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Water Services reviews system capacity and conservation gains; staff urge continued conservation to defer long‑term supply projects
Summary
Water staff summarized treatment and distribution capacity, current conservation success and long‑term supply planning, noting Flagstaff's GPCD has fallen and that conservation can delay the timeline for large new supplies such as Red Gap Ranch.
Water Services leaders briefed the council Feb. 25 on treatment plants, distribution infrastructure, reclaimed water operations, recent conservation gains and how conservation affects long‑term supply timing.
Why it matters: the city must balance current supply, consumption trends and planned projects to ensure water availability over a 100‑year planning horizon; conservation performance is a critical factor that can postpone or reduce the scale of expensive supply projects.
Section director Lee Williams described Water Services operations: two water treatment plants (Lake Mary Water Treatment Plant — up to 8 million gallons per day when fully operating — and the seasonal North Reservoir Filtration Plant near the Schultz Pass Y for Inner Basin snowmelt), approximately 21 million gallons of storage in reservoirs, booster stations to serve higher elevation neighborhoods, and a combination of wells drilled across multiple well fields. He said Water Reclamation operates two wastewater plants — the downtown Rio de Flag plant (≈4 million gpd capacity) and the Wildcat plant on the east side (≈6 million gpd capacity) — and produces high‑quality reclaimed water for nonpotable uses. SCADA and GIS teams manage monitoring, communications and mapping for roughly 100 field sites.
Water Resources Section Director Erin Young reviewed supply planning and groundwater hydrogeology. She said Flagstaff currently imports up to two‑thirds of its water and that the city obtained Red Gap Ranch in 2007 as a long‑term groundwater/resource option to address future demand. Young described the city’s Adequate Water Supply designation (adopted in 2013) and explained that planning relies on assumptions for population growth and per‑capita water use; in the baseline scenario a combination of supply and conservation measures would require additional supply around the mid‑21st century, while stronger conservation could push need decades farther out. Young described geophysical targeting used for well siting and explained that average production targets for new wells are on the order of several hundred gallons per minute depending on site conditions.
Conservation Program Manager Tamara Lawless reported that city GPCD (gallons per capita per day) has fallen substantially over recent decades and that the 2024 figure was below 90 GPCD; she said the city’s 2020 Water Conservation Strategic Plan and code (alternate‑day watering, no mid‑day irrigation) and fixture‑replacement programs (toilets, showerheads, aerators, rain barrels) have contributed to declining per‑capita use. Lawless outlined ongoing programs including income‑qualified leak‑repair grants, a non‑revenue‑water audit grant and outreach for water‑aware homes. She told council staff will present a water‑awareness campaign for Water Awareness Month and encouraged council members to consider plant tours.
Council asked about the Red Gap Ranch timeline, how population growth scenarios affect supply timing and whether Flagstaff’s reputation for good‑tasting water related to low mineral content and lower chlorine residuals; staff responded with technical details and said the decision to develop Red Gap would depend on triggers in updated supply/demand modeling and policy direction from council.
What’s next: staff offered to schedule tours of treatment and reclamation facilities, will continue conservation outreach and will incorporate updated regional plan population forecasts into the city’s supply modeling.
