
As you fly into Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport bright blue dots mark thousands of backyard pools. For decades, backyard pools have been as common as sunshine in Valley neighborhoods. Many...

People like the idea of reusing laundry water to irrigate their yards. It's called a laundry-to-landscape graywater system. Installing a graywater system is part of a growing movement of...

If you're working to make your landscape more water efficient, don't forget to add one of many drought-tolerant trees that thrive in the Metro Phoenix area. Trees can raise property value,...

Twenty-five sixth graders did a little plumbing for the Town of Gilbert last month. Drew Goodman and his classmates installed 42 aerators on faucets in 11 bathrooms inside the town's Court and...

Drought-tolerant plants and trees require less maintenance and water than a lawn. Yet, how do you remove grass, whether at your home, an HOA's common space, an apartment complex or a business?...

Cities need trees, including our desert cities. Trees help to mitigate the heat island, reduce ground temperatures in the evening and remove pollutants from the air. Trees raise property values,...

Are you paying more for your water than your neighbor? It's a real possibility. All 10 AMWUA member cities have tiered residential water rates. That means the more water you use, the more...

Do you remember the old low-flow shower heads? Some of them were awful, weren't they? Those old shower heads began to give water-efficient fixtures an image problem that was hard to shake....

Etched on the wall at the entrance of the City of Scottsdale's Xeriscape Garden is this: "Demonstrating the Beauty of Saving Water." That is a lovely explanation of why some cities...

Tired of winter guests? How about inviting some colorful visitors to your backyard who can entertain you instead. It could be time to turn that bit of grass and gravel, with its smattering of...

Imagine this: A website where you could watch your home's water usage in real time. It could become a frugal homeowner's obsession. It could settle family arguments about who spends more...

Cities in the Greater Phoenix Metropolitan Area are willing to give you money and free experts to make water-saving changes in your home or business. But each city creates a different package of...

Fix a Leak Week is a big deal around here. This year it's even bigger for City of Goodyear baseball fans. Fix a Leak Week is a funny name for a serious campaign. The U.S. Environmental...

Each year an average family in the City of Tempe uses about 30,000 gallons of drinking water to wash clothes. Tempe is the first city in the Greater Phoenix Metropolitan Area to help homeowners pay...

When it comes to protecting plants from cold weather, there are two types of desert homeowners: conscientious and casual. The conscientious have a plan. They are prepared with large...

You pay a landscaping company to save you the time and energy it takes to maintain a lovely green space. Twenty years ago, Arizona recognized that landscapers could do more. They could help their...

The wrong tree in a desert yard can get ugly fast. Then, too, if the right tree is not correctly planted, nurtured or maintained it can die, grow in tortured directions, or fall over in a hard...

AMWUA would like to introduce you to your plumbing and simple ways to keep it working soundly. AMWUA's new Smart Home Water Guide website is designed to help both bumbling and handy homeowners...

Back when George H. W. Bush was president, the U.S. Congress passed a law that has helped the country conserve its water supply as we face drought and climate change. There was nothing glamorous...

So you sit on your back porch during a good monsoon storm and watch sheets of rain fall off the edge of the roof. Where you see rain, there is a small group of people who see your watershed. These...

Charlene Kelly lives on Phoenix's Westside with her daughter and a grandchild who likes to flush toilets just for the joy of it. Mrs. Kelly and her late husband bought their home 30 years...

MYTH 1: A desert garden means replacing grass with ugly gravel. Plants, not gravel, dominate the loveliest desert gardens. Gravel is a low-maintenance ground cover, or rock mulch, that reduces...

On March 22, some good sport in the water community will once again struggle into a 6-foot-tall toilet costume and lead the One for Water 4-Miler Race around Rio Vista Community Park in Peoria. The...