Chandler is quietly turning small upgrades and business partnerships into a surprisingly ambitious water-safety game plan as Colorado River deliveries keep shrinking. City officials say the strategy mixes bigger moves like expanded groundwater banking and recycled water with targeted incentives for local companies to cut usage. The goal is to protect Chandler’s long-term supply without suddenly slapping residents with harsh new restrictions.
“Chandler has really been preparing for a future with less Colorado River water for decades now,” Simone Kjolsrud, the city’s water resources manager, told ABC15. As reported by ABC15, the city holds a 100-year assured water supply designation but is still pushing conservation, reclaimed-water use and partnerships to blunt future cuts. Kjolsrud said that mix is meant to spread responsibility across the community rather than ask residents to carry the whole load alone.
To pull businesses into the effort, Chandler rolled out a water-efficiency rebate in October 2023 that reimburses up to half the cost of qualifying technology, up to $10,000, according to the City of Chandler. City materials show outreach aimed at big commercial customers like cooling towers, HOAs and large landscapes, where real-time monitoring and leak detection can deliver major savings. On top of that, officials have expanded reclaimed-water connections and boosted groundwater recharge to build a buffer against future shortages.
How One Brewery Squeezed Out Hundreds Of Gallons
Downtown Chandler’s SanTan Brewing installed a mash filter press that staff say helps the brewery capture nearly 100% of the liquid that would otherwise be lost in the mash, cutting roughly 400 gallons from each brew cycle, ABC15 reports. The company’s own release adds that the technology typically reduces water use by about 40% per batch, a change the brewery estimates can translate to roughly 6,000 gallons saved a month at scale, per SanTan Brewing Company. It is a single equipment swap, but city officials say those kinds of moves can add up fast if dozens of local businesses follow suit.
Small Upgrades Add Up Across The City
Chandler’s drought-preparedness materials note that the city already reuses reclaimed water for irrigation and industrial customers, and that investments in recharge and storage have created a multi-year underground reserve, according to the City of Chandler. Officials say the plan is to multiply the brewery-style savings through rebates and audits so that modest reductions across many businesses help keep overall water demand in check. That approach lines up with the city’s broader push to combine conservation, storage and targeted technology to avoid more drastic cuts later.
City leaders say the work is not stopping at Chandler’s borders. Region-wide agreements and memorandums of understanding are already in motion to coordinate with neighboring cities and utilities, according to public documents. A regional memorandum posted with city contacts lists Chandler among several Valley governments working on shared preparedness and resource planning, and the document is available through local council agenda portals. For now, officials say the message is simple: smarter equipment and smarter partnerships can buy time while the region sorts out longer-term river allocations.
