Designing 12 new Tucson, Ariz., stores to harvest rain in this way makes good business sense when it comes to water bills, Troy DeVos, director of real estate for Tulsa, Okla.-based QuikTrip Corp., told The Arizona Capitol Times. And helping the environment is [image-nocss] an added benefit, he told the newspaper.
"It's a great opportunity to make a difference and really help out," DeVos said. "And we'll be saving money in the long run."
Starting in June, a city ordinance that is the first of its kind in the nation will require all new commercial developments to obtain at least half of the water for landscaping from Tucson's annual rainfall of 11 to 12 inches, said the report.
Vice Mayor Rodney Glassman, who pushed for the ordinance,told the paper that this type of water conservation should be the rule rather than the exception. "Tucson is at the bottom of the Central Arizona Project, so we're most impacted by future drought," he said. "We're planning for the future."
The ordinance will require what is commonly referred to as passive harvesting, which instead of storing rainwater in tanks channels it immediately to landscaping, the report said.
The cost to outfit a commercial development for passive harvesting varies by the size of the building and the type and complexity of landscaping, pipes and drains installed. Glassman said the cost is slight, in part because it can be incorporated into the design, and that complying with the ordinance can be as simple as sloping a parking lot.
"Any cost incurred is at the discretion of the developer," he said.
Paul Green, executive director of the Tucson Audubon Society, a conservation group that advocates rainwater harvesting in homes and schools,told the paper thathe would have preferred requiring businesses to get all of their landscaping water from rain. But he called the 50% mandate a start. "If we catch at least some of the rainwater, we'll be using less from the Colorado River,"he said. "It's an important first step."
Even though the ordinance does nottake effect until June, QuikTrip volunteered to be the one of the first commercial projects to comply, DeVos said. "We want to keep rainwater here, not let it run off and be wasted," he said.
Christina Bickelmann, a Tucson-based conservation specialist with the Arizona Department of Water Resources, said rainwater harvesting is an important practice that needs to be incorporated into landscaping. "Everyone's getting more conscious of water, and rainwater harvesting is an integral part of water conservation," she told the paper.
To draft the ordinance, Glassman organized a group of stakeholders including the Southern Arizona Builders Alliance to negotiate the details and language.
David Pittman, executive director of the builders group, said the ordinance originally would have required businesses to meet all of their landscaping needs with rainwater, which would involve installing expensive cisterns. During the negotiations, the mandate was reduced to half.
"If it had required cisterns we would have opposed it," Pittman said. "I'm philosophically opposed to government imposing its will on others, but we do live in a desert, and it's important that we conserve."
Robert Medler, manager of governmental affairs for the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, said the ordinance is misleading because it only looks at water from one perspective. "The same year the ordinance was passed, Tucson sold part of its CAP allocation because not all of the water was being used," he told the Capitol Times. "It's a mixed message."
The chamber, which was notincluded in the negotiations, is also against the ordinance because it does notgive commercial businesses any incentive or tax break to comply. "There was no carrot, only the stick," he said.
Glassman called the cost to businesses negligible, and the benefits to the community great. "It encourages the use of native vegetation and is environmentally conscious," he said. "It's the right thing to do."
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