Growing Goodyear
Growing Goodyear
What About Water?
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Learn how Goodyear plans and prepares to ensure the city's water resources stay flowing now and in the future. Plus, hear some practical ways on how you can save on your monthly water bill while also doing your part to help conserve water.
Coming up on this episode of Growing good year.
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:I think it's important to let people know that although there is a shortage on the river, it does not mean that we are going to stop having water to our customers. Goodyear and all of our cities here in the valley and Arizona has done a really good job planning for this.
Tammy Vo:Hey, everyone, welcome to the Growing Goodyear Podcast. I'm Tammy Vo from the city of Goodyear.
Jordan Byrd:And I'm Jordan Byrd.
Tammy Vo:Jordan. Today we're talking about a topic that no matter who you are listening to this, it impacts you on a daily basis. We can't say that about a lot of things in life. But we can say it about this.
Jordan Byrd:Well, yeah. And not only does it impact Arizonans, Americans, it impacts anyone on the face of the planet in terms of water, finding water, using water, and having a reliable water source for the future generations.
Tammy Vo:So we're talking about it today. Because as I'm sure you all have heard, there are a lot of changing conditions that are going on right now, especially in our region with with our water supply. But Jordan, when we talk about it just kind of bringing us together in our experiences with water. I think water impacts us all, like we said, in very similar ways, but a little bit differently. So for you and for me, it might look a little bit different.
Jordan Byrd:Yeah, in for an individual, it might be different. Their water usage, their water, mindfulness, depending on their current situation. I remember when I was a renter, and I lived in an apartment. Yeah, I paid a water bill. But I didn't necessarily think about it as front of mind as now that when I'm a homeowner, and I'm managing a lawn, and I'm managing my own pool, and those are things that definitely play a factor in for a lot of people out there, not only with the water conservation, but you're also looking to save money and finding ways where you can have that beautiful lawn or have that beautiful yard while still being within the confines of something that is being responsible with your water usage. And hopefully maybe even cheaper as well.
Tammy Vo:I'm going to admit something, Jordan, my two year old loves playing with the kitchen sink faucet.
Jordan Byrd:My two year old loves doing that as well.
Tammy Vo:All right, you understand this. But the other day, my six year old son said, Mommy, she's wasting water. And I wasn't watching and she was and the thing that really caught me was that my son noticed that. But when I think back to when I was a kid, the topic of wasting water or water availability, it just really wasn't, as I recall so much of a factor then.
Jordan Byrd:When I think back to that it's always turned the water off when you brush your teeth. That was like the crux of the water conservation messaging. Now I think we've become so much more educated. And as your story illustrates, even young children now are understanding and appreciating that messaging of trying to reduce your water usage.
Tammy Vo:I think there are some things today that we're going to talk about that are going to be a nice pleasant surprise for people living in in Goodyear when it comes to water usage, but also a couple things that I think are going to make you have a little bit of pause and say gosh, maybe I should do things a little bit differently next time I turned on the faucet.
Jordan Byrd:Yeah, first up we're going to hear from councilmember Sheri Lauritano about how Goodyear is preparing to serve its residents with its water usage needs. Not only today, but in the future as well.
Tammy Vo:We're also going to speak with Goodyear water conservation specialist Justin Williams, and he's got some practical tips on what we can all do to make better use of our water. But first our Fast Five with councilmember Lauritano. What was your first job?
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:My first job was actually working at the JC Penney's at Paradise Valley Mall in the purse department over Christmas. When I was a junior in high school.
Jordan Byrd:We've had a lot of new restaurants open in Goodyear over the last year, what has been your favorite restaurant that has opened up?
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:I would say two of my favorite restaurants are obviously Babos. And we love going to Oreganos.
Tammy Vo:Where would your ideal place to be on a Saturday morning?
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:If it's the summertime, it's nice to go outside early and go out. We live right on the desert. So it's nice to take a walk before it gets too hot in the summertime.
