Joanna Allhands
Arizona Republic
After writing about water conservation – in which I argued that raising the bar on cities may not save a ton of water and would not be cheap – I received thoughtful ideas from readers about where Arizona should focus its investment.
We should convert bathrooms to dual-flush toilets and waterless urinals, one reader proposed.
Another suggested requiring nonfunctional grass – the kind that’s simply there for looks – to be replaced with artificial turf.
A third suggested we should focus less on cities, particularly when agriculture uses about 70% of Arizona’s water, and mandate drip irrigation, among other ideas.
All fair points. But they hint at another common misnomer about conservation, which is that if one effort saves water, then everyone should do it. And if we do, we’ll all see the same amount of savings.
Which isn’t necessarily the case. That doesn’t mean we should discourage folks from considering dualflush toilets, artificial turf or drip irrigation.
Or that we should back off on larger, more regional projects that could bring these technologies to a lot more folks than the locally focused grant applications that have come before the Arizona Water Infrastructure Financing Authority so far.
But not every good idea will work well for everyone.
