More of Arizona’s municipalities are increasing their water conservation efforts, leading taxpayers to pay more for less.
Preexisting sustainability goals and the burgeoning Colorado River drought have offered justification for these municipalities’ efforts, which have now resulted in lawn bans, increased water rates, and restricted water usage over the last few years.
Multiple cities recently traded in their Colorado River water rights in exchange for federal funding: Tucson, Phoenix, Peoria, Glendale, Scottsdale, Gilbert, Mesa, Surprise, Queen Creek, along with the state, Apache Junction Domestic Water Improvement District, Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District, Metropolitan Domestic Water Improvement District in Tucson, Salt River Project, and EPCOR.
Last month, Gov. Katie Hobbs announced the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) ban on the construction of new Phoenix homes that would rely on groundwater.
These progressive restrictions and charges also continue despite noted successes in conservation in comparison to past years with smaller populations.
The answer may lie with other developments in the state over the years. Big Tech’s data centers may be one of the major drains on water supply outweighing the net savings of residents’ water conservation efforts.
Mesa
In comparison to the other cities, Mesa doesn’t impose major water conservation restrictions. It does offer $1,000 in rebates for grass removal, with an additional $100 maximum for planting native trees.
However, the city may be contributing to the water burdens faced by its neighbors. In 2019, it approved the development of a data center for Google that could use one to four million gallons of water daily. Arizona residents average about 146 gallons daily currently.
Yet, as Time pointed out, Arizona Municipal Water Users Association (AMUA) — an organization that Mesa helped found — chastised Arizona residents several weeks after the deal between Mesa and Google for using 120 gallons on average daily.
Meta (formerly Facebook, which also owns Instagram) is now building a data center there as well. The year they broke ground in Arizona, they promised to be “water positive” — meaning, restoring more water than they consume — by 2030.
Like Google centers, data centers could use around one to five million gallons of water a day according to Texas Tech University’s Water Resources Center director, Venkatesh Uddameri.
Microsoft also operates data centers out of El Mirage and Goodyear. They made the same promise to be water positive by 2030.
Over 30 percent of the world’s data centers are located in the U.S.
Scottsdale
Scottsdale banned lawns on new builds earlier this month.
The city also offers to pay residents up to $5,000 for lawn removals, and up to $1 per square foot of water surface area plus $400 for pool or spa removals. For multifamily properties, homeowner associations (HOAs), and commercial businesses, the city offered up to $40,000 to remove their lawns, with an additional $10,000 bonus for grass strips adjacent to streets.
Since Scottsdale launched its rebate program in 1992, total rebates amounted to over $4.7 million; about half of which came from grass removals. The city has removed 94 acres of grass since the program’s launch. This fiscal year’s rebate budget sits at $450,000.
Last September, Scottsdale banned HOAs from requiring overseeding lawns.
Residents surpassed the city’s goal of 10 percent water conservation, achieving 12 percent over the last two years.
Tucson
Last month, Tucson banned lawns and reduced water flow in new constructions. The city also required all new residential dwelling units to include piping for a separate discharge of gray water for direct irrigation: the untreated, leftover water from washing machines, bathtubs, and sinks.
In 2008, Tucson required all commercial development and site plans to include a rainwater harvesting plan that provided for 50 percent of the annual landscape water supply.
In 2014, Tucson passed a water waste ordinance fining individuals $250 on the first offense and $500 on subsequent offenses up to $2,500 for allowing water to escape or pool onto public property; washing driveways, sidewalks, parking areas with a hose (unless a residential customer); operating a misting system in unoccupied non-residential areas; having an irrigation head or emitter that’s broken or spraying more than 10 percent onto a street, parking lot, or sidewalk; failing to control a leak; and failing to meet the 50 percent rainwater harvesting requirement for landscape irrigation.
Tucson also offers multiple rebates: $100 per residential, multi-family, or commercial premium high-efficiency toilet; $150 for a flushometer valve/bowl combination; $200 for high-efficiency or water-free urinal installation; $100 or $200 for a residential high-efficiency clothes washer; up to $2,000 for a residential rainwater harvesting system; and up to $1,000 for a gray water system. The city also offers special incentives for low-income residents: free high-efficiency toilets, grants up to $1,000 and loans up to $2,000 for a rainwater harvesting system, grants and loans up to $500 for a gray water harvesting system, discounted high-efficiency clothes washers, and free plumbing repairs.
Each year, Tucson makes available up to $250,000 in grant money to establish stormwater harvesting in neighborhoods.