Jordan Byrd:If you were stranded on a desert island, what is one item that you would need to survive?
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:A boat.
Tammy Vo:What do you love most about being on the Goodyear City Council?
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:I love the fact that at this level, we're actually closest to the people and we can actually make a difference and you can actually see what you have done and you build things and you create things and you make people's day to day lives better.
Tammy Vo:I think that leads us into you know our topic today which is we're talking about all things water. When you talk about making a difference in people's lives that includes the day to day things that we use to live and breathe in and get through life everyday which is water, something we oftentimes take for granted, why is this something that you feel so, so passionate about?
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:Well, we live in a desert. And I've lived here in Arizona since the 70s. And when you live in a desert, you have to make sure that you conserve your resources, your natural resources, we need them to grow, we need them to have the parks, we need water. So people can come here, we need water for industry, it's very important. And it's also very important that we do conserve the water that we have. And we use it wisely. And we use it well, to make sure our quality of life continues to stay at the high quality and have all those amenities that our residents really like.
Jordan Byrd:A lot of people are watching the news reading the news, you're hearing about shortages and Lake Powell shortages in Lake Mead, the Colorado River shortages that are taking place and how it's affecting basically the entire western United States. From your perspective, what is your reaction when you hear about these water shortages that are taking place in the Colorado River?
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:Well, I think it's important to let people know that although there is a shortage on the river, it does not mean that we are going to stop having water to our customers. Good year and all of our cities here in the valley, and Arizona has done a really good job planning for this. We have actually stored water underground, we have other sources of water, including groundwater and the Colorado River water. So it is not our only source of water that we have, in addition, good years served not just by the city of Goodyear, but the northern half of Goodyear is served also by other water companies as well. So I think when we look at the whole picture, we have to understand that although the river has been over allocated for decades, there's just not the water that is needed for all of the lower basin states. That is important to know that Arizona looked at this years and years ago, decades ago and started planning for what would happen and how we can make sure that we have a supply for our residents.
Tammy Vo:And you got into the topic, a little bit of our water resources, the groundwater, the surface water, all that. I think when people see it come out of their taps, they're just thinking water is water, right. But really behind the scenes, there's a lot of going into our planning with the ground and the surface and what that means for the future of our residents. Right.
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:What I've learned after being on the council is that water is actually a lot more complicated when you look at the water rights and how they go back years and years and years and where the water actually comes from. It doesn't all come from one source. So when I turn on my tap, my water may come from the Colorado River, or it could come from groundwater as well. Or it could come from water that we've recharged or we've banked and saved underground for a later date. So it does come from different resources, that it all comes to the same tap and through the pipes to us as the consumer. But I think it's important to know that there are other areas that it comes from,
Tammy Vo:I wanted to just expand on the banking part of it. Because I think in our lives, we can maybe correlate that a bit with just like you know, a savings account, you get money, you put it away. So are you saying that that's kind of similarly what the city does where you can actually bank and in save water?
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:Yes, there's several ways they do it. One is very kind of administrative where they where they save credits, where they can go get more groundwater than they normally could get because they save credits. It's kind of like a savings account. Another way is we actually do recharge and put water like a fluid waste after it's been treated. We put it back down into the ground, and then we can re pump it back out later. Oh, wow. So we actually are saving our water or a non rainy day, I guess you could say
Jordan Byrd:when it comes to Goodyear being one of the fastest growing cities in the country, the growth that the city has seen over the last few years last few decades. What is that balancing act for yourself and other council members when trying to manage the growth of one of the fastest growing cities while still being considerate about its water usage in the environment?
