In a significant move by the Phoenix City Council, Mayor Kate Gallego and the council have unanimously given the nod to a new water conservation ordinance targeting heavy water users, as part of the "Sustainable Desert Development Policy" that Mayor Gallego has spearheaded since early 2022, according to a City of Phoenix press release. This stride in policy aims to strike a balance between Phoenix's economic ambitions and the pressing necessity of safeguarding water for future generations, with Mayor Gallego affirming that the ordinance is "another important milestone in our longstanding commitment to a comprehensive approach to protect our water resources."
Diving into the details, the ordinance imposes new regulations on fresh ventures with over 250,000 gallons of daily water usage, requiring them to submit an approved water conservation plan to the Phoenix Water Services Department, while those gulping down more than half a million gallons per day, they must not only pull through with a conservation plan but also satisfy a requirement, hitting at least 30 percent of their water consumption through recycled or saved water also fitting snug within the City's Water Resource Portfolio, per information from the same press release.
The ordinance joins a suite of Sustainable Desert Development guidelines, ratified last June, including measures to control non-essential turf, drive EPA WaterSense certified construction, incentivize planting of dry-loving and indigenous flora, and enhance standards for pools, as part of an overarching design to regulate water use and promote conservation, reported in the same City of Phoenix announcement.
Complementing these policies, the City Council's prior decision to leave as much as 150,000 acre-feet of precious H2O in Lake Mead for the next three years along with Mayor Gallego’s announcement of a new Advanced Water Purification plant destined to recycle an impressive 60 million gallons of water daily underscores Phoenix's pledge to be at the cutting edge of water preservation, fostering a ripple effect of environmental stewardship in the arid Southwest, as highlighted in the same City of Phoenix news release.
