SUSTAINABILITY Files

Water/Energy Nexus

Water and energy are fundamental components of our 21st century life, but they can no longer be considered separately. Just as producing energy consumes water, pumping, treating and distributing water requires energy. In other words, water is an energy issue; energy
is a water issue. Called the water-energy nexus, this interrelationship is beginning to receive the attention it merits. View Documents.

Market-based Responses to Arizona’s Water Sustainability Challenges

The Cornerstones Report explores how market-based tools can contribute to the protection and restoration of ecosystem water needs. The overarching goal of this report is to demonstrate how a market-based response—defined as the use of tradable water rights by institutions to facilitate voluntary reallocation of water to meet ecological needs—can
be an integral part of water management in Arizona. To meet this goal, the report identifies the foundational elements needed to develop and apply market-based options by examining:
• Arizona's water sustainability challenges and their driving forces
• The diverse water geographies in Arizona
• Market-based reallocation alternatives
• Challenges and opportunities for market-based responses

View Document.

Tradable Permits Approach to Protecting the Commons

Tradable permits address the commons problem by rationing access to the resource and privatizing the resulting access rights. The first step involves setting a limit on user access to the resource. For fisheries this would involve the total allowable catch. For water supply it would involve the amount of water that could be extracted. View Document.

How Federal Policies Affect the Allocation of Water

Use of the nation's freshwater resources attracts particular scrutiny in times of drought. When water is scarce, people are more aware of its importance. The mechanisms that govern the allocation and use of water are complicated, however. To examine how society uses its water resources, this Congressional Budget Office analysis addresses several major questions:
What are this country's water sources, and how is the water used?
What determines the underlying allocation, and does that allocation maximize water's potential benefits to society as a whole?
What policies might the federal government consider toward that end? View Document.

Verde River Ecosystem Values Project

This valuation study is designed to be the first phase of a series of studies to value the ecosystem services of the Verde River and its watershed. Interviews were conducted with 35 anonymous community leaders who live, work, or manage some aspect of the watershed (or a combination of the three). The interviews have resulted in a large list of values for the watershed and provide a starting point for more studies. This report includes preliminary analysis of the data collected from these interviews, a brief literature review on ecosystem services, and recommendations for future research. View Document.

West is Best. How Public Lands in the West Create a Competitive Economic Advantage

This report finds that the West's popular national parks, monuments, wilderness areas and other public lands offer its growing high-tech and services industries a competitive advantage, which is a major reason why the western economy has outperformed the rest of the U.S. economy in key measures of growth—employment, population, and personal income—during the last four decades.
In addition, as the West's economy shifts toward a knowledge-based economy, new research shows that protected federal public lands support faster rates of job growth and are correlated with higher levels of per capita income. View Document.

Watering the Sun Corridor

Report by the Morrison Institute for Public Policy analyzing the long-term adequacy of Arizona's water supply. View Document.

Response to Pollack Report: Moglewer

The August 2008 report by Elliot D. Pollack & Company on the Big Chino Water Ranch Project has been reviewed. This report was an impact analysis of the proposed project. The analysis incorporated forecasts of community population growth, alternative scenarios of growth based upon assumptions of available water supplies, and opportunity costs from failure to develop the pipeline. Results were quantified in constant 2008 dollars. The report focused on impacts to the City of Prescott and the Town of Prescott Valley. The basic conclusion of the Pollack report is that failure to build the Big Chino Pipeline at an estimated cost of $174.8 million dollars would result in a total lost economic impact to the two communities of over $15 billion dollars.
A major concern is that this report is inadequate for decision-making. It represents an optimistic upper bound not likely to be achieved. The report does not include adverse possibilities. Although it may represent a first attempt to get into the ballpark, it is way out in left field and not near home plate. View Document.

Response to Pollack Report: Danforth

An August 2008 study entitled "Big Chino Water Ranch Project Impact Analysis, Prescott & Prescott Valley, Arizona" prepared by Elliott D. Pollack & Company commissioned by the Central Arizona Partnership, presents a methodology to illustrate the costs of not completing the Big Chino Water Ranch pipeline project and applies that methodology to quantify the fiscal and economic impacts of that project. The Report incorporates a large number of major analytical shortcomings that result in estimates of fiscal and economic impacts which are grossly overstated and largely irrelevant to the current citizens of Prescott and Prescott Valley. View Document.

Tragedy of the Commons

Seminal essay by Garret Hardin addressing the necessity of social control of shared public resources. View Document.