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:Well, we're only about 13% built out right now. And everyone who sees good year we see this huge area and huge potential. So it's important to note that all the cities in central Arizona are required by state law to have 100 year assured water supply. That means that we have to tell the state and it gets relooked at every few years. It's in the process right now to ensure that we have 100 years of water. So when a new business comes into Goodyear, if it's an industrial facility, or if it's any type of business, we look at the type of business and our staff does a great job. We have a wonderful water staff who looks and make sure that there is water or that type of business. That's why you don't see a lot of bottle watering plants in Goodyear. That's not something that we're looking for. But when you see a lot of the data centers with regard to the way they use their water, a lot of them will recycle the water several times or a lot of them will use air cooled so we do look at how a business is going to use the water when it comes
Tammy Vo:here. You just use the word recycling and I think a lot of us can relate to that in terms of you know, soda cans in the in the recycling bin, but you can actually recycle water. Yes,
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:yes, you can actually use that same water after the water. It goes through your plumbing, it goes to our treatment facility and our treatment facility treats that to a potable standard, which means you can drink it. And what we've been doing now is we've been recharging that back into the aquifer, so it goes back down into the ground, it also does some more natural refining in the ground, and then we can pull that back up to drink. But after we refine the water and we treat the water, you could actually drink that water it is potable to drink.
Tammy Vo:What do you think that means for just the future? I mean, not not just talking good year. I mean, this is a higher interest process than just our city. Here are other other cities,
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:other cities use it and in the valley, and people are looking at it. And the governor and the legislature, I think last year was about $1.2 billion to look for new sources of water and reclaimed or reused water is going to be one source. Other areas that can look at as bringing water in from other places desalinization and how else we can bring more water to Arizona,
Jordan Byrd:when you talk about treatment of water. Good year, this last year in 2022, opened up a brand new treatment facility, the surface water treatment facility. And this was really a unique facility to the southwest and Arizona, talk a little bit about what made this facility the surface water treatment facility, so unique and so special for good year to have a place like that.
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:Well, prior to that when we got our Colorado River allocation, we couldn't treat it here because you have to treat the surface water different than you have to treat the groundwater. So what it allowed us to do was to actually use the wet water coming off the river. And we had an agreement with salt river project to bring the water through the canal system to our treatment plant and treat it and the quality of water a lot of that water goes up to Australia and you can taste and you can tell the difference from the surface water after it's treated as opposed to the groundwater. There's a lot of less of the salts a lot less of the hardness when you taste it.
Tammy Vo:You are a member of something called amla Tilson more about what you do with them. And what what what what is sample.
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:Amla is the group of cities in the valley. And what they do is we work together to make sure that we have policy for good use of groundwater. These are the cities that are taking the water from the Colorado River. And that includes cities like us, Avondale, Phoenix, Scottsdale, it's the cities that are using that water, we want to make sure that we have a cohesive use and plan on how to use water. Also, we talk to our legislators, and we speak as one voice because it's very important when we're talking about water, that we all kind of are on the same page, we don't want to start being competing against our Valley cities, we want to work together because this is a problem that we have to solve is one, I can't be against another city and take their water. And so we all have to work together. So it is a board tour together to solve some of these issues.
Jordan Byrd:Well, and that's kind of an interesting position in government, sometimes we're not only are you looking out for your residents, the city of Goodyear, but you also need to have kind of a collaborative experience with the other municipalities to make sure that everything is flowing correctly.
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:And that's what it really does. Because when we look at the cities that it's important to know that the Colorado River is a system, and we have to treat it as a system. It's not just going to go dry for good year or for Peoria, it's important that we all work together. And that's what they do. They also have a lot of information on their website about water usage, water saving using water wisely as well. And why that's important is because we're in a desert, and it's always important to conserve, even though we've got that 100 year supply, you always need to think about conservation, what is the best way to conserve the water so that we can last longer, and we can have it. And one thing I learned from there was that although the animal cities, the valley is the majority of the population, we use the same amount of water we did back about 50 years ago, the population in the valley has exploded because of all that water savings and the way that people conserve and now better pipes and better faucets and we've actually decreased our per person water usage.
