Arizona Water Meter
Water Conservation Ordinances
Seven principles for water conservation
Click to see how these principles affect water use:
- Per Capita Water Use
- Water Rate Structures
- Conservation Measures
- Conservation Ordinances
- Funding for Conservation
- Water Loss
- Effluent Use
Well-designed and properly enforced ordinances can impact a utility’s entire customer base, and thus play a unique role in establishing water use rules and appropriate behavior. In Arizona, state and local statutes and regulations have been critical in promoting wise water use, protecting utility infrastructure, and assuring that municipalities have adequate water supply to support population growth.
To provide order to the variety of ordinances enacted by municipalities in this report, we have grouped the ordinances into a list recognized by ADWR’s MNPCCP (Category 5: Ordinances, Conditions of Service, and Tariffs). These conservation ordinance categories, like the conservation measure categories, were chosen because they were developed through an extensive, Arizona-specific stakeholder process.
Numbers in the colored squares in this graph represent the number of water conservation ordinances enacted and distinct mandatory standards required by each community under each category.
The most frequently selected ordinance is Water Tampering/Water Waste Restrictions, with 14 of the 15 municipalities having at least one ordinance in this group (the highest “City Count” total in Figure 12). The “Ordinance Count” total includes all ordinances and mandatory standards that fall within each ordinance category. The groups of Water Features/Water-Intensive Landscaping Limitations, Landscape Watering Restrictions, and Low Water Use Landscaping Requirements are also popular, with 10 of the municipalities implementing some type of ordinance in these three categories. These ordinances are highly relevant for Arizona given the quantity of water used for outdoor irrigation. The least popular ordinance categories are Model Home Landscapes and Non-Residential Landscape Water-Use Efficiency Standards. Chandler and Scottsdale are the only two communities implementing model home landscape ordinances, and Casa Grande and Payson are the only two implementing mandatory non-residential landscape requirements.
Payson, Sierra Vista, and Clarkdale use ordinances to promote water conservation more than any of the other communities (see the “Total Categories” column in Figure 12). Each of these municipalities has ordinances that cover 75% of the categories, often with multiple ordinances, rules, and/or standards within each category. Yuma and Safford rely the least on ordinances. Grouped according to the categories in this report, Yuma has only a water waste ordinance, while Safford has a water waste ordinance and two ordinances covering outdoor water use.