2014-08-03 Ecological Implications of Verde River Flows - Summary

Summary report, 4 pages. The Verde River Ecological Flows study is a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, Arizona Water Institute, and Verde River Basin Partnership. The purpose of the study is to develop a conceptual understanding of how the Verde River ecosystem would respond to variations in the river's hydrology—especially to decreases in river flows. The study team compiled and summarized what is known about the river's physical and ecological characteristics, drawing upon available data and what is known about hydrology-biology relationships on similar rivers. View Document.

Blue Ribbon Panel on Water Sustainability – Final Report

On August 28, 2009, Governor Brewer announced the formation of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Water Sustainability (Panel) focusing on water conservation and recycling as a priority to improve water sustainability and increase its visibility in Arizona. Forty members representing diverse water interests in Arizona - large and small cities, counties, agriculture, industry, Indian Tribes, environmental interests, Arizona universities, legislative leaders, and other experts in Arizona water issues - were appointed to the Panel. Panel members agreed to the goal of providing recommendations on statute, rule, and policy changes that, by the year 2020 in Arizona, would significantly:
1. Increase the volume of reclaimed water reused for beneficial purposes in place of raw or potable water,
2. Advance water conservation, increase the efficiency of water use by existing users, and increase the use of recycled water for beneficial purposes in place of raw or potable water,
3. Reduce the amount of energy needed to produce, deliver, treat, and reclaim and recycle water by the municipal, industrial, and agricultural sectors,
4. Reduce the amount of water required to produce and provide energy by Arizona power generators, and
5. Increase public awareness and acceptance of reclaimed and recycled water uses and the need to work toward water sustainability. 

View Document.

Civano Homes Energy & Water Use Report 2008

Civano homes as a group perform at a significantly higher level than homes built before energy codes were enforced in Tucson, as well as most homes built in the Tucson region today. Based on the housing sample used for the 2008 study year, Civano average total energy use per year, per home in 2008 was approximately 31% over non energy-code homes and 27% better than the energy code group. Civano's heating and cooling energy reduction over non energy-code homes was approximately 42% and was 38% better than energy code homes. Overall potable water use reductions in sample Civano homes compared to city-at-large homes are also significant. Development practices, technology and social convention in Civano have yielded an approximate reduction of overall water use per year, per household of 41%. Potable water consumption has been cut approximately 55%. View Document.

Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study

BOR presentation for July 2012 public outreach meeting summarizing water demand, supply, and options and strategies to resolve the imbalance. View Document.

Colorado River Watershed

The study seeks to clarify key concepts and criteria for sustainable water use within the Colorado River Basin and then, using those criteria, present patterns of water use, allocation, and management that are environmentally sound and sustainable. Published by the Pacific Institute,18 pages. View Document.

Deschutes Water Alliance Water Bank

Description of very successful water bank on the Deschutes River in Oregon. View Document.

Ecological Implications of Verde River Flows – Full Report

Full report, 124 pages. The Verde River Ecological Flows study is a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, Arizona Water Institute, and Verde River Basin Partnership. The purpose of the study is to develop a conceptual understanding of how the Verde River ecosystem would respond to variations in the river's hydrology—especially to decreases in river flows. The study team compiled and summarized what is known about the river's physical and ecological characteristics, drawing upon available data and what is known about hydrology-biology relationships on similar rivers. View Document.

Environmental Flows and Water Demands

This bulletin explains the water demands of the environment in the Central Arizona Region, an area that includes the Verde River, Agua Fria and Upper Hassayampa groundwater basins, as well as the Prescott Phoenix, and Pinal Active Management Areas (AMAs). Written by U of A WRRC. View Document. 

Managing Changing Landscapes in the Southwestern United States

Natural landscapes in the Southwestern United States are changing. In recent decades, rising temperatures and drought have led to drier conditions, contributed to large-scale ecological impacts, and affected many plant and animal species across the region. The current and future trajectory of climate change underscores the need for managers and conservation professionals to understand the impacts of these patterns on natural resources. In this regional assessment of the Southwest Climate Change Initiative, we evaluate changes in annual average temperatures from 1951–2006 across major habitats and large watersheds and compare these changes to the number of species of conservation concern that are found within these places. Report by The Nature Conservancy. View Document.