Jordan Byrd:That's really amazing. When you think about it, just considering what that population of the values of the state was back then compared to what it is now. To have that less amount of water usage that really is kind of mind blowing. If you think about it.
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:Yeah. And when you look at what people do and how they conserve, a lot of people have now gone to the fake grass, the turf. A lot of golf courses don't oversee because the water usage in the winter grass takes more water than it does in the summer grass. There's lists of plants that we in the city have put on our planting list for our builders and Anwar has a list for people who want to redo their yards on what are low water plants and our city will actually come out to your house, the city of Goodyear will come out to your house and basically do a water audit on your house to see if you have any leaky pipes or anything that's going on to make sure that you're getting the best water usage for your house.
Tammy Vo:Are you hearing anything from residents in Goodyear about water or future availability and what's on their minds,
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:a lot of people are very concerned because you see it on the paper and you see it in the news. You know, at night, you're watching these very dramatic pictures about the water. And I think it's important to note that this is not a short term problem. And it's didn't start as a short term problem. This has been on people's minds. And it's been on the radar of people for several several years that this was coming. So I think it's important that we tell the residents that this isn't something that's going to impact their daily lives. But we always need to conserve, we don't need to get to the point where you can't have a pool or you can't take a shower every other day, you've seen some of these other areas have gone some very draconian water restrictions, we're not to that point. And because we have conserve, that's one thing that will help us make sure that we have the water for
Tammy Vo:the future is just being considerate, I mean, almost makes me think of Election Day where people might think, Oh, I'm not gonna go vote, it's just one vote, it's not gonna make a difference. But collectively, if we are all in the same mindset of conserving what I'm doing in my home makes a difference. If we can all think that way, I would think that under the big picture, we would make some sort of an impact.
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:It does help every drop counts, because every bit is important. And it's to use water wisely. Doesn't mean you can't use water. We know it's there. But it's a natural resource. And it's finite. And there's only so much that we have. So it is important that we use it and we make sure that we we use it wisely. And there are ways as we develop and we grow, that we can make sure that our builders are working hand in hand. And we've done that with our design guidelines to make sure that the guidelines are something that the builders are acceptable that people are going to think are pleasant to look at in their yard, which is important. You want a nice looking yard. But there's ways that you can happen. The natural plant set has a very nice palette. And I think that's one thing when you start looking on the website you look at these plants are like oh, well, those are really pretty they bloom different colors. And I think that's something that they've really looked at to give Tara developers so that there's variety, but water wise plants.
Jordan Byrd:Well, thank you so much for joining us and educating us a little bit on the water usage here and good year, the future of water and good year, and just kind of putting people's mind at ease a little bit about some of the scary stuff that they might see out there. Thank you so much for taking the time and joining us on the podcast.
Councilmember Sheri Lauritano:Well thank you very much. I appreciate your time.
Jordan Byrd:So as you heard councilmember Laura Tonto mentioned there are ways that the city can help residents reduce their water consumption. And with more on that we now welcome in Goodyear, water conservation specialist, Justin Williams. Justin, thank you for joining us here on the growing good year podcast.
Justin Williams:Thank you. Thanks for having me out here.
Jordan Byrd:When it comes to the water usage of the city of Goodyear. How does that compare to some of the other cities around the state of Arizona?
Justin Williams:Overall, we're doing really well. We're in comparison of other cities on a whole, but with our residents were using about 85 gallons a day compared to other cities. That's much lower.
Tammy Vo:Justin, that's great news to hear that it sounds like our residents are really using water wisely, which I know is the goal here with what you do. What about the average resident in Goodyear? How do they use the majority of their water,
Justin Williams:the majority of their water is actually outside it's using with the landscape so it's whether it's irrigation of their their lawns, which had been slowly diminishing, because lawns do take up quite a bit of water. They've been changing their landscape to zero escaping. So that's succulents for example. And they become more efficient with their water use to
Jordan Byrd:you talk about you know, trying to landscape your yard, I know firsthand the struggle of doing winter grass in my backyard and how much water I use in getting that winter grass in my backyard. What are some tips that residents can utilize to minimize their water usage when it comes to landscaping their property.
