DeSpain, Marana's utilities director. "When people move into houses and build more houses, they will use more water. People are relocating in Marana."

For today, the increased use by residents and businesses isn't a big concern, because new subdivisions in Marana typically use less water per acre than the cotton fields they replace, DeSpain said. That factor, plus the creation of three artificial groundwater-replenishment basin projects, has caused the area's water table to rise 40 feet in five years, he said.

Not all of the town is on Marana's water system, though. Tucson Water serves about 9,000 customers in the Northwest Side town.

But for the long term, as growth continues and there are no more new supplies of Central Arizona Project water or sewage effluent to chase, "at some point in time we and the state will have to say this is all the water that we have that is sustainable, and we either use less or stop growth," DeSpain said. "Nobody has stepped up to the plate to say that yet. It's very unpopular, but it's a fact of life."

For Tucson Water, whose customer base grows more slowly than Marana's, much of the increase probably is due to dry weather late last summer and fall. In the first four months of 2007, total area rainfall exceeded that of 2006. Water use dropped. But in six of the next eight months of 2007, rainfall dropped compared with 2006, and water use rose.

But Tucson Water officials say they believe the long-term drought is still causing homeowners and businesses to be more conscious about water than they were in the past. That's because the utility's total use dropped in 2006 and rose in 2007 at a lower rate than officials would have expected due to growth, Tucson Water spokes- man Mitch Basefsky said.

Water use may have risen in the fall because officials weren't promoting conservation as much then as before, and the community was focused on Proposition 200, the unsuccessful water initiative, he said.

Basefsky said officials believe per-person use in Tucson probably dropped last year because water use didn't rise as fast as anticipated. Oro Valley's per-person use dropped slightly.

Officials have been planning for increased water use over the past few years by ramping up the availability of Central Arizona Project water and reclaimed water, he said.

Because the city is using more renewable supplies, in the next few years the city for the first time in 60 years will be pumping no more water from the ground than nature puts back in, he said.

Philip Saletta, director of the Oro Valley Water Utility, said the growth in water use presents no more of a challenge than in the past.

"We tried to get the word out that last year was a drought year, and people have responded," he said.

Officials expect water use to increase, and it's not a crisis because of the state requirements that cities and towns obtain more renewable supplies to keep pumping from increasing, said Kenneth Seasholes, director of the Tucson office of the state Department of Water Resources.

But it's "irrefutable" that growth makes finding more supplies more challenging and costly, he said.

On StarNet: Are you concerned with environmental issues? Check out azstarnet.com/environment for more stories.

Utility 2007 water use Percentage change from 2006

TUCSON WATER 37.8 billion gallons up 1.3%

ORO VALLEY 3.3 billion gallons up about 1.6%

MARANA 657.2 million gallons up about 16.75%

METRO WATER 253.9 million gallons down about 9.7%