This is probably more of a Phoenix metro question, but since we are looking at Sun City as a future home posting here makes sense. With the on-going drought what are the issues folks in Sun City are seeing? Water rationing, etc. My wife is very concerned about this because of media scare tactics, but from an outsider point of view it seems this would be a common theme living in the desert. So looking for thoughts/opinions from the folks already living in Sun City.
Good question BW and one I wanted to think about. If memory serves me, we had more watering bans in Minnesota than I have seen during my 11 years living in Sun City. There's a reason for that, and frankly I suspect if we lived in Phoenix or a suburb with lots of grass front and back yards it wouldn't be the case. Let's look at some stats: With just over 27,000 rooftops in Sun City, two-thirds of them (18,000+) are single family dwellings. I'll take a wild guess and say 98.3% of them have gravel yards. That leaves 9000 condo's, twin homes, garden court apartments and patio homes. Initially most of those were built and sold to folks wanting green space; often winter visitors. With the price to water and maintain those green spaces a good number have converted some or all of their common areas to desert landscaping...thereby reducing costs over the long haul. Simply put, our watering costs in Sun City on private residence is far less than many other communities. Of course there is the other side of the coin: With 8 golf courses, the Sun Bowl, the softball field, Meeker Mountain and the lush landscape on it and 6 lawn bowling greens, the RCSC has a monstrous water bill. I have argued often the value of 5 to 6 million dollar golf course renovations, but never once complained of our aggressive revamp of our water irrigation and distribution. In fact, the state of the art systems we are installing are absolute money savers (to say nothing of the water volume we are reducing). We are constantly upgrading old wells and the deal we made with the Department of Natural Resources (?) to cut costs with a strategic long term plan was critical in getting a waiver for the leakage we have at Viewpoint Lake. Just saying, we are doing all the right things. Even Maricopa County is getting in on the act. Our medians in Phase 1 have long been an eyesore and flooding the grassy sections has raised criticism from all who have seen the waste. Within the next 3 months they will be finished with a project that will cut water usage by at least half and still provide grassy areas for dogs to wander and do their business. For sure, long term water will be an issue in all the southern states. I can't speak for the rest of Arizona, but Sun City has made and will continue to make changes that will be good for the environment and the community. That is the beauty of Sun City living; we have the capacity to identify problems and address them without a lot of political red tape.
Thanks for the info Bill. Well hopefully this long drought in the west and southwest will end soon. We in Colorado have had an exceptionally wet year, my basement got flooded twice and we are still getting monsoon storms. On my soap box for a minute. We went through a few years of water rationing a few years ago and it drives me crazy that all the HOAs in Colorado, which is a high plains desert, require us to have nice pretty bluegrass lawns. Crazy! We as a nation take water for granted, as you pointed out too many green lawns in Phoenix. Right now government officials treat this drought as a state by state issue, but it is a national issue or at the very least a multi-state issue that needs to be treated as such. OK, stepping off the soap box. I'm happy to hear Sun City and Maricopa county are doing the right things for the good of everyone.
I did not know that Colorado got monsoon storms. Re water. Yesterday I read that the drought in California might just cause more problems than rationing. Apparently, it could cause earthquakes because of the lack of underground water.
Yes, Colorado gets some nasty spring/summer storms. The monsoon flow comes up and hits us big time. About a month ago it rained and hailed so fast and furious for about 30 minutes that we had knee deep water running between houses, hence why my basement flooded. We live on a slight hillside and it washed out our pea gravel path that I am in the process of rebuilding. Snow pack is still down some so the Colorado river downstream is not enough for everyone. We don't get water from the CO river, but all the lakes and reservoirs are full and water is plentiful, at least for now. Yeah, California is in pretty bad shape with water, in other ways too, but that is another discussion. ;-) We have been gone from CA for 16 years, but we still have family there that are struggling through the drought.
