Conserve Tucson's precious water by using it twice

A Tucson friend's outside shower waters the plants in their yard. 

You might have read in the news about the negotiations on the drought contingency plan. When they originally divided the water between the various states and Mexico, they divvied out more water than we have  - and didn't take into account Climate Change or our perpetual development. To exacerbate the problem some farmers still plant thirsty crops, while Rosemont Mine, over development and data centers threaten to deplete Tucson's ground water. We might wanna rethink the Four Cs of Arizona's Economy: copper, climate, cotton & citrus.

The city of Tucson has already reduced residential water usage during the past two decades. In 2010, our residential water usage rates were 94 gallons per capita per day. By 2015, Tucson’s water usage was down to 80 GPCD. As of early 2026, the average Tucson resident uses approximately 72 to 75 gallons of water per day. But we can do better than that. And we really need to.  

If you've followed my blog for a while, you know that I advocate for rainwater harvesting to make Tucson more water secure. On a regular rain year, there is enough water for every person in Tucson. Our outdoor water use accounts for up to 40% of residential water use in the Tucson area. So if more people harvested the rain, that would go a long way in conserving municipal water. 

Many of us are already conserving water by turning off the tap while brushing our teeth or while soaping our hands or scrubbing our hair in the shower.  Now that we've mastered that habit, the next step is to use our residential water twice when we can. 

State Senator Andrea Dalessandro, who sits on the Natural Resources and Energy committee, mentioned at Environmental Day at the Capitol that she puts a bucket in the shower to catch the water while it warms up. Way to walk the talk! Some friends of ours have installed lovely outdoor  showers that water their backyard landscaping. (I wouldn't recommend this in the front yard!) 

Here I am using our clean rinse water in our kitchen garden. 

I dump the dirty dish water in our compost pile to keep it moist.

Especially precious is the coffee ground water that my Tombstone Rosebush (my one sentimental extravagance) and tomatoes plants love. 

I like to use the veggie water from the steamer pan to nourish the soil by the tomato or curry plants.

We were blessed to have an outdoor washing machine. Dan easily rigged up a greywater system to irrigate sturdy, low water use heritage fig and pomegranate trees. (Our native trees are doing fine without any city water.) 

Tucson Water offers a rebate for greywater systems. 

Another easy way to use water twice is to let your yellow mellow by sharing one flush with your partner in the morning.  But Dan's big dream is to have a composting toilet like the one at Watershed Management Group. (I haven't encouraged this because I would never see my husband.) 

For some of you, that might seem a little extreme. An easier method is to use a low water toilet. Tucson Water says that installing a high efficiency toilet is one of the most impactful things you can do to save water. They even offer a rebate to encourage it. 

It's not always easy. But using water a second time is a great way to learn not to take our water for granted.

As our politicians bicker over who is entitled to our allotment of CAP water, it is becoming clear that it isn't a sustainable source. We need to transition to a more local system and start conserving water like we live in the desert. Because we do. 

More information: 

Lower Basin states offer short-term plan as conditions worsen on Colorado River - May 7, 2026

For Information on the social injustices caused by CAP read:

Hopis: Protectors of Earth and Water

Recovering from the Storm: Post Election "Blues."

Sorting through my thoughts on the day after the election...

click to make bigger 

Welcoming Back the Tucson Water Protectors

Tucson Water Protectors speak about their experiences at Standing Rock.

I have been following the Standing Rock Sioux and the other Water Protectors in their peaceful, non-violent stand against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Energy Transfer Partners, an oil giant with a horrific record of environmental devastation (pipeline leaks and explosions, abandoned oil spills) plans to build a pipeline under the Missouri River that supplies water to 17 million Americans. Water Protectors chant, "Mni Wiconi,  Water is Life” as they use their bodies to block construction of the illegal pipeline. (Thanks to their efforts, the permit was denied.)  Police in riot gear have responded by brutally attacking them with rubber bullets, mace, and water cannons in freezing temperatures. One young woman was blinded by being shot in the face at point blank range. Another woman had half of her arm blown off by a concussion grenade. The Water Protectors have been unjustly arrested, strip searched and held in kennels. Elders have been handcuffed and arrested during prayer ceremonies. This is unacceptable! These courageous Water Protectors are fighting for our water!

