Tucson residents demand stronger water conservation rules. Council worries about economic impact

It has been over a year since the Tucson City Council passed its first large quantity water user ordinance, introducing conservation requirements for developments that plan to use more than 7 million gallons of water per month. Given how high that threshold is, it's yet to be tested.

That’s according to Councilmember Kevin Dahl.

“Partially, that’s great because no big data center has dared try to build in Tucson, and they better not,” Dahl said. “But there’s other industries that we might be concerned about using too much water for too few benefits, and that’s what’s great about this ordinance.”

Dahl suggested at Tuesday’s City Council meeting that the current threshold be halved. But residents and environmental advocates asked that it be quartered — from 7 million gallons to under 2 million gallons per month to more closely align with community values for water conservation.

Ultimately, the council voted 4-3 to lower the maximum threshold to 6.4 million gallons per month. In three months, the council plans to hold a public hearing to discuss specific conservation terms at the maximum limit and for a secondary, 3.7 million gallon per month limit.

Based on the discussion, an application that exceeds 6.4 million gallons per month will need council and mayor approval, while conservation terms for users in the 3.7-6.4 million gallon monthly range will be left up to the discretion of Tucson Water.

Ivy Schwartz, a Tucson resident, emphasized that the original monthly threshold represented more water than a typical home would use in 160 years. This staggering comparison is why the community has made many calls for a stronger ordinance, she says.

“The large water user ordinance is really about data centers. I mean, we know that right? And this discussion is actually about values,” Schwartz said. “Values that we hold dear in this community. We want to protect this land. We want to protect the desert. We want to protect the water here.”

Other members of the public and local environmental advocacy groups that spoke on the item echoed Schwartz’ urgency. The speakers pushed for the lowest possible threshold, a strict 2-to-1 replacement of consumptive water use, and shut-off requirements for non-compliance.

But council members pushed back on these requests ever so slightly.

Councilmember Paul Cunningham worried about raising bills on hospitals by introducing such demanding offset requirements and supported leaving those terms to Tucson Water’s discretion.

“I don’t want people’s healthcare or hospital state money going up because we’re gouging them on their water bill,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham was partially supportive of putting a hard limit on water use that could lead to a shut-off due to repeated non-compliance, but also worried about this scenario with a hospital.

Mayor Regina Romero said she recognized that Tucsonans have a strong ethic of conservation and appreciation of the natural environment, something she said she shares.

However, she worried that the severity of Tucson’s water challenges have been slightly overblown, making it hard for the council to advocate for economic development.

“I feel as though the facts about our water resources are not complete in terms of our community, and I have been asking, and I formally requested at today’s study session that we have informational town halls and community engagement events about our water resources,” Romero said.

Romero said the council has been responsive to demands that the city choose industries that will agree to be careful stewards of local resources, which is why the council voted down Project Blue.

“We heard our community,” Romero said. “Unfortunately, some on the Board of Supervisors didn’t, and now the water being used for that project is coming from our aquifer.”

The Project Blue data center is being built in unincorporated Pima County. It is receiving its water from Arizona Department of Water issued groundwater permits, and its energy from Tucson Electric Power, the city’s energy provider.

“We changed our zoning codes, our land use codes, as an additional measure. We passed on an emergency basis, the large quantity water users ordinance,” Romero said.

While she says conservation is important, she worries what message it could be sending to developers, and how that could impact efforts to address negative job growth and persistent poverty in Tucson.

“We have abnormal percentages of poverty in our community. Abnormal,” Romero said. “When I first started as a council member in 2007, 24% of people living in Tucson were living in poverty. And we have been able to see those numbers drop — I mean, that was one in four children living in poverty — and we have been able to drop those numbers to 18%, but that is still very high.” Romero says that’s above the statewide average.

The council was in agreement that more deliberation is needed and that the ordinance should be a living document, but divided on how many industries should be expected to publicly report their water use and efforts to give water back to the community.