Arizona Officials to Vote on Rainwater Harvesting Ordinance

The Tucson City Council is poised to vote soon on an ordinance to require new commercial developments to harvest rainwater.

The ordinance, which goes before the council Oct. 14, would mandate that 50 percent of a development's landscaping water must be from rainfall.

That's down from a proposed 75 percent that an advisory committee had endorsed last spring and from some environmentalists' original hope for 100 percent.

The change was made in the name of flexibility after developers said 75 percent would be too costly and otherwise would be difficult to meet.

Not everyone is pleased with the proposal but all groups involved agree that a 50 percent ordinance still would put the city in the vanguard.

Backers say it would bring water conservation one more step toward the foreground during a drought that many scientists say threatens the city's long-term supply of Colorado River water.

"We have to address the issue of drought, and we need to provide for as much creativity as possible when it comes to water conservation," said Councilman Rodney Glassman, who pushed the water-harvesting proposal. "Fifty percent is not the end goal. It is the minimum standard. It is just the beginning."

Rob Paulus, an architect who designed a 100-percent landscaping system for environmental-cleanup firm Southwest Hazard Control, agreed that a 75 percent rule isn't desirable.

The water-harvesting system at Southwest Hazard costs a little more than $1 per gallon of stored water, he said, compared with an estimate from the business-backed Metropolitan Pima Alliance of $2 to $4 per gallon for a cistern tank system.

But Paulus said that every site needs to be considered separately, and the city should give incentives such as permit-fee waivers to encourage harvesting.