An affluent, far-northeast-side enclave is the runaway leader in residential water use among neighborhoods in the Tucson Water system, utility records show.
The area includes Tucson Country Club Estates, a subdivision dating to the 1940s. Itβs dominated by large, old, stately and pricey homes, is loaded with swimming pools and is adorned by lush landscaping, ranging from huge green lawns to big stands of native cacti, shrubs and mesquite trees.
For 2012, the most recent year for which records are available, residents of the 714-home census tract containing Tucson Country Club Estates used about 748 gallons per household or 298 gallons per person daily, Tucson Water records show. Thatβs by far more water per single-family home than any other tract in the Tucson Water system, utility records show.
Itβs:
- More than three times the water the average single-family household used throughout the Tucson Water system.
- Fifty-four percent more water per household than what was used in the second-thirstiest census tract in the Tucson Water system, in the heart of the Catalina Foothills.
- Significantly more than whatβs used on average in Scottsdale, Phoenix, Tempe, Gilbert and Chandler in Maricopa County.
- About the same as Winterhaven, a small pocket on Tucsonβs north side that has its own well and where lush landscaping has long been a tradition.
To analyze water use in the Tucson Water service area, the Star used a database obtained from the utility that broke down single-family household water consumption by census tract.
Canβt believe numbers
Water use in the Tucson Country Club census tract has been declining since 2000, but not as fast as the rest of the Tucson Water system. The census tractβs use has dropped by 5 percent since 2000, compared with 23 percent on average for the entire system.
The head of the country clubβs neighborhood association said he doubts the areaβs water use is as high as Tucson Water reported. Thatβs because 203 of 349 homes in the subdivision are connected to a city reclaimed-water line for landscaping, so theyβre not spraying drinking water on their lawns. Reclaimed water use isnβt counted in the Tucson Water residential database.
βThereβs something wrong with your numbers,β said association President Ed King, whose home is connected to the reclaimed line. βI canβt believe them.β
Tucson Water says its statistics are based on its computerized water billing records. While it would take more time to have its staff actually review and confirm the data, βthe data (typically) reflects usage at this meter,β said Fernando Molina, a utility spokesman.
Several City Council members said Tucson should do more to educate high-water-use neighborhoods about ways to conserve water. The environmentalist Community Water Coalition also made a strong pitch for more public education, βwith 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.β
Councilman Steve Kozachik suggested the council consider βlift chargesβ to cover the costs of pumping water to residents in higher-elevation areas such as the Catalina Foothills. That actually wouldnβt affect Tucson Country Club Estates, because its elevation is 2,470 feet, similar to most of the city, but the charges would affect many other high-use areas.
Mayor Jonathan Rothschild said higher water rates for high-use areas may be necessary, although the city already has a steep, block rate structure that charges higher users more than average users per cubic foot of water delivered.
Income linked to usage
Thereβs no disputing the link between high income and water use, Tucson Waterβs database shows.
Of the top 20 water-sucking census tracts in the utilityβs service area, all but two had median household annual incomes exceeding the countywide average of about $46,000. Three tracts, including the Country Club Estates area, had incomes exceeding $100,000. Seven others topped $80,000.
Twelve of the top 20 water-using tracts are in the Catalina Foothills. Four, including the Country Club Estates tract, are in affluent far-northeast-side suburban areas. Two others are in far northwest-side suburbs. Only two are in the city of Tucson β one bordering Reid Park and including the upscale Colonia Solana neighborhood.
Analyzing all 193 census tracts in the utilityβs service area, the Star found income was by far the biggest factor associated with high water use. Thatβs no surprise, because past academic research has consistently linked income and water use.
Tucson Country Club Estates has many demographic factors associated with high water use. For one, its homes are far older than the norm in Tucson. Nearly 58 percent were built in the 1950s, although many have been torn down or altered in the past 15 years and either replaced or substantially increased in size.
Older homes typically use more water than newer homes. They were built on larger lots and occupied a smaller portion of the lots than do homes built since 2000, a 2012 Tucson Water study concluded. A typical Tucson Country Club Estates lot is about an acre, while most subdivisions in the city have three to five or more lots per acre.
Second, older homes are more likely to have pools. About 51 percent of the Country Club Estates census tractβs homes have pools.
Third, older homes are more likely to have evaporative coolers, which use more water than the air conditioners common in newer homes, the Tucson Water study concluded.
Also, older homes are more likely to have green lawns, while newer homes are typically adorned with native, low-water-use landscaping. Newer homes are routinely built with lower-flow toilets, faucets, shower heads, washing machines and other fixtures and appliances. Building codes have gradually changed over the decades to require them.
reclaimed water helps
Some of these factors, however, donβt play out at neighborhood leader Kingβs house in Tucson Country Club Estates.
His front yard contains no grass and is mainly gravel. Its trees are mostly native β mesquite, palo verde and ash, along with non-native olive trees. His backyard is mostly gravel, sprinkled with agave and lantana and other small shrubs, with 12 mostly native trees, a half-dozen flowerpots and a 21,000-gallon pool.