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Cannonball Camp. First frost, early November by Eli de Vries 

Unable to pack up and head to their camp in N. Dakota, I’ve done what little I can as a desk top activist: writing blogs, signing and sharing petitions, and reposting drone videos that show what is really going on at Standing Rock. (After 6 months, national news stations finally started covering this historic event when two thousand vets arrived to defend the Water Protectors from police brutality. The local news in N. Dakota is basically a mouthpiece for the DAPL owned police, so the people from nearby Bismarck don’t even know what’s really going on.) I called several sheriff’s offices that deployed officers to further incite the violence. I left messages at the White House, the Army Corp of Engineers, and the Justice Department. All the while, the brave water protectors were sacrificing their livelihoods and putting their bodies in the line of danger - fighting our fight. It just didn’t feel like I was doing enough.

So when I heard about the No DAPL Night at Exo, Dan and I decided to attend to show our solidarity with the returning Water Protectors and to donate money that we knew would reach the people still at camp. 

At this Native American gathering, they opened with a traditional blessing of the Tohono O’odham. They asked the crowd not to record this sacred blessing. Tohono O’odham drummers then performed two prayers: a traditional song and one written in support of Standing Rock. There was a danza in traditional garments. A dancer graciously thanked us for joining them. I felt honored to be included. 

Having had contact with other Native Americans, I was aware of how leery they are of sharing their culture and sacred prayers with outsiders – since they have been exploited in the past. But here they were sharing it freely. I believe this is one of the lessons they took with them from Standing Rock. Indigenous people are drawing strength from their culture and beliefs to embrace their role as protectors of Mother Earth. They are leading the way and welcoming other good-hearted people to join them.

It is beautiful to see them reclaiming their language and heritage. I have noticed at several community events, the Native American speakers greet their people in their native language first before addressing the crowd. To understand the significance of this gesture, it’s important to know that Native American children were taken from their homes against their will and sent to boarding schools to assimilate into white man’s culture. They were beaten for speaking their language or for practicing their religion. Through prayer and love, these courageous people are learning to forgive and to work with others for a greater good - protecting Mother Earth.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Cannonball Camp signs by Eli de Vries

We were blessed with news from the returning Tucson Water Protectors from the Oceti Sakowin camp. They were there to share what they learned about prayerful, peaceful resistance and to continue their loving quest to protect water, sacred places and all human lives now that they are back home. 

Meanwhile, the fight at Standing Rock continues...

Winter at Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Cannonball Camp by Eli de Vries

Some ways to help... Pull your money out of the banks that are invested in DAPL. Donate to the Legal Defense Fund.  Help the Water Protectors that are still in N. Dakota get through the hard winter. Share updates about the Water Protectors on social media. And sign petitions. 

Think Global, Act Local: The 50 Year Program

The news lately has been depressing. Very depressing. A presidential election that becomes increasingly surreal with every passing day, even though it felt like we'd fallen down the rabbit hole months ago. The seemingly endless string of bad news from North Dakota as the Standing Rock Sioux and their supporters fight to protect their land and, especially, our water from exploitation in the name of greed. And, speaking of greed, here in Arizona we have Nestlé colluding with corruptible local officials to buy our Central Arizona Project water, which is brought here from the dwindling Colorado River at a high environmental and economic cost, just so they can bottle it and resell it to us. Sadly, the Arizona Department of Water Resources doesn't find the fact that a company is putting tap water paid for by all of us as taxpayers into unsustainable and polluting plastic bottles to then sell it back to us at all ironic. It's hard not to get discouraged in a world that seems to have gone mad.

What keeps me sane is the realization that the one place we can really have an impact is locally. Here in Tucson we may not be able change national policy, no matter who we vote for. It seems like we can't even affect decisions made 120 miles away in Phoenix. What we can do is implement change at the local level and hope that people will be inspired by our example. Change always comes from the bottom up, not top down. Think Global, Act Local.

What can we do locally? Advocate for better mass transit, bicycle and pedestrian safe streets, and put an end to this madness of building and widening more roads, which has the counter-intuitive effect of increasing the amount of traffic. In another bizarre irony, we face an uphill struggle to encourage more solar power here in sun-drenched Arizona.