Phoenix
Last month, the Phoenix City Council approved the Sustainable Desert Development Policy, requiring rezoning cases on new developments to satisfy city-approved standards on EPA WaterSense efficiency certifications; drought tolerant and/or native landscaping; restrictions on turf usage; outdoor irrigation efficiency standards; green infrastructure or low-impact development provisions for surface parking areas, streets, and sidewalks; participation in the city’s Efficiency Checkup program; new swimming pool standards; new wet-cooling system standards; and preservation of natural open spaces.
Additionally, the policy will require any entities that use over 250,000 gallons of water per day to submit a water conservation plan, approved by city staff. Any entities that use over 500,000 gallons of water per day must derive 30 percent of their water consumption from a recycled or conserved water source.
Entities dubbed “large water users,” may be denied operation even if their conservation plan is acceptable to the city. The policy stated that the city may reject the large water user if there’s inadequate water resource availability in their proposed location, inconsistency with the city’s planning documents; undesirable economic value and impact of their proposed water use; undesirable impact to water rates; or incompatibility with the city’s definition of a key industry beneficial to the economy.
The city doesn’t offer any rebate programs, though last December city officials expressed a desire to launch one to incentivize lawn removals. The city signed a joint pledge between locales in California and Nevada to remove ornamental turf.
The city also imposes an ordinance onto new developers, the Water Resources Acquisition Fee (WRAF) ordinance, which may be mitigated via credit if the developer provides a permanent reduction in annual water demand on the city.
The city has promised that it won’t institute mandatory water use restrictions in the near future, though it warned that severe or worsening drought conditions within the next 10-15 years may warrant such restrictions. Policy changes could include water waste punishments similar to Tucson’s, requiring child safe pool covers to reduce evaporation, banning turf irrigation, and banning car washing.
Flagstaff
Flagstaff has stricter water use requirements than some of the other Arizona cities.
The city has a watering allowance schedule during which residents may water their landscape: even-numbered addresses on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and odd-numbered addresses on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Nobody may water on Mondays, and the city prohibits watering between 9 am and 5 pm. Gardeners wishing to water by hand — “incidental hand watering” — may do so on any day, except from 9 am to 5 pm. However, vehicle washing is not subject to the water schedule restrictions.
The schedule is only permitted to be used when the city is at the first stages of burdened water demand. At level two, the city bans irrigation; car washing at home; driveway, sidewalk, and tennis court washing; filling of fountains, ponds, streams, or pools over 100 gallons. The city also increases water rates for those using over 6,400 gallons, and potable standpipe rates increase by 130 percent. At level three, potable water use is banned outside.
Those who violate the rules within any of the three levels are subject to fines starting at $25, doubling with each violation.
The city implements a diverse set of rebate programs. Commercial properties may receive free high-efficiency sink aerators, free high-efficiency shower heads, free pre-rinse spray valves, $86 rebate or 50 percent of project cost for commercial toilets, $158 or 50 percent of project cost for hotel toilets; and $157 or 50 percent of the project cost for commercial urinals.
Both residential and commercial properties may receive a rebate at 25 cents per square foot for converting to low-water landscaping. They may also receive a $100 rebate on installation of a rainwater harvesting system with 1000-gallon minimum capacity, and free 55-gallon rainwater harvesting barrels.
The city reported that their conservation efforts, beginning in 1988, have yielded a 50 percent water use reduction.
Gilbert
The town of Gilbert is offering up to $800 to residents and up to $3,000 to non-residential customers who swap their lawns for desert landscaping that uses less water. The city set aside $60,000 for the residential program, and $15,000 for the non-residential program.
A Gilbert spokesperson told AZ Free News that they have a total of $120,000 per year to issue on their rebate programs, and that the allocated funding within that budget may change from year to year based on the popularity of each program.
Anyone who receives $600 or more in water bill credits must complete a W9 for the Gilbert Water Conservation, as per the Biden administration IRS reporting requirement enacted last year.
Those aren’t the only water conservation financial incentives that Gilbert has offered. The town introduced rebates up to $250 for residential, $400 for non-residential properties to install smart irrigation controllers.
In May, the town applied for a $3 million grant from the Water Conservation Fund to replace grass on government property with desert-tolerant landscaping. The grant money ultimately comes from federal COVID-19 relief funds.
Gilbert announced that it saved 254 million gallons due to its conservation efforts in 2019, and 375 million in 2018.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The city of Phoenix’s “cool” pavement is making people hotter, something the city learned from their pilot program study with Arizona State University (ASU) — but chose to prioritize its sustainability goals to combat climate change instead.
