The City of Tucson Goes Gray
On September 23, 2008 I was touring the Upper Santa Cruz River with Amy McCoy of the Sonoran Institute as my watershed tour guide. The trip was awesome; I never knew that the southeast corner of Arizona was so beautiful.
Towards the end of our day trip Amy was anxious to get back to Tucson to attend an important City Council meeting, I didn’t know it until later that it was the vote on the Grey Water Ordinance that Amy was trying to make it to. The Sonoran Institute, using EPA Targeted Watershed Grant funds, helped to put together the ordinances for the City Council vote.
Because there’s so little surface water in the Tucson area, the city’s major water source has always been groundwater. The Grey Water Ordinance is aimed at reducing the use of scarce drinking water to irrigate desert landscapes. The city estimates that 45 percent of water use is for landscaping, and using rainwater and gray water would greatly reduce this.
The ordinance requires rainwater harvesting plans and capturing systems for any new commercial building built after June 1, 2010. The Ordinance requires that new homes built after that date be plumbed for gray water irrigation systems. This means having a drain for sinks, showers, bathtubs, and washing machines separate from drains for all other plumbing, to allow for future installation of a gray water system.
A key factor contributing to the success of this ordinance was the involvement from the entire community, from plumbers and landscapers to the Friends of the Santa Cruz River, they all added their support for the ordinances success. In addition to the community support, an EPA grant helped finance some of the work towards creating the ordinance language.
The City of Tucson was selected for a Pacific Southwest Regional Environmental Award and on the day of the awards ceremony, I had no idea who was coming to accept the award, but had heard that Councilman Rodney Glassman was coming. He was the driving force behind the ordinances, but I had no idea what he looked like. Well, Rodney is about 6’8”, and super energetic, really hard to miss. Once we connected it was great to sit and chat with him, he is very passionate about the ordinances, Tucson, and Arizona. Way to go Councilman Rodney Glassman and the City of Tucson!
About the author: Jared Vollmer works in the Watersheds Office at the EPA, Region 9 office. His work is primarily with the State of Arizona, Department of Environmental Quality, on reducing nonpoint source pollution in Arizona’s impaired watersheds. In addition, Jared works directly with the Sonoran Institute, a recipient of EPA’s Targeted Watershed Grant, located in Tucson in the Santa Cruz Watershed.
Aug 12, 2009 @ 14:02:56
Gray Water I would say is the underdog of the environmental movement. It’s one of the best ways to reduce water consumption, energy usage, etc. Here is another article related to Gray Water
http://www.sierraclubgreenhome.com/go-green/landscaping-and-outdoors/greywater-going-grey-to-get-green/
Oct 06, 2009 @ 11:22:55
Glad to hear people are so passionate about grey water discharge. Its common place in some areas but in urban centers it just don’t have any place.
Mar 12, 2010 @ 16:08:13
Just a quick thanks for the post. I live on Tucson property that consumes a great deal of water, and I’m looking for ways to cut back. I’ve been wanting to learn more about grey water, and thank you for the useful links!
Apr 30, 2010 @ 19:40:27
Hello Kate,
We have installed a graywater system at our home in California. Each time we do a load of laundry, we are watering our plants at the same time. It is so great ! Our plumber installed the system in a couple of hours, and it works great. Totally automatic, nothing else to do. It is connected directly to our drip line. You can learn more about gray water.
Jul 10, 2011 @ 19:36:26
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kloy
Jul 10, 2011 @ 19:37:16
I like this website it’s really cool
Thanks for the information
kloy
Aug 05, 2011 @ 05:04:31
Great things are given in this blog, and i look forward to reading are from you. Keep uo the good work.
Feb 06, 2012 @ 00:49:09
We all need to look into “Going Green” reducing our demands on rain water for irrigation is a great start. Grey water is an excellent substitute for irrigation on a Commercial or domestic scale. We are based in Adelaide, paving Adelaide is becoming more popular because South Australia is known as the driest state in the driest Continent. We have to be water wise, replacing lawns with paved area’s and artificial lawns is common because it requires little maintenance and the pavers are good for directing what rain we do get into catchment areas for drinking.
Nov 23, 2012 @ 19:18:06
Thanks for the article. The drought here has broken but we are sure that this is something that will really help the environment.
Mar 26, 2013 @ 16:47:00
Gray Water I would say is the underdog of the environmental movement. It’s one of the best ways to reduce water consumption, energy usage, etc——-
Oct 08, 2013 @ 23:54:07
Thanks author for your nice site and great shared to environment
Jan 21, 2014 @ 08:40:54
Sydney has started to use gray water more and more. Thanks for the information.
Jan 30, 2014 @ 11:50:17
Thanks for the articles it’s such helpful information here
Feb 11, 2014 @ 02:13:04
Thanks author for your nice blog and great article