One of the simplest things we can all do at the local level is to protect our water. Water is essential to all of us, and must be preserved - especially here in the desert southwest. Less than 1% of the world's water is fresh and accessible. There will inevitably be cuts to the Colorado River water that Tucson relies on for all of its water needs. Why wait for things to get bad? Watershed Management Group has a 50 year plan to restore our perennial river flows in the Santa Cruz basin. Did you know that our major rivers (and many of the streams that feed them) used to flow year round? Some of them still do, like this stretch of Sabino Creek.

Even farther downstream, the apparently dry streambed of Sabino Creek actually has running water just under the surface.

This is because the Sabino Creek and Tanque Verde watersheds are very shallow. As Catlow Shipek, Policy and Technical Director for Watershed Management Group, points out, those blue areas on the map of Tucson are shallow watersheds. We can raise the level of the water in those areas through some very simple steps that all of us can do.

You don't need to install an expensive cistern system to store rainwater or build a composting toilet (although you may be glad you did). Envision coal smoke coming out of the faucet every time you turn it on (since all of the CAP water we get here in Tucson is provided by one of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the nation) and you might find yourself running the tap far less often.  We started by turning the shower off while we were soaping up or not running the water while brushing our teeth. We pour our clear sink rinse water on non-food plants in our garden. There are lots of simple ways to reduce water use. Any water we don't use is water that Tucson Water doesn't have to pump from our aquifer or import from the Colorado River.

Can you think of any water-saving habits you can incorporate into your everyday life? After that simple start, you may find yourself wanting to do more. You can enjoy the free Living Lab tour at Watershed Management Group and start thinking about other ways to save more water - like installing catchment basins or a laundry-to-landscape greywater system. You just have to start somewhere.

3 Sisters: Sowing Strength in Solidarity

This summer Dan and I conducted a little experiment. We wanted to find out if hardy desert crops could survive the long, hot Tucson summer on just monsoon rains. Dan tried the traditional Iroquois method of building mounds for the 3 SISTERS: Tohono O'odham 60 day corn, brown tepary beans, and Ha:al squash. These complimentary crops become stronger by working together. The beans provide nitrogen to the soil. The corn provides stalks for the beans to climb and shade for the squash. And the squash, in turn, provides ground cover to keep out weeds. (Of course, the Hohokam had a system of channels that drew from the Santa Cruz River that flowed year around back then and the Tohono O'odham did flood plain irrigation.) 

After a couple of light showers, we watched as the seeds began to sprout. (Though some mysterious varmint was eating the leaves off of the tops of the beans and only a couple of squash leaves unfurled.) A volunteer squash in our compost pit was doing better. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of a monsoon this summer, so we watched disheartened as our garden withered away. On one of the mounds, a single bean plant survived, and there were two wilted corn stalks still clinging to life on another. So I dug three holes next to the bean plant, put some compost at the bottom, and replanted the corn and the volunteer squash. Storm clouds came and went as we waited... and waited... and waited for rain.

As I watched the effect of the drought on our garden, I became more conscious of how much water we use in our home. We started saving dishwater for our thirsty Mexican Honeysuckle. We bought what we thought was environmentally friendly dish soap. But it turned out to contain more salt than we would have liked, so we have to alternate between the soapy dishwater and the clear rinse water to help flush the salt build-up out of the soil.

The downspout we installed was useless without rain. So we began to use the water from rinsing off our produce to water a little kitchen garden where I had planted some potatoes that sprouted. We also watered the remaining 3 Sisters mound. (You don't want to use water with meat particles in food gardens because it could transmit pathogens.) The bean plant is still hanging in there, and the potato plants are growing nicely all from water that would have gone down the drain. I know, I know, it would be so easy to just turn on the hose. But this is just a drop in the dish bucket compared to how many Hopi and Navajo have to conserve water.

While we are "experimenting" with saving water, members of 280 Native American tribes have gathered together at Standing Rock, South Dakota to fight for water! They have put their bodies on the front line to stop the construction of the crude oil pipeline that will go under the Missouri River - the main source of water for the tribe and 17 million other Americans. A federal judge recently rejected the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's petition to stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. But later that day, the US Army, Justice, and Interior departments jointly announced they would temporarily stop the pipeline work until the environmental impact is investigated. The pipeline continues to be built in other areas.

