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Summer heat brings out the most in water usage around the Valley

Water use in April down despite people at home due to COVID-19

Posted 6/15/20

The summer months are upon us in Arizona, and with that comes the heavy usage of water. But as residents seek relief from the heat, municipalities are doing their part to encourage people to conserve water.

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Summer heat brings out the most in water usage around the Valley

Water use in April down despite people at home due to COVID-19

Posted

The summer months are upon us in Arizona, and with that comes the heavy usage of water. But as residents seek relief from the heat, municipalities are doing their part to encourage people to conserve water.

2020 has been an odd year for the state and the world, with COVID-19 affecting people's everyday lives. Here in Arizona, Gov. Doug Ducey instituted a stay-at-home order from March 31-May 15, leading some to wonder if water and electricity usage would shoot up as more people stay home — schools had been closed, people were laid off and others had work-from-home options.

But data provided by four municipalities show a different story in water usage. In May and early June, the Daily Independent filed records requests for residential water usage data from several municipalities in the Valley, with responses from the cities of Buckeye, Phoenix and Surprise, and the Town of Queen Creek. The information provided included water usage in each municipality's preferred units and number or residential customers, or accounts. The water units were then converted to gallons.

According to the data, residences used more water in March 2020 — before the stay-at-home order —than in March 2019. But in the first full month of the order, April 2020 water usage was down in all four communities than in April 2019.

Monthly Water Use in Gallons per Residential Account

Phoenix

March 2019: 8,168
March 2020: 8,668

April 2019: 10,476
April 2020: 10,244

Queen Creek

March 2019: 7,374
March 2020: 8,409

April 2019: 13,055
April 2020: 11,040

Surprise

March 2019: 6,243
March 2020: 6,571

April 2019: 7,626
April 2020: 6,003

“We’re going to need to do some more data mining, but we were actually wondering if perhaps the April numbers went down slightly because folks were at home, kind of paying attention to ‘Oh I got that annoying leak I haven’t taken care of,’ or ‘Maybe I’ll reset the water timer for the backyard, it’s getting too much water,’” said Lee Lambert, water resources manager for the city of Surprise. “The other thing we need to do a little data mining on to figure why it went down slightly there is also... temperature and rainfall, April 2019 versus 2020. There may be something there as well. In general, water usage was up slightly. And we believe that was because of COVID. People working from home, staying home, that type of thing.”

Officials in Queen Creek offered similar viewpoints on why water usage dropped in April.

“I think if you’re looking at these numbers and comparing apples to apples, I would imagine it’s still more weather related for the usage,” said Keith DeVore, water resources manager for Queen Creek. “As growth continues, these new homes that are coming out are using less water as a whole. There’s xeriscape, there’s new plumbing codes, there’s a whole bevy of reasons why people are using less water.”

While EPCOR didn’t provide any data, the company that provides water services in places like the Sun Cities says they have seen a rise in usage across their residential customers.

“But it is difficult to determine how much of that is directly related to the impact of COVID-19 and how much is related to a rise in temperatures given the record heat we experienced in May,” according to a statement from EPCOR’s Arizona operations group. “In some districts where we have a higher degree of seasonal residents, like the Sun Cities and our Rio Verde water district, we have also seen a later return to summer homes and that can also have an impact on overall water usage. We have seen a dip in commercial water usage, likely due to the impact of COVID-19 and increased number of people working from home, but the majority of our customers are residential.”

As one would guess, the summer months outpace the other months in the amount of water that residences use. In Phoenix, the monthly water usage from June to August 2019 was 14,892 gallons per residential account, according to data. The monthly average throughout 2019 was 11,829 gallons per residential account. In Surprise, the summer months accounted for 10,572 gallons per residential account while 8,421 gallons for the yearly average. In Queen Creek, it was 15,624 gallons per residential account in the summer versus 12,580 for the year.

The Daily Independent calculated averages by adding the number of gallons used in each month and dividing that total by the sum of the number of accounts in each of the corresponding months.

Buckeye, which provided water usage but not residential account numbers, saw residences average 219 million gallons used each month in 2019, while they used about 270 million gallons on average in the summer months.

In Scottsdale, public information officer Nicole Sherbert said it’s important to note that only about 30% of water usage comes from indoors. The rest is outside use.

This appears to be the case around Maricopa County, according to officials.

“More water is used outdoors than indoors,” said Annie DeChance, communications manager for the city of Buckeye. “It can be just the opposite in other parts of the country.”