The 2021 joint study discovered that the “cool” pavement makes people feel up to six degrees hotter: the material deflects sunlight, causing people to absorb it. The study declared the increased human discomfort a “necessary tradeoff” for reducing the temperature of city infrastructure.
The study not only reported negative physical impacts resulting from the pavement; survey respondents also relayed negative feelings about the aesthetics, safety, and durability of the pavement. Residents reported that the pavement was “blinding” due to its light color, and that the tire and oil marks stained the pavement in ugly ways. They also reported the pavement being slick, and even wearing off at a fast rate.
It appears that ASU researchers and Phoenix leaders were aware even prior to the study that the cool pavement would make people hotter. At the start of the pilot program, ASU professor David Sailor revealed that the same material was planned for use in the 2020 Summer Olympics marathon route in Japan, but that the material would likely make the runners hotter due to the solar reflection.
Despite the report indicating overall negative impacts to the human body and resident sentiments, the city decided to make the pavement program permanent. Since 2019, the city has spent over $12 million perArizona’s Family.
The city announced last month that it installed over 100 miles of the cool pavement.
🆒 NEWS: Three years after launching our Cool Pavement program, we've installed over 100 miles of cool coating across Phoenix!
This innovative coating is produced locally and is proven to reduce street surface temperatures by up to 12 degrees! 😎 pic.twitter.com/XLqoX3AkjM
While the city increases the coverage of pavement making people hotter, public health officials have been warning residents of the consequences of long-term exposure to record summer heat.
Temperatures are likely to reach record territory this weekend. Be careful out there and please practice good heat safety. #azwx#cawxpic.twitter.com/AlI3j0cfTh
In marketing their initiative, city leaders have pointed out that the pavement makes the ground 10-12 degrees cooler. While that may be true, the 2021 Phoenix-ASU report revealed that the surfaces cool by deflecting half of that heat to people.
Despite the 2021 report, city leaders claim that the material makes people feel cooler. Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego claimed the pavement makes the city more “comfortable.”
Cool pavement has also presented an opportunity for city leaders to market Phoenix as innovative in terms of sustainability efforts, namely with energy usage. Gallego has cited the city’s membership with C40 Cities, a progressive climate change organization on whose steering committee Gallego sits as vice chair, as the driving force behind cool pavement.
Over the past 4 years, the most meaningful movement on climate has come from cities and states. #PHX has one of the largest cool pavement projects in the country, we lead the nation for solar installed on municipal property & we’re ensuring #RenewableEnergy is accessible for all. https://t.co/Z1tlCXcWLg
Sailor, one of the ASU researchers, projected in a 2020 interview during the ASU-Phoenix pilot program that the technology would save ratepayers up to $75 million per degree in energy costs.
Another researcher on the study, ASU professor David Hondula, was named director of the office overseeing the pavement initiative within weeks of the study’s publication.
The California-based manufacturer for the pavement material, GuardTop, opened its downtown Phoenix facility to create the product in 2017. Since 2022, after Phoenix made its pavement initiative permanent, the company has exclusively produced the material at its Phoenix facility, naming it “Phoenix Gray.” Australia, Canada, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates have purchased the cool pavement material from the company.
GuardTop’s founder and CEO, Bob Koleas, is an alumnus of the University of Arizona.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
A dark money, globalist climate group poised to obtain power over U.S. defense contracts has Arizona roots.
Last November, the Biden administration proposed granting decision-making power on defense contracts to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi): a London, England-based environmentalist group. In mid-February, a key initiative to SBTi called the Advanced and Indirect Mitigation (AIM) Platform launched at GreenBiz 23 in Scottsdale.
According to a press release, the AIM Platform will provide net-zero carbon value chain mitigation for SBTi and the GHG Protocol. Value chain mitigation determines the greenhouse gas emissions of each aspect of a company in an effort to reduce it; SBTi is also advancing a successor of the concept, called “beyond value chain mitigation,” or BVCM.
AIM Governing Committee members are Alexia Kelly, High Tide Foundation; Devon Lake, META; Kelley Kizzier, Bezos Earth Fund (Amazon founder, executive chairman, and former CEO Jeff Bezos); Mandy Rambharos, EDF; Tim Juliani, World Wildlife Fund (WWF); Derik Broekhoff, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI); Graham Winkelman, BHP; Dan Smith, Smart Freight Center; Elena Schmidt, Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB); Lisa Spetz, H&M Group; Meinrad Bürer, Louis Dreyfus Company; Peter Skovly, MAERSK; and Pierre Bloch, Sustaincert.