Dan and I celebrated that victory with a symbolic dinner of the 3 Sisters. To me it represented the strength these courageous protectors have shown by working in unity.

Corn, beans, zucchini. tomato, and onions topped with queso fresco on a masa patty.

The tribes understand that this is just the beginning. Many have set up camp for the Winter. The Sioux have been joined by other tribes who have also been exploited for their land and water, including: the Navajo, the Hopi, the San Carlos Apache, and our local Tohono O'odham. It is inspiring to see these tribes uniting for a shared cause and working together to meet the needs of the camp - educating the children, keeping up morale, providing firewood, medical care, spiritual support, and traditional meals.

Water is Life!

We may not be on the front lines fighting for water, but we can march in solidarity here in Tucson, sign the petition to stop the pipeline, contact our representatives, and try to conserve water. (Here are some other ways we can help.) Like the 3 Sisters, we are stronger when we work together.

Sign the petition to stop police in riot gear from arresting the brave journalists covering this historic fight.

Contact the banks funding the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Donate to the Legal Defense Fund. 

The true cost of "cheap" water

We are blessed here in Southern Arizona to have reliable, clean water sources at a very low cost. Less than two cents per gallon...even if you are using water at the highest residential use rate. 1/10 of a cent per gallon at the lowest rate. Try buying a bottle of water at the store for two cents! But this water comes at a cost very few of us are aware of. I didn't realize just how energy-intensive, polluting, and wasteful our cheap water was until I mapped the process of getting water to Tucson at the recent Hack for Change Tucson event.

As an engineer, I can appreciate the tremendous marvel of technology the Central Arizona Project is. It pumps more than 456 billion gallons of Colorado River water to agricultural and residential users in Phoenix and Tucson - a distance of 362 miles and more than half a mile uphill. The pumps that move that water are powered by the enormous Navajo Generating Station - one of the largest emitters of carbon dioxide (a primary greenhouse gas) in the United States. All of Tucson's water coming from the Central Arizona Project and 10% of Tucson's electricity is powered by the NGS. But there isn't just one coal-fired plant we rely on.

Have a good look at this image. (This is a figure from Chapter 5 of the Tucson Electric Power 2016 Preliminary Integrated Resource Plan. I would highly recommend getting familiar with this document. The final version scheduled for release in 2017 describes how TEP plans to meet its share of the EPA Clean Power Plan requirements for Arizona.) But the thing I find most disturbing about this map is the location of the power plants in relation to the Indigenous Nations. The green areas on the map are the boundaries of these nations. Notice how close the eight power plants in the map are. In some cases, they are inside the borders. However, NONE of these power plants are owned by the people they are located next to. They are all owned by private operators and consortiums of utility companies. The usual agreement, as was the case with the Navajo Generating Station, is for a government entity to lease the land from the tribes and then to turn the construction and operation of the plants and supporting coal operations over to private energy companies. The tribes get jobs, annual lease payments, and low market rate payment for the water used from their aquifer. Is that a fair price for what they are losing? What happens when the generating stations are eventually closed down? The jobs will go away, the lease payments will go away, but the generational health effects and environmental degradation will remain. We've outsourced our pollution to the poor...again!

This image? That's the National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimate of the solar power generation capacity in the Southwest. All that orange and red? Those are areas that receive enough sunlight to average between 6.5 and 8 kiloWatt-hours per meter of surface per day. This means that many of us who are fortunate enough to live in the Southwest could power our homes most of the year using solar panels on our roofs. Why are we relying on burning all this coal in a part of the country that has such abundant free energy? 

At this point, you're probably saying: This is all well and good, but what can I do? I have no power! Well, you can choose to read the news releases after the decisions are made and gripe on Facebook about how they've done it again - or you can make your voice heard. TEP's Final Integrated Resource Plan isn't due until next year. Read the Preliminary IRP and let them know what you think! On a statewide level, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality will be working on Phase III of the Arizona Clean Power Plan until September. ADEQ holds public stakeholder meetings to provide feedback on the plan. You can attend in person, or you can call in to listen to the meeting and submit your questions and comments via text. 

UPDATE: Navajo Generating Station is closing. Tribal leaders, utilities, the federal government and energy companies must address injustices of the past to pave the way to a clean energy future for the Navajo. Find out how here!

It's a long road to sustainability, but I believe we can - and must - get there!