Justin Williams:So somethings that they can do is is Get me out there that's part of my job is to do home water checks. And so these home water checks are also home water efficiencies. So I come out there and I help you program that wonderful irrigation control you have on the side of your house. And we go through really efficient tips on the proper ways to water. And so when you start to do your your new winter grass we'll talk about if we're going to have grass let's water efficiently, let's figure out what is the best way to get those little seeds to grow into nice little grass, plants and then how to manage that in the future.
Tammy Vo:That's amazing that the city provides the service where you're actually going out there and helping people hands on because it can't be I would think for some homeowners little bit intimidating or confusing to figure out how to do all those programming changes. I know it is for us. Oh, yes. Heard some feedback from residents. Do they appreciate this?
Justin Williams:Oh my gosh, they love it. Yeah, it's fantastic. And the greatest part is that we offer it for free. And so we just go out. And we spent about 45 minutes with each of the residents and help them with any of the efficiencies inside the home. We help them find leaks, and then we go through and with the efficiencies of the irrigation timer. And that's like the biggest thing. And so I walk through them with them, and then tell them, what is the best way to program it? And then try to simplify it as much as possible, because we know that irrigation timer can be not really friendly or user friendly, for sure.
Tammy Vo:Let's talk about pools, Justin, I know it's something we need. We're living in the desert here. But what can we do to get our best use of water with a pool?
Justin Williams:Yeah, that's a great question. Pools are really popular here in Arizona, we love them, it's nice way to stay cool in the summertime, there's a few ways that we can kind of help minimize the amount of water loss. So right around 300 square feet of surface area can lose right around 3000 to maybe 6000 gallons of water during our warm months, it's quite a bit of water. So what we want to do is minimize the evaporation loss, which is going to be pretty hard. And some ways it's either using a solar cover, but as we know, solar covers increase heat. And so that's not really the best way to minimize it. So what we like to look at is overall water quality and maintaining that water quality. That reduces our water use by limiting how many times we need to do back washes. So that's that reverse flow onto that filtration system to remove all those TDs those total dissolved solids. And so by keeping a better water quality, we can not do as much backwash.
Tammy Vo:So you're basically saying with the chemical treatment of our pools, keeping up great water quality, keeping on top of testing the water, that's basically what's going to lead to the most efficient use of the water.
Justin Williams:That's right keeping on top of your water chemistry. So that's, you know, testing it with as little simple test kits to keep on track. Or you can take it to any of the pool companies, some of these pool companies out here, we'll test it for free. And then cleaning out any of the leaf litter when we do get our dust storms or monsoon seasons, you know using the leaf rakes or those vacuums. So just keep an overall water quality, a lot more cleaner than just letting go to gunk.
Jordan Byrd:You mentioned quite a few tools that the city offers its residents when it comes to helping conserve water, you mentioned that you personally will go out there and look at their system also talk about the leaks that are taking place in their home. The city offers also a free home leak in water efficiency kit. What will this kit tell residents if they request and get one of these.
Justin Williams:So this kit is pretty handy. We hand picked out a lot of the things that are in there, we tried to gear it towards outside stuffs. And so most of the water usage here in good year is outside about 70% of that uses outside. So we have the pressure compensating emitters which go on to all those little drip areas, that releases a specific amount of water per hour. And at more consistent rate. We also increase like Teflon tape to help any of those faucets where they might have a little leaky threads, we also have aerators that go on there. So it's a 1.5 gallon flow air Raider that goes there to kind of help reduce the amount of water flow on your bathroom sinks. There's also a lot of good information on there. So connecting resources online so they can help find the leaks in the future or if they have any additional assistance with trying to get just overall help with their water use such as calculators to figure out how much water I'm supposed to be using, or as an estimated calculator.
