Water Conservation: Rules in Phoenix-Area Cities

Phoenix City Code makes it a violation to knowingly waste water, such as letting it run off your property, run down the gutter, or flow from a broken line you fail to fix. The rule supports water conservation in the desert, and repeat violations can bring warnings and fines from the City.

Mesa's code has four shortage stages. Stage One is informational and voluntary. Stage Two limits landscape watering hours and bans decorative water features and misters. Stage Three adds weekly watering, water served in restaurants on request and a conservation plan for large users. Stage Four adds a 25% surcharge on commercial use over 65 KGAL a month.

Chandler says its City Code requires any development with a common area of more than five acres to use reclaimed water inside the reclaimed delivery area. Using reclaimed water takes a city agreement and a reclaimed meter on each parcel, and Chapter 53 requires the pipe, valves and outlets to be marked purple.

Chandler's large user rebates cover multi-family, HOA and commercial or industrial accounts: 25% of a grass removal project up to $20,000, 50% of smart irrigation controller cost up to $3,000, and up to 50% of qualifying water-efficient technology such as leak monitoring and permanent submeters. Funds are limited and the city asks for applications before work starts.

Tempe City Code 33-123 prohibits letting water escape through breaks, leaks or malfunctions in a user's plumbing after the leak should reasonably have been discovered and corrected. A first violation gets a verbal notice. Repeat violations within 12 months bring a written notice, a water audit, billing surcharges and, after the fourth, shutoff.