Oro Valley reports rising WaterSmart enrollment, thousands of leak alerts and expanded audits

The commission heard an update from the town’s conservation program describing rising participation in the WaterSmart customer portal, on‑site audits, and community outreach.

Conservation staff reported that 36% of single‑family residential accounts were eligible and signed up for WaterSmart. Over the prior 12‑month rolling period the portal generated more than 11,700 leak alerts; staff said the portal’s alerts are sometimes duplicated when leaks stop and restart. In the year covered by the report, conservation staff recorded about 3,600 unique visitors to the WaterSmart portal and more than 1,200 customer interactions requesting help or audits.

Since September the conservation program completed 121 on‑site water audits. Staff said most audits thus far were prompted by detected leaks; a smaller share were customer‑requested for efficiency improvements. Staff described proactive outreach to customers who have leaks but are not signed up for the portal, and said outreach to homeowners’ associations, civic groups and local schools is increasing. Conservation staff recounted participating in the University of Arizona’s Project WET program for fourth graders and said staff plan to expand school and HOA presentations.

The program manager said the conservation team conducts in‑person follow up with customers identified through the portal and adjusts messaging to avoid creating alarm when leaving voicemail messages about detected leaks. Commissioners praised the program’s proactive use of AMI data and asked whether staff could scale audits; staff said they could expand audits and could call on additional staff if demand increased.

The conservation program update was provided for information; no formal action was taken.