May 2006 – Tucson Turnaround & Beyond
David Modeer
Director of Tucson Water
City of Tucson, Arizona
Tucson has long recognized the value of adequate water supplies. Tucson Water's flagship water
conservation program, Beat the Peak, celebrates its 30th year in 2006. The City's Reclaimed Water program
has provided an alternative irrigation supply for more than 22 years. However, as this desert community has
grown from a small town to a major metropolitan area with nearly 1 million residents, the need for additional
water supplies to augment a rapidly declining groundwater supply became acute.
In the early 1990s, Tucson's goal of securing an additional water source was realized with the completion of
the Central Arizona Project canal system, which brought a renewable supply of Colorado River water to the
region. Unfortunately, the initial introduction of this supply to drinking water customers was unsuccessful due
to mistakes in water treatment that exacerbated the aggressive nature of this new water supply, an accelerated
distribution which destabilized decades of corrosion from pipe and plumbing interiors, and a failure to
address customer concerns in a proactive and timely fashion.
Tucson Water's At the Tap program grew out of the recognition that in order to regain public trust both in the
Utility and in Colorado River water, the organization needed to look at water issues from the customer's
perspective, and build a greater understanding of water issues throughout the community. A dedicated staff,
working with a number of community partners, successfully turned both the Utility and public opinion around,
and has led to a community-wide partnership whose goal is to resolve water supply and management
challenges in an open and deliberative manner.
As the community looks to the decades ahead, the challenges of providing adequate supplies of safe,
acceptable and affordable water will grow. Tucson Water's Long-Range Plan lays out a number of potential
futures and will guide discussions with customers, Mayor and Council, and other primary stakeholders.
Ultimately, the decisions made through this collaborative process will determine the long-term sustainability of
the greater Tucson area.
From 1991 until he became Director of Tucson Water in August 1998, David Modeer served as Vice
President of Operations for the Pennsylvania-American Water Company, a subsidiary of American Water
Works, Inc., which provides water service to 533,000 customers and operates 32 water filtration plants and
35 separate distribution systems. Currently, David Modeer is Director of Utility Services for the City of Tucson.
He oversees two City Departments Environmental Services and Tucson Water.
Announcement (44K pdf)
Presentation (1.2M PDF file)
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