SBTi funders include the Bezos Earth Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, IKEA Foundation, and Laudes Foundation. The initiative is a collaboration by the Carbon Disclosure Project, World Resources Institute, and WWF, an outgrowth of the leftist dark money initiative called “We Mean Business Coalition” fronting the New Venture Fund: an arm of one of the leading leftist dark money networks, Arabella Advisors.
Washington Free Beaconreported that SBTi didn’t officially incorporate until June, though it launched in 2015. SBTi could receive around $1.2 million in annual estimated fees for their services.
The AIM Platform creators were the Gold Standard, a Switzerland-based, climate-focused finance group; Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), a Virginia-based climate policy think tank; and Neoteric Energy & Climate, a D.C.-based climate advisory firm.
The few Americans on Gold Standard’s leadership include Scott Harder, a California native and founder of the Environmental Financial Group; Kerry Constabile, a New Yorker who formerly served as a sustainability executive for Google as well as a senior officer and lead advisor for the United Nations, and also a technical advisor for SBTi; Sue Ellen Johnson, a North Carolina agriculturalist and advisor for a number of climate groups including Gold Standard; and Lawson Henderson, a Vermont-based manager of Wildlife Works Carbon and formerly a coordinator for Rainforest Alliance.
C2ES is the successor of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, led currently by Nathaniel Keohane: former President Barack Obama’s special assistant on energy and environment and formerly a senior vice president for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The former president for C2ES was the deputy administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency under the Obama administration. C2ES and its predecessor were founded and presided over initially by Eileen Claussen, the special advisor to the president on global environmental affairs at the National Security Council and assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs to former President Bill Clinton.
Neoteric Energy & Climate was founded in January by Kim Carnahan, the current CEO, who helped lead the State Department under both Obama and Trump on finalizing the Paris Agreement and other major emissions reductions policies with the International Maritime Organization and International Civil Aviation Organization. Carnahan also worked as the senior director for ENGIE Impact, a Washington-based sustainability consultancy company.
GreenBiz 23 was the latest in a series of annual events that have taken place in Arizona since at least 2014. Next year’s event, GreenBiz 24, will take place in Phoenix.
Featured speakers for this year’s event included Arizona State University (ASU) Morrison Institute Kyl Center for Water Policy directors Kathryn Sorensen and Sarah Porter.
Most of the other speakers over the years have represented the biggest companies worldwide. This year included representatives from 3M, Anheuser-Busch, Associated Press (AP News), BASF Chemicals, CEMEX, Coca-Cola, Cox Enterprises, Clif Bar, Deloitte Tax, Delta Airlines, Dollar Tree, eBay, Estée Lauder, Ford, General Mills, General Motors, Henkel, IBM, Intuit, Johnson & Johnson, Levi Strauss, Mars, McDonald’s, Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Nasdaq, National Public Radio (NPR), NCX, NextEra Energy Resources, Nike, Paramount, Procter & Gamble, Salesforce, Seventh Generation, S&P Global, Starbucks, Under Armour, United Airlines, UPS, U.S. Steel, and Wells Fargo.
The Biden administration also sent speakers: Betty Cremmins and Katy Newhouse, directors for sustainable supply chains with the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
A crowd of Tucson parents protested against a drag queen story hour hosted at Bookmans, a local bookstore chain, this month.
Bookmans hosted the event in coordination with Drag Story Hour Arizona. Event organizers withheld the exact location until the day before the event, and only released it to registered attendees.
The line wrapped all the way around the corner!
It’s clear Tucson parents are NOT on board with sexualizing children. https://t.co/OtZ6vGBA8o
The Bridge Tucson, a local multi-location church, organized the protest. Church members behind the protest noted that the drag story hour event organizers were saving preferential seating for children so that protesting adults couldn’t take all the seating.
Bookmans attempted to host another drag queen story hour back in March, but the organizers canceled due to protests.
The protest of Bookmans "Drag Story Hour" is not needed at this time because they have canceled! Great job BCC and all that took a stand. We will continue to monitor and reschedule the protest if needed. pic.twitter.com/2bc6JPoHuX
“Bookmans is committed to allowing men dressed in women’s clothing to dance and sing and read books to children while exploring sexual themes with children and providing a ‘queer’ influence in their life,” stated the Bridge Tucson. “Bookmans is committed to grooming our children and it is pure evil. It has always been society’s job to protect children, and this is one of those moments in time to take a stand. We made it very clear that if Bookmans re-scheduled their Drag Queen Story Hour, we would reschedule our protest. So it’s on!
It has been confirmed that the protest was hosted by @TheBridgeTucson
Drag Story Hour Arizona formed in 2019. In addition to Bookmans, the group collaborates with AzTYPO, Virtual Arizona Pride, Free Mom Hugs Arizona, and Phoenix Pride.
Ahead of the March story hour cancellation, Bridge Tucson members claimed retaliation. Their members reportedly emailed the bookstore to protest the event and claimed that their email addresses were then signed up for porn site email listings.
BCC: We have had a few reports of people that recently sent an email to Bookmans and then had that email address signed up for porn site emails. This seems to be only some recent emails but we wanted to warn everyone. Again, well done BCC for standing against sinful behavior. pic.twitter.com/vHAzgKBKVc
In response to the protest, State Sen. Justine Wadsack (R-LD17), commended the local parents for withstanding the temperatures that afternoon, which reached around 110 degrees. Wadsack also included an allusion to the controversial child sex trafficking awareness movie, “Sound of Freedom.”
Mama Bears & Papa Bears around the country have had ENOUGH with Drag Queen Story Hour. So much so, they’ll protest the venues in 110 degree AZ Heat!
Attorney General Kris Mayes pledged to ignore the Supreme Court’s (SCOTUS) recent decision in the case 303 Creative v. Elenis.
SCOTUS ruled last month that Colorado’s anti-discrimination law that would punish a Christian wedding website designer for declining to make a same-sex wedding website violated the First Amendment. The Scottsdale legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) represented the website designer.
The Supreme Court’s decision in 303 Creative reaffirms a bedrock principle: the government cannot force us to say something we don’t believe.
Equal treatment under the law requires protecting everyone’s right to free speech.
— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) July 5, 2023
Colorado anti-discrimination law added sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of traditional Civil Rights protections: race, religion, color, and national origin.
In a press release, Mayes encouraged individuals to continue to file complaints of discrimination concerning LGBTQ+ identity.
“Despite today’s ruling, Arizona law prohibits discrimination in places of public accommodation, including discrimination because of sexual orientation and gender identity,” said Mayes. “If any Arizonan believes that they have been the victim of discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, or ancestry in a place of public accommodation, they should file a complaint with my office. I will continue to enforce Arizona’s public accommodation law to its fullest extent.”
The Arizona Civil Rights Act (ACRA) doesn’t list either sexual orientation or gender identity as protected classes. ACRA only recognizes race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, and genetic testing results as protected classes.
Mayes’ interpretation of ACRA could come from the arguments presented by former attorney general Mark Brnovich. Mayes’ predecessor interpreted anti-discrimination protections to include both sexual orientation and gender identity in a 2020 filing for Bruer v. State of Arizona. His filing followed the Bostock v. Clayton County decision prohibiting employers from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
At the time, Brnovich stated that the state legislature would have to amend the Arizona Civil Rights Act to exclude sexual orientation and gender identity if they disagreed with his interpretation.
Also in her press release, Mayes called the SCOTUS majority “woefully misguided.” Mayes added that she agreed with Justice Sonya Sotomayor’s dissent.
“Today, a woefully misguided majority of the United States Supreme Court has decided that businesses open to the public may, in certain circumstances, discriminate against LGBTQ+ Americans,” stated Mayes.
Today, a woefully misguided majority of the United States Supreme Court has decided that businesses open to the public may, in certain circumstances, discriminate against LGBTQ+ Americans.
— AZ Attorney General Kris Mayes (@AZAGMayes) June 30, 2023
Sotomayor’s dissent argued that the wedding website designer wasn’t protected by the First Amendment because her refusal to validate a same-sex wedding should be considered an act, not protected speech. Sotomayor further argued that individuals should be compelled to act contrary to their personal beliefs if they’re wishing to participate in the economy at all.
“[I]f a business chooses to profit from the public market, which is established and maintained by the state, the state may require the business to abide by a legal norm of nondiscrimination,” stated Sotomayor.
In her first executive order issued in January, Gov. Katie Hobbs added gender identity to the list of anti-discrimination protections concerning state employment and contracts. Hobbs expanded on the anti-discrimination precedent of her Democratic female predecessor, Janet Napolitano, who issued an executive order prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
