During my seven plus years on City Council, including two terms as your Mayor, I have taken on many important issues in support of the community. One constant for me has been water use, conservation and management for Prescott and our entire region. I believe that how we manage our water supply today, will have an impact for decades to come. I started by studying water use and its impacts in our area. Then, as Mayor, I worked to change the way the City of Prescott manages our water consumption. Recently, my efforts have gone beyond our local area and have included participation at the State level as well. This level of involvement is something I plan to continue on behalf of the citizens of Prescott and Yavapai County, past my term as Mayor.
Even before my time on Council, I became aware of the issues around water use in Prescott, including the Prescott Active Management Area (PrAMA), and the 100 Year Assured Water supply requirements for development. Understanding how the State regulates water supplies is critical to developing a local plan to meet or exceed state mandated requirements.
I became active in the Citizen Water Advocacy Group (CWAG), where I began serving on their Public Policy Committee. During this time I gathered a great deal of information about water use, and learned firsthand about the policies and politics of water in our region.
With my acquired knowledge and experience, I began my term as Mayor of Prescott working with Council to establish a revised water policy, with the intention of regulating water allocation to manage the pace of development. The new policy established an ad hoc water policy review and monitoring committee to review residential and commercial requests for water allocations. Early on, the Council established the Water Issues Subcommittee, to evaluate water service agreements. While the ad hoc water policy review committee was disbanded, we continue monthly Water Issues Subcommittee meetings, monitoring requests for water use in commercial and residential projects, against a “bank” of available water set down by the water policy.
Concurrently, the City has redoubled efforts to encourage individual conservation through educational programs and rebates to offset costs for installing water efficient appliances, low water use landscaping materials and rainwater harvesting.
During my term as Mayor, I was an early member of a Rural Groundwater Working Group, inviting citizens and government leaders from around northern Arizona to participate. I am also a member of the Northern Arizona Municipal Water Users Associations (NAMWUA), where I have been elected board Chairman for three terms in a row.
Of course, water usage and aquifer protection has become an acute statewide concern. We have learned about foreign and out of state interests acquiring land and water rights in Arizona for intensive agricultural development. Further, extensive new residential and commercial development in Maricopa and Pinal Counties are creating concern about available water supplies to support such growth. I was invited to stand with other rural Mayors and county supervisors in supporting the Governor’s efforts to start crafting statewide solutions.
Water resource management and responsible growth have been cornerstones to my public service in Prescott, and I look forward to continuing to advance these issues in the future. I want to assure you that responsible, water use in Prescott and around our State will continue to be a priority for me following my term as Mayor.
5 thoughts on “My Commitment to Water Conservation – Mayor Phil Goode’s March Update”
I am proud of knowing Mayor Phil Goode and the serious issue of water. Phil and CWAG are two of my touch stones for water balance and use. That has not been the case in my Prescott Valley as water is less of a concern by the mayor and most of the council.
In the recent 25 years PV is receiving about 70% of the total precipitation we were averaging prior to 2000 18.89 inches and in 2000 Arizona Department Of Water Resources said our area was pumping 11,000 acre feet of water “more” than Mother Nature was giving us in rain,hail and snow. A football field one foot deep in water is one acre foot. That would serve 4-5 homes and 2-3 people. So in 2000 we were using water for over 150,000 people more than we were receiving for future pumping.
Our whole area needs restraint on development to sustain life.
Just a bunch of more fluff Goode. Another article of him patting himself on the back for all that he has done (which is nothing) and his accomplishments. The bottom line which you forgot to include in you article is all of this is just so they can raise our water rates, period.
Raising water rates is apparently a major way to reduce frivilous use of water. especially with the apparent increase of prospective
home buyers who will put pressure on an already questionable long-term water supply. With no control over excessive water use, it will be only a matter of time before the state will experience being a vast wasteland where no one wants to live. That being the case, what program would you suggest, other than raising water usage rates, to mitigate the threat of an irreversible loss of a finite water supply required for even a minimal quality of life? At least Phil Goode has recognized the problem, and I don’t feel he deserves to be pilloried for it, unless there is an obvious glaring solution other than raising rates that he has not considered.
What a joke, Prescott wastes water like the government wastes money. Just a couple of examples to prove my point. While walking the Square there was a maintenance person HOSING down the steps of the Courthouse. I watched him for over an hour flooding each side of the Courthouse steps with water. I guess a broom or a blower would have been to much trouble for him to use. Another example, while at Granite Creek Park there was a large firetruck parked behind Staples in the parking lot. I guess they were doing a clean out of their water tank – I didn’t know water went bad! Anyway, I watched for over twenty minutes while this firetruck shot out thousands and thousands of gallons of water onto the pavement of the parking lot. If this was really necessary then why couldn’t they pull the truck into the park and water the trees? The City of Prescott wastes water and maybe Musk should come an clean house here. Don’t ask the people to cut back their water until the City does and don’t raise our already high water rates because of city abuse.
This is my reply to Justin Kase. The save Prescott and the water the answer is very simple, just stop the building of thousands and thousands of home and adding hotel after hotel. If Prescott keeps growing then more and more water will be needed, pretty simply to understand – at least for most people.
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