His house was built in 1967, but he has replaced the homeβs older toilets with low-flow models, he said.
Kingβs records from his water bills show that in 2013, he used about 4,300 cubic feet of potable water and 310 feet of reclaimed.
Reclaimed water has been available to much of the subdivision since 1996, when a main line was installed in the community as the neighborhood created an improvement district to rebuild many of its streets, he said. People paid about $10,000 per home lot for the improvements. Homeowners pay about $3,000 each to connect their homes to the reclaimed line.
King noted that to encourage people to take reclaimed water, the Tucson utility charges $1.87 per 100 cubic feet for it. Thatβs far less than it charges for potable drinking water except for those who use only 100 to 1,000 cubic feet monthly β the average use is 900 cubic feet a month. Someone who uses potable water at levels typically recorded in the country club subdivision pays up to $11.25 per 100 cubic feet.
Pam Simonson, a longtime Tucson Country Club homeowner, has a huge front lawn and lots of flowers and shrubs in her backyard that she waters with reclaimed water, some three times a week at this time of year, and every day in summer.
But since she hooked her water lines to the cityβs reclaimed line a few years back, her summertime water bills have dropped from $600 to about $175 a month, she said. At that rate of savings, her $3,000 installation cost would be paid off in a little more than a year.
βLook at all the hedges,β she said. βI have a lush yard. And we donβt abuse it β when they say donβt use water at certain times of the day, we donβt.β
residents try to skimp
North and south of the main Country Club Estates area are 72 homes that canβt connect to the reclaimed line because it doesnβt go down their streets, King said. They werenβt included in the improvement district.
Residents of the Calle Alta Vista area, south of the main subdivision, have tried petition drives to connect to the reclaimed system, but theyβve been unable to gather enough signatures, several said. That area has a mix of front grass lawns and desert landscaping thatβs all watered with drinking water.
Lucette Barber, who has lived in the area since 1970, says she tries hard to be cautious with water, to the point of letting water in her shower go into a bucket as it warms to the proper temperature β a bucket she later pours onto landscaping. She pours leftover water from her coffeepot into a compost pile for her garden.
She has a small area of artificial grass in her backyard, and none in her front yard.
At the same time, βI do have a lot of pots with flowers, and I water the pots quite often,β said Barber, a retired schoolteacher who often taught water conservation in her classes. βI have a citrus tree that I water. I have two pots of petunias and two with snapdragons, and I have some pine trees that get water.β
Her summer water bill is more than $150 a month. Her October bill was $63, she said, while the typical Tucson Water userβs bill is about $19 on average, year-round. She puts large buckets and a rain barrel outside to catch water whenever it rains.
Her neighbors, the OβLearys, have a front lawn but itβs artificial turf. George OβLeary said he has grass in his backyard, but he lets it die in the winter.
To show how he skimps on water at times, OβLeary points to roses in his front yard that are looking parched due to lack of water. He waters three fruit trees, rosemary bushes, petunias and snapdragons, among other things. His summertime monthly bills βeasilyβ exceed $200, although he turns off the water in the wintertime to many of his shrubs.
βWeβre entitled to have a few modest hedges, but this grass in our backyard will get no water until about March,β he said. βMy house is about 4,000 square feet, so youβve got to use a little more water there than in a 1,500-square-foot house. ... If I wanted to live in the desert, Iβd go to the other side of Vail.β
saving on South side
At a Tucson south-side neighborhood with very low water use, the ambience of the landscape is a world apart from Tucson Country Club Estates.
The subdivision Tres Robles Sur, near Campbell Avenue and Bilby Road, lies in a census tract whose daily water use per household is about 163 gallons, compared with 748 gallons per household daily use at Tucson Country Club Estates. Itβs in one of the water-thriftiest census tracts in the Tucson Water system.
The subdivisionβs lawns are mostly gravel, containing a scattering of cacti and other desert shrubs. The lots are much smaller. Two families have built homes sharing a 3,164-square-foot lot near the corner of Calle Carza and Avenida Taica. Nearby is a 5,200-square-foot lot. The subdivisionβs median household income is $38,842.
To save water, one couple in the area, Yolanda and Manny Lendo, said they rejiggered their outdoor irrigation system so it would not run as often as it did when they bought their home five years ago. They also tore out some βstinkyβ rosemary bushes they didnβt like, Yolanda Lendo said.
Their gravel yard today has only a handful of bushes and no grass β βanything to keep my water bill down,β Yolanda said. βWe donβt want to plant more. It doesnβt interest me.β
A neighbor, Donald Madril, and his wife have only a small desert tree in their front yard that they water every other day for an hour with a drip irrigation system. Their backyard has two dogs and no vegetation.
Inside their three-bedroom, $100,000 home, βwe do as little watering as we can,β said Madril, a salesman for Glendale Industrial Supply.
βWe wash dishes only when the sink is full. We shower maybe five minutes β in and out. Itβs important to save all we can.β
