AMWUA Blog
10 Tips For A Beautiful Low-Maintenance Landscape
It’s not unusual to sit on your patio and wish for a prettier backyard or pull into the driveway and question the curb appeal of your home. Many homeowners need and prefer a low-maintenance yard, but that can lead to a lonely cactus and a couple of shrubs in a field of gravel. The joy of many desert-adapted plants is that you can have the drama, color and texture of a professional-looking landscap...
Dec 04 2017
What Is Arizona Doing To Deal With Drought?Arizona has been in a state drought for some 22 years, surpassing the worst drought in more than 110 years of record keeping. The Colorado River basin has been experiencing drought for about 17 years. The Colorado River makes up about 37 percent of the water supplies for AMWUA’ member cities, the 10 largest in the Phoenix Metro area. The natural question for many Arizona residents (and those outsi...
Nov 27 2017
On The Job: One Designer, A Sewer Girl And The Clog Save Water And MoneyIn the City of Avondale Noelene Richards is in charge of getting your attention. Avondale’s water division needs Noelene, the city's graphic designer, to help it reach residents with messages that can save water and money. Noelene partners with the water division and the city’s public information officer to develop quick, simple conservation messages for billboards, magazines, calendars, door hang...
Nov 20 2017
Holiday Message: Take It Easy On Your Plumbing And Your City’s InfrastructureMany of us will be cooking more and hosting more company than usual as the holiday season begins this week. The holidays are fun, fattening, exhausting and hard on your plumbing. It’s not unusual to be forced to snake out a drain or call the plumber while hosting company. The holidays also are hard on your city’s water infrastructure. ...
Nov 13 2017
Thank You: Avoiding Shortage in Arizona Is A Team EffortArizona has been working hard to ensure the Secretary of the Interior does not declare a shortage of Colorado River water and cut the state’s water supplies. It has taken a team effort – and that team has included you. In recent years, homeowners and businesses have paid a little more for their water and those higher water rates have helped the state avoid a water shortage. Here’s how....
Nov 06 2017
Conservation Pros Sharpen Skills To Help BusinessesThe AMWUA cities’ conservation pros have worked together for nearly four decades to lead their municipalities toward a culture of conservation. There's very little these professionals don’t know about water-efficient homes or water-efficient residential and commercial landscapes. Together and individually, they have created ...
Oct 30 2017
Words Count When Talking About Advances In Water TechnologyTechnology is now available to transform wastewater into a purified drinking water source. This advanced water recycling could provide millions of gallons of drinking water a day for urban centers and small rural communities and slow demand for water in aquifers, lakes, rivers and streams. Water professionals are careful about the words they use to describe this technology. They are eager to assur...
Oct 23 2017
Desert City Helped To Launch Green Building MovementThe idea of constructing buildings that use less water and energy and more Earth friendly materials didn’t begin with large commercial projects. Building green started with homes and in Arizona it started with homes in the City of Scottsdale. In 1998, Scottsdale became one of only five cities in the country to offer homebuilders green building certifications. The city patterned its Green Building ...
Oct 16 2017
Arizona Pilot Project Could Help Find More “Lost” WaterThe number of gallons of drinking water a utility produces each month is not the same number of gallons paid for by its customers. Each month, a certain percentage of drinking water produced by a utility disappears for a variety of reasons. In Arizona this is called “lost and unaccounted for water” and the state has long had tough regulations in place to minimize lost water in large utilities. Now...
Oct 09 2017
On The Job: Organizer Keeps Wastewater Treatment ReliableAmy Baker is an organizer. This self-described beer snob can regularly organize a dozen or two friends for a bicycle tour of her favorite craft breweries. Amy just finished organizing her fourth AZ Water Association fundraiser for Water for People, which improves water infrastructure in nine countries. City of Peoria residents have benefited from her organizational skills for more than a decade. T...