Tammy Vo:And what about rebates? Could our residents get any rebates for basically being good stewards of water?
Justin Williams:That's something that we're looking for in the future is those kind of rebates, but we do have other incentives. And so a lot of these incentives are offered for free at a low cost right now. So I think it's like $30, we offer a smart irrigation timer. So that replaces your old one, we also offer a home water tracking device. So this attaches right to the good year water meter, which is really, really neat. It gives you up to date, minute by minute resolution of your water use. And then we also offer a rain pause device which connects to your current irrigation timer.
Jordan Byrd:Now another thing that the city has is a water conservation committee. What is that and what role do they play within the city when it comes to conserving water?
Justin Williams:It was a citizens advisory group that helped form good years water efficiency efforts. And they provided 12 key recommendations in 2018. They helped us design our current conservation programs. And that was Resident based that committee and base that's right. Yep. And that's all volunteer basis. is, and so they can check out some of those 12 key recommendations right on our website. So if they go to the good year az.gov/water, they can check out all of the incentives as well as the 12 key recommendations.
Jordan Byrd:And what about someone who's listening to this that either wants one of these water kids, or actually wants you to personally come out to their house and check their water usage? How do they go about requesting that?
Justin Williams:Well, that'd be totally awesome. If they invite me over, I always enjoy seeing everybody's landscape and talking to them about their water efficiencies and see where that they can improve. So they can go right on to the website. So it's good year az.gov/water. And we've been kind of revamping the website a little bit to make it a little bit more flow. So if they want to see any of the program incentives, so if they click on program, incentive rebates,
Tammy Vo:Justin, my last question for you has a lot to do with looking into the future. You know, I know you in the water team plan for our water future many decades in advance, you know, it's not like you're looking for for solutions for just tomorrow. What would you say to families, maybe even like people who have kids who are part of that long term water future plan in terms of conservation, teaching kids about what that looks like, and why they should care? Like, what would you say to them?
Justin Williams:Water is our future, right? So we wouldn't be here without water, we wouldn't be here. And growing as much as we are. We have been really amazing so far with our efficiency here and good year. And I'd like to keep on with that and keep that overall growth. So overall, I mean, our programs and our incentives, and this position with within good years, such as water conservation specialist is to provide that type of education and knowledge for our residents. And so it's just a real important part of our future. And it's an important part of right now.
Tammy Vo:Justin Williams, water conservation specialist for the city of Goodyear. Thank you, Justin.
Justin Williams:Thanks, guys.
Jordan Byrd:Well, Tammy, I think this was a very educational episode for me because one of the things that I really took away from not only councilmember Lauritano, but also Justin Williams, as well, is that there are very many tools out there that the city of Goodyear offers its residents in not only becoming more knowledgeable about their water consumption, but also finding ways that they can reduce it in very practical, meaningful ways.
Tammy Vo:And there are people you know, not only who make these tools available to residents, there are a lot of people joined behind the scenes, not only at the city of Goodyear, but a lot of other other cities, other organizations who are working hard to plan for our water future. It's not just about today and tomorrow, it's about 20 years from now. And, gosh, if he asked me what things would look like in my life, 20 years from now, I have no idea. But there are some very, very smart, talented people who are working towards that 2030 year plan in terms of water to make sure there is water there for not just us but our kids and their kids.
Jordan Byrd:Well that's gonna do it for this episode of Growing Goodyear. You thank you so much for taking the time and listening. And hopefully taking something out of this episode when it comes to water usage and maybe some practical ways that you yourself can minimize your water usage as well. So for Tammy Vo, I'm Jordan Byrd, and remember, it's a great time to be in Goodyear. That concludes this episode of Growing Goodyear. Make sure to leave us a review and subscribe on your favorite streaming or podcast player app. If you have any questions or comments, email us at communications at Goodyear az.gov And don't forget to follow us on the city of Goodyear's social media pages