Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Rainwater And Audits topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Oro Valley working group backs rainwater harvesting, WaterSmart audits and outreach as conservation tools
Summary
Participants recommended clarifying passive vs active rainwater harvesting, expanding outreach and rebates, and boosting WaterSmart enrollment and community dashboards; utility director explained free water audits and automated monitoring for abnormal consumption.
Participants urged the plan to include clearer language and stronger outreach around rainwater harvesting, water audits and incentives.
Sims and residents recommended distinguishing passive and active rainwater harvesting in plan text and replacing ambiguous words such as "natural" with "native" or "xeric" ground covers. Several speakers said retrofitting older yards is costly and encouraged incentives, rebates or partnerships (for example, Watershed Management and Sustainable Tucson) to support installations.
Peter Abraham, director of the water utility, described current audit practices: free, customer-requested on-site audits to locate leaks and provide fixes, plus automated monitoring using WaterSmart algorithms that flag abnormal consumption for staff follow-up. Abraham said the utility is expanding monitoring models and exploring better commercial-customer classification, and emphasized the town's tiered rates as an effective conservation tool.
Participants also proposed creating an online community dashboard to let households compare usage with similar homes, and recommended clearer promotion of WaterSmart enrollment through the water bill, email and the utility's newsletter. Staff said they will add specific outreach actions and examples of partner organizations in the consolidated draft.
