Huge water bills ‑ No problem
by Barry Cohen

CAREFREE – When it comes to public services, the more you use, the more you pay. But that fact of life doesn’t seem to matter in Carefree, one of the state’s wealthiest communities.

So what financial penalties could possibly be imposed upon well‑to‑do residents who are using an excessive share of the community’s water and have no problem paying big monthly water bills?

That’s one of the key issues confronting Carefree councilman Greg Gardner and other members of the town’s water conservation and emergency/drought preparedness committee. By January, the town‑owned Carefree Water Co. and other water systems throughout Arizona are required to

submit their water conservation plans to the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

“One of the problems we have is that many people in Carefree have more money than brains,” Gardner said about the challenge of devising ways to get residents to cut back.

Carefree is one of the biggest consumers of water in Maricopa County, based on per capita consumption, according to a 2005 survey by the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona. On average, each customer uses 186,000 gallons a month.

Cave Creek and Scottsdale are no slouches, either, when it comes to turning on the spigot. Cave Creek’s annual per capita consumption is 168,000 gallons and Scottsdale’s is at 272,000 gallons, the survey stated.

However, Scottsdale’s figures include water it sells to other municipalities, each of which is counted as a single customer, said Stan Francom, general manager of Carefree Water Co.

For example, Carefree, which purchases water from Scottsdale, is considered one single customer but this year is expected to purchase nearly 90 million gallons from its neighbor to the south.

Also, since children and large families use a lot of water for showers and laundry, Scottsdale would be expected to use more water per capita than Carefree, which has more mature households by comparison, Francom related. Considering single‑family homes only, Scottsdale’s per capita annual consumption is 194,400 gallons.

Francom says he has seen monthly water bills in Carefree that range from $500 to as high as $1,000. And even those charges don’t seem to deter excessive usage, he adds.

About 70 percent of the water used in Carefree is for irrigation, according to Francom. “We have a lot of part‑time residents, and when they leave during the summer months they turn their irrigation systems on and leave them on,” he explained.

Landscapers also contribute to the problem. “They use a lot of water on the grass and plants because they want to impress the property owner–show them they’re doing a great job of keeping the grounds looking nice.”

Francom points out the town encourages people to use more desert landscaping and to avoid non‑native plants. But since so many Carefree residents relocated from other parts of the country where water is plentiful and plush lawns are the norm, it’s difficult getting the message across.

Gardner notes the town already provides residents with tips about conserving water in their monthly bills and in the town newsletter. The decision about when to implement the conservation plan will be made by the water company’s board of directors. He said the plan will probably start with voluntary conservation, with a goal of cutting water use by 10 percent in the first phase and another five percent in the second phase.