Monsoon storms brought temperatures down and brought more desert dwellers out to their patios. It's the time of year when homeowners begin to reimagine their yards: a new tree here, some...
In a 3.2-acre space hemmed in by traffic noise, office buildings and warehouse construction sits a living classroom. The University of Arizona's Maricopa County Cooperative Extension is a place...
Many Southwest cities help their utility customers pay for long-term water-saving changes they make to their homes and yards. These changes can include buying a more water-efficient toilet or...
A small team of filmmakers, computer experts, educators and scientists at the University of Arizona is convinced that many people - including young people - are eager to learn about serious and...
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...
Along with thirty conservation leaders and experts in the southwest, I've been wrestling with a project since 2013. It's part of the Moving Forward effort initiated by the Bureau of...
During the last few decades, cities in the Phoenix Metropolitan area became bustling economic centers providing jobs and homes for millions of new residents. Development spread across what had been...
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...
In 1986, the Town of Gilbert began storing treated wastewater in a pond at Cooper and Elliot roads. It did not surprise town officials that the pond attracted birds, but they were surprised by how...
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...
A different sort of national environmental organization has set its sights on Arizona. Change the Course wants to help maintain enough water in Arizona rivers to keep plants, birds and fish...
In the last 22 months, the Phoenix Zoo reduced its water use by 20 percent. That saved the zoo $80,000 on its water bill over the past two years and conserved 19,500 million gallons of drinking...
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 Town of Gilbert helps homeowners associations take the guesswork out of irrigation costs. The town's voluntary program keeps landscapes looking lovely, saves money and water, and maintains...
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...
Desert shrubs do not thrive when homeowners and landscapers shear them into geometric shapes, such as balls, squares or inverted pyramids. Regular shearing weakens these shrubs, detracts from their...
Wildfires that tear through Arizona's north country destroy our playgrounds, ravage ecosystems, kill and displace wildlife, and pollute the Valley's water supply. If the wildfires are not...
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...
Last week, California finally took baby steps to manage its decades old problem of landowners drilling wells to pump groundwater whenever and wherever they pleased. The new laws could take up to...
Valley homeowners use as much as 70 percent of their water outside, particularly during the summer months. Here's the frustrating part: many homeowners can grow the same lovely outdoor spaces...
Solving the mystery of Lost and Unaccounted for Water can save a city money and conserve water on a grand scale. Lost and Unaccounted for Water, also known as non-revenue water, is the...
If your kids are spending even more time in the bathroom this school year, they may be doing homework. Really. The homework is part of the Water Investigations Program, a yearlong learning...
In 2000 the City of Phoenix began digging piles of trash, tires, appliances, and hulks of old cars out of a 5-mile section of the Salt Riverbed that had served as a dump for decades. Today, the Rio...
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...
Baby and facial wipes are one of the new problems for cities' wastewater systems. Just because a product is labeled flushable or disposable doesn't make it immediately biodegradable....
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...
Green infrastructure is a vague name for a particular way of designing streets, sidewalks, plazas and parking lots to make better use of rainwater. Green infrastructure redirects more storm runoff...
Valley cities can treat wastewater to such a quality that it can be used to fill small fishing lakes in parks, to irrigate landscaping, and to be stored for later use in underground aquifers. This...
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...
Every fourth grade scientist wants to be the Bucket Master. Who wouldn't? The Bucket Master is in charge of using a red bucket to catch water that is dripping from a perforated plastic jug...