Water Plan: 2000-2050
Choosing the Pathways to
Tucson's Water Future
Our growing desert community has some tough choices to make. Tucson Water’s Long Range Water Plan lays out the challenges and opportunities we all face if we want to ensure a secure water future for our families and ourselves. Below you will find links to the entire 255 page document or individual chapters and articles.
To make this information more accessible to all of our customers, Tucson Water has produced a brief overview of the Long Range Plan (6 pages; 652 Kb PDF). This overview will provide you with projections about our current and future water needs and the water supplies that we have available to meet that growing demand. You'll learn about the critical decisions that our community must make in the years ahead and Tucson Water's recommendations on how to ensure we have enough high quality water to meet our needs while protecting our environment and our quality of life.
We welcome your feedback, comments, or questions. After reading these pages, you may return to this page and send us an email by using this button:
To conserve bandwidth (and reduce your time spent waiting for a large file download), the major sections of this document are presented below as much smaller individual PDF files. If you would prefer, you may download Water Plan: 2000-2050 as a single large PDF file (255 pages; 6.46 Mb) by choosing the underlined link above.
For more information on how the plan was created, please visit our Long Range Water Resources Planning page.
Water Plan: 2000-2050
Table of Contents
- Cover (1 page; 231 Kb)
- Acknowledgements (1 page; 16 Kb)
- Executive Summary (15 pages; 298 Kb)
- Table of Contents (4 pages; 21 Kb)
- List of Acronyms (2 pages; 12 Kb)
- Chapter One: Introduction (5 pages; 189 Kb)
- Geographic Setting
- The Planning Goals
- The Planning Process
- Contents of the Report
- Chapter Two: A Community Creates a Demand (10 pages; 2 Mb)
- Prior to 1880: Life Along the Santa Cruz River
- Post-1880 to World War II: A Lessening Stream
- World War II to 2000: The Community Expands
- Planning for a Sustainable Future
- Chapter Three: Projections of Population and Water Demand (13 pages; 1 Mb)
- Long-Range Planning Area
- Projections of Population
- Per Capita Water Usage Rates
- Projections of Total Water Demand
- External Factors That Can Affect Future Demand
- Demand Management
- The Role of Projected Demand in Water Planning
- Chapter Four: Available Water Resources (16 pages; 623 Kb)
- The Assured Water Supply Program
- Ground Water
- Colorado River Water
- Effluent
- Summary
- Chapter Five: Water Delivery Systems (10 pages; 708 Kb)
- Existing Water Systems
- Identifying Potable and Reclaimed System Needs
- Putting the Planning Pieces Together
- Chapter Six: The Planning Process (16 pages; 101 Kb)
- Integrated Resource-Planning Components
- Plan Development Process
- Scenario Planning for Water Plan: 2000-2050
- Combining the Scenario Planning Assessments
- Pathways to 2050
- Chapter Seven: The Recommended Plan (20 pages; 117 Kb)
- Common Elements and Critical Decisions
- Plan Recommendations
- Costs
- Summary
- Chapter Eight: Future Issues and Challenges (9 pages; 52 Kb)
- Legal/Regulatory Issues
- Public Acceptance of Renewable Sources of Supply
- Resource Management Issues
- Jurisdictional Issues
- Beyond 2050
- References (3 pages; 20 Kb)
- Glossary (6 pages; 29 Kb)
- Appendices
- A. Other Water Users in the Region (6 pages; 40 Kb)
- B. Demand Management Program Development (13 pages; 72 Kb)
- C. Assured Water Supply Implementation (9 pages; 53 Kb)
- D. Planning Methodology (25 pages; 153 Kb)
- E. Federal, State, and Local Regulations and Policies (10 pages; 44 Kb)
- F. Cost Information (62 pages; 920 Kb)
- Plate 1
- Recommended Plan Summary (reduced: 1 page, 8.5" x 11"; 68 Kb)
- Recommended Plan Summary (full size: 1 page, 17" x 22"; 73 Kb)
- List of Tables (see corresponding Chapter for file size)
- 3-1. Population Counts and Projections for Water Plan: 2000-2050
- 3-2. Comparison of Single-Family Residential Water Usage
- 4-1. Central Arizona Project Allocations in the Tucson AMA (Acre Feet)
- 4-2. Local Effluent Entitlements in 2003
- 5-1. Projected Potable System Expansion Costs in 2030 and 2050 (current dollars)
- 6-1. Pathways to 2050 – Schedule of Projects
- 6-2. Ratings of Pathways to 2050
- 7-1. Cost Comparisons
- 7-2. Meeting the Planning Goals
- List of Figures (see corresponding Chapter for file size)
- 1-1. Map of the Greater Tucson Area
- 1-2. Plan Development Sequence
- 2-1. Boundary of the Tucson Active Management Area
- 2-2. Historical Water Use in the Tucson AMA by Sector: 1941-2000
- 2-3. Total Water Production by Municipal Water Providers in the Tucson AMA in 2000
- 3-1. Long-Range Planning Area
- 3-2. Population Projections from 2000 to 2050
- 3-3. Tucson Water Service Area Population Distribution in 2000
- 3-4. Tucson Water Service Area Population Distribution in 2030
- 3-5. Tucson Water’s Projected Total Annual Water Demand from 2000-2050
- 3-6. Potable Water Demand for Tucson Water’s Service Area, 2000
- 3-7. Projected Potable Water Demand for Tucson Water’s Service Area, 2030
- 4-1. The Central Arizona Project Aqueduct
- 4-2. Existing and Proposed Clearwater Program Facilities
- 4-3. Projected Demand and Available Sustainable Water Resources, 2000-2050
- 5-1. Tucson Water’s Well Fields
- 5-2. Tucson Water’s Potable Distribution System as of 2000
- 5-3. Tucson Water’s Reclaimed Distribution Pipeline System in 2000
- 5-4. Sources of Supply to the Reclaimed Water System
- 5-5. Potential Expansions of Tucson Water’s Potable System through 2050
- 6-1. The One-Dimensional Planning Approach
- 6-2. The Scenario Planning Approach
- 6-3. The Four Scenario Planning Futures Developed for the Clearwater Program
- 6-4. Clearwater Program Common Elements and Pathways
- 6-5. The Eight Scenario Planning Futures Developed for Possible Effluent Reuse
- 6-6. The Sets of Common Elements for Effluent Reuse
- 6-7. The Families of Futures
- 6-8. Pathways to the Families of Futures
- 7-1. Projected Total Demand and Use of Resources for the Recommended Plan
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