New House New Paradigm: A Model for How to Plan, Build, and Live Water-Smart

The Interior West is simultaneously the driest and fastest growing region of the United States. With an expected influx of hundreds of thousands of new residents to this region in the coming decades, it is imperative that a new style of development be implemented now — one that recognizes and embraces the distinct lack of water in this region. This report shows what this new style of development can look like and how it can succeed through the integration of smart planning, green building practices, and programs aimed at encouraging residents to live a water- smart lifestyle.
In the "New House, New Paradigm" report, Western Resource Advocates (WRA) describes the nexus between land use and water demands and offers a model for how water-smart growth can meet both the housing needs of our new residents and preserve our natural rivers and water- sheds. The model addresses water conservation and efficiency in the planning, building, and living phases of new residential development. WRA highlights existing water-smart developments throughout the region as case studies to demonstrate the feasibility of this new growth style and to highlight water conservation successes. View Document.

Questioning the Economic Case for the Big Chino Pipeline

Consulting economist John Danforth argues that the economic benefits of growth do not cut unemployment, lower taxes, or increase personal income. View Document.

Rivers and Water Management in the Southwest

In the Southwest, the water needs of a rapidly expanding human population are coming in direct conflict with the water needs of natural systems. Rivers and wetlands support a disproportionately large number of plants and animals relative to the area they occupy and also offer multiple benefits to humans. Each freshwater ecosystem has varying degrees of reliance on surface water and groundwater. Maintaining a natural flow regime and shallow groundwater levels is critically important for sustaining them. Can water management to support continued growth be considered sustainable if it causes loss or impairment of our remaining rivers and wetlands? View Document.

Sustainable Water Management in the Southwestern United States: Reality or Rhetoric?

While freshwater sustainability is generally defined as the provisioning of water for both people and the environment, in practice it is largely focused only on supplying water to furnish human population growth. Symptomatic of this is the state of Arizona, where rapid growth outside of the metropolitan Phoenix-Tucson corridor relies on the same groundwater that supplies year-round flow in rivers. Using Arizona as a case study, we present the first study in the southwestern United States that evaluates the potential impact of future population growth and water demand on streamflow depletion across multiple watersheds.
We modeled population growth and water demand through 2050 and used four scenarios to explore the potential effects of alternative growth and water management strategies on river flows. Under the base population projection, we found that rivers in seven of the 18 study watersheds could be dewatered due to municipal demand. Implementing alternative growth and water management strategies, however, could prevent four of these rivers from being dewatered.
The window of opportunity to implement water management strategies is narrowing. Because impacts from groundwater extraction are cumulative and cannot be immediately reversed, proactive water management strategies should be implemented where groundwater will be used to support new municipal demand. Our approach provides a low-cost method to identify where alternative water and growth management strategies may have the most impact, and demonstrates that such strategies can maintain a continued water supply for both people and the environment.
Published by The Nature Conservancy. View Document.

Sustainable Water Management: Guidelines.

Sonoran Institute report detailing the importance of riparian habitat, the impacts of groundwater mining, and offering a framework for sustainable water management. Case studies of the upper San Pedro River, the upper Santa Cruz River, and the upper Verde River. 52 pages. View Document.

The Last Drop: Climate Change and the Southwest Water Crisis

At present, without climate change, the Southwest is relying on the unsustainable withdrawal of groundwater reserves to meet today's demand; those reserves will be drained over the next century as population and incomes grow. With climate change, the Southwest water crisis will grow far worse. Continuing the current trend in global greenhouse-gas emissions will make the cost of the next century's projected water shortage at least 25 percent higher. Adaptation (conservation and efficiency) measures, however, have the potential to greatly lower water use throughout the region. As climate change exacerbates water woes, some adaptation will be essential to stave off unplanned water shortages and restrictions. Bringing the Southwest's water use down to sustainable levels will necessitate either very strong residential adaptation measures, or a combination of strong agricultural adaptation measures (including the elimination of some low-value crops) and moderate residential measures. View Document.

Water 2025: Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West

Report by the Bureau describing the sources of water conflicts in the West. 27 pages. View Document.

Water Resources Development Commission Final Report

The Water Resources Development Commission (WRDC) was given the task of assessing Arizona's demand for water and the supplies available to meet those demands for the next 25, 50, and 100 years. This compressed file consists of a spreadsheet listing needed water projects and costs, the Supplemental Report listing needed legislative changes, and Volume 1 of the committee report.
Volume 2 contains the committee reports including a very comprehensive listing of environmental issues in all the water basins in Arizona, including some very useful maps. Since V2 is a very large file, it can be downloaded at: http://www.azwater.gov/AzDWR/WaterManagement/WRDC%5FHB2661/Meetings_Schedule.htm

View Document.

Water Sustainability in Las Vegas

Presentation by the Southern Nevada Water Authority describing successful water conservation programs in Las Vegas. 16 pages. View Document.

West must strive for water sustainability

OpEd from the Arizona Republic by Robert Glennon and Peter Culp. View Document.