What should Tucson do about big water using neighborhoods?

The Star put that question to Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, a Tucson Water spokesman, five city council members and a community water group as part of our research on high water use in affluent census tracts up in the far northeast side and the Catalina Foothills, as reported in a Tucson Water database. The Star published a story on the top water using residential neighborhoods in today's editions.

Here are their responses:

Rothschild: Once we can identify areas where we know there is higher use going on, we probably ought to go into those ares and target them for more education. I also think we can look at incentives in those higher use areas. Our block rate program, if in fact, we're seeing something that is really disproportionate, we could look at potentially raising block rates on an annual basis until we are seeing the results we want from those higher users.

Councilman Steve Kozachik: Just because they can afford it doesn't mean the region should sit by and let them use this precious resource at a rate of three times the average. That's the reason I think the discussion of lift fees, or charging them for the cost of the infrastructure that delivers it up to their homes, is an appropriate topic for us to consider. The fact is that the infrastructure costs are being borne by low water users who live down in the valley, and the only reason we invested in those pipes, pumps and other gear is to deliver the commodity up to the foothills.

Councilman Paul Cunningham: People in the (Tucson) country club area don't drink any more water than the rest of us, so this is clearly for landscaping. Water is a precious resource in this region and we all, and this goes for people in all parts of Tucson, have to figure out ways to not use large amounts of drinking water on lawns and high water use plants. This is a sign that we have to do more to encourage rainwater harvesting and gray water. I hope that Tucson Water looks at this as an opportunity to do so.

Fernando Molina, a Tucson Water spokesman: We are currently looking at the possibility of conducting field studies to collect water use information that will help us identify where conservation potential can be found among the various user classes. We currently have in our conservation budget funding to conduct audits of commercial facilities, thus providing the customer with information that they can use to develop a conservation plan . . . We need to collect similar data from residential customers, but have not yet developed a methodology on how we will accomplish this.

High water use does not necessarily translate into wasteful use of water. We do not have any field data to support whether the water use at either of these locations (the foothills and the country club estates areas) is efficient or inefficient, but we know that these are areas that typically have high levels of water use. Factors such as income may result in greater discretionary uses of water such as pools, spas and larger landscaping requirements, resulting in higher overall levels of water use.

Community Water Coalition, activist group: Tucson needs a more pervasive culture of conservation. We have among the lowest per capita residential water use in the nation, but in light of this data it appears that the conservation minded residents are shoring up the average for the water abusers. In this period of extended and severe drought, there should be no excuse for one segment of this community to deplete this common resource.

Water rates and lift charges cannot be the only solution. You can't buy your way out of drought. Tucson Water needs a more comprehensive education strategy to target these high use areas with a message that conveys how high water use, and especially additional local pumping, burdens our water supply and imperils the very environment that led many of those residents to choose to locate their homes where they are.

Councilwoman Shirley Scott: I would think outreach with education about alternatives is good. If the water usage is outside the house, they may want to consider rainwater harvesting and putting less flora and grass out front, and putting out more drought tolerant plants and decorate in a different way. Also we should be giving them information on their ability to buy and install reclaimed lines to their property. I would not think these users are in line with the majority of people, but in the bigger picture, our potable water usage decreased 2 percent from 2012 to 2013.

Councilwoman Regina Romero: This is exactly the reason we need to insure that we are promoting and expanding our rainwater harvesting program and continuing the block rate. I also think that this is exactly the reason that we need to expand our outreach to low-income communities and make sure they understand about water harvesting. What we have seen is the low-income areas of our city have less tree cover than other areas. The greening of neighborhoods has to happen without increasing potable water use. We need to make sure that all areas, regardless of income levels, use less water. We need to conserve.

Councilwoman Karin Uhlich: The first step is to make sure that people are aware of the options . . . for landscaping and reducing water use in other ways. I don't know the extent to which Tucson Water has done outreach. Winterhaven has instituted a lot of water reduction measures.

Lift charges? I think that those two are separate issues -- the energy use and water use. If we want to look at segregating energy charges, it could be more complex. If we want to price water to encourage more conservation, I think that the most straightforward thing is the block pricing we've utilized. We've done a good job. We look at that every year -- we update it annually.

Molina, Tucson Water: It is important to recognize that, while certain customers use greater volumes of water than others, they are also paying a price that is higher than the average cost of water. In fact, while the increasing block rate structure is designed to encourage efficient use of water among large volume users, the high water users in the three highest tiers of use subsidize the cost of water for water used at the least expensive tier. The average cost to deliver water to residential customers is $2.45 per 100 cubic feet use, while the first tier charge for water is $1.38 per 100 cubic feet.