FLAGSTAFF — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized the city of Flagstaff Water Conservation program with a 2020 WaterSense Excellence Award for promoting WaterSense and water efficiency in 2019. The Water Conservation Program offers rebates to both businesses and homeowners to install WaterSense labeled toilets, showerheads and faucet aerators. This resulted in thousands of fixture replacements in 2019.
One of the biggest contributions to the Water Conservation Program’s success in getting WaterSense certified fixtures installed throughout the community was a partnership with Bella Investment Group, a local property management service that runs many multifamily housing complexes in Flagstaff. Bella Investment Group made use of the Commercial Rebate Program to assist in the replacement 1,061 toilets, 1,557 showerheads, and 3,018 aerators with efficient WaterSense approved models across six of their apartment complexes. The replacement fixtures exceeded Flagstaff’s plumbing code requirements, with the new toilets ringing in at an ultra-efficient 0.8 gallons per flush. These projects are predicted to save millions of gallons of water over the lifetime of the replaced fixtures.
Veronica Blette, WaterSense Program Manager, attended the Oct. 6 Flagstaff City Council meeting to add, “Flagstaff is certainly on the way to demonstrating how a small community can be a national example of how to work with its citizens to ensure resiliency of its water resources.”
As the Water Conservation Program moves into the implementation of their 2020 Water Conservation Strategic Plan, the utilization of WaterSense certified fixtures will continue to play an important role in ongoing success. “The City of Flagstaff Water Conservation Program relies heavily on the WaterSense Program for their certification of fixtures for both water efficiency and performance,” said Tamara Lawless, City of Flagstaff Water Conservation Manager. “We will continue to depend on their sound advice and resources as water conservation technologies evolve.”