Thus, conservation efforts in the Valley and desert areas typically focus on proper outdoor watering first, officials say.

“Especially when native plants are part of the landscape,” Ms. DeChance said. “Once they are established, they need very little water to survive. It also requires adjusting your watering schedule monthly. What works in January is much different than March, April or August. Plus, understanding how to properly program your watering timer is critical too. Leaks, whether they are indoors or outdoors, are difficult to detect, but there are several ways to troubleshoot and find them. The materials from Water Use It Wisely are very helpful for residents. Of course, Buckeye customizes the information based on data and water usage from each account.”

Over in Surprise, Mr. Lambert said city water officials are looking to crack down on small patches of turf in the front yards of residences, which could come in the form of an ordinance change.

“It will require scrutiny and public input. If the public were to say, ‘No way we keep our little patch of grass in the front,’ public spoken,” Mr. Lambert said. “But we kind of view it at the planning level, at the water level, there’s a lot of great landscaping material that you can put in your front yard that doesn’t use as much water. And we understand grass is good to recreate on, to lay on, play on, but if you just have it out front, kind of a thumb-stamped size, it’s not really benefiting anyone but it’s using more water than necessary. We’d like to discourage that.”

Connie Speelman-Harris, water conservation specialist for Queen Creek, says because the town is one of the newer municipalities in the Valley, most homes have already been built under more modern plumbing codes.

“Where maybe in Mesa and Phoenix they have a lot more older homes, so they may focus more indoors,” she said. “We are actually focusing a little more outdoors because that’s going to be where the bulk of water waste could take place.”

As the summer gets underway, Valley municipalities are rolling out or planning new programs to encourage residents to conserve water outdoors — though usage during this time will no doubt continue to outpace other seasons.

In Surprise, officials are rolling out adult and youth education, workshops, a master gardener partnership, as well as a new xeriscape garden.

“That will be a literal living observation for folks to come here and get education on water conserving, plants, plant material, best watering practices, things like that,” Mr. Lambert said. “So we’re very excited about that.”

The city is also looking to ramp up its rebate program and wastewater investigations. In addition, Surprise is upgrading to smart water meters.

“I think we’re going to see some huge savings there because the software will actually look at folk’s water use and if it suddenly takes off for an unexplained reason, it will — if the folks want, they can sign up for this program — it will actually notify and send them a text, or we’ll call them, and say ‘Hey you might want to check, maybe your pipe broke, maybe you’re on vacation, you don’t know it.’ It’s just another way for folks to say, ‘Oh I didn’t know our water use went up suddenly, let me look and see if something’s broken in the yard or the toilet’s running in the room we don’t normally use.'"

Queen Creek has been conducting a pilot program where they provide a three-year history of water usage to seven of the homeowner’s associations in the town. Eventually, officials want to get all HOAs involved so they can compare water usage, as well as share best practices on how to improve conservation.

“They can literally go in and see what they used to use, and then there’s a map that shows how much water they should be using... and how much they do use,” Ms. Speelman-Harris said. “The property manager sees it, the board director — you hope — sees it, and the landscaper is able to see this information. So everybody is on the same page. There’s even a little dollar value in one of the columns that tells you if you would have stayed within water budget — there’s a 15% variance under or over — and if you would stay in the water budget amount, it will tell you how much savings that you could have made. And that’s really a big motivator as well for the HOAs.”

Ms. Speelman-Harris said Queen Creek is very proactive when it comes to informing residential water users. The town has a water audit system online that teaches residents how to read their water meter and use it to help determine things like whether they have a leak or how much their landscape watering system is using when it runs.

Also, two times each month, Ms. Speelman-Harris runs high continuous use reports that will show her customers who are using more than 50 gallons per hour for more than four consecutive days.

“I look at all of those. Sometimes it’s filling the pool or they’re doing something intentional,” she said. “If the use stops, I don’t call them. But if I look at their account and I see that use continues, then I’ll actually give them a phone call and let them know they got an issue. We really do try to stay on top of it and help as much as possible.”

Queen Creek also hopes to be able to re-offer adult workshops once the town resumes more services due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Officials also encourage residents to visit their city or town’s website for more information and tips on water conservation.

According to the Arizona Department of Water Resources, May is the state's driest month of the year, with last month even drier as most of Arizona received less than 5% of normal May precipitation — or less than 0.25 inches. While 80% of Arizona remains out of short-term drought, drought conditions remain in the northeastern part of the state, according to the department's May status summary.

With that in mind, considering officials' advice can go a long way towards saving water for future generations.