Help - Word Help is unclear (to me anyway...)
Using MS Word, this is the info I get to index the text starts out with these instructions:
"How to Create an index
1. Do one of the following to mark index entries:
Mark words or phrases
1. To use existing text as an index entry, select the text. To enter your own text as an index entry, click where you want to insert the index entry.
2. Press ALT+SHIFT+X.
etc ..."
Could someone show me an example of the end result and what commands were used to generate this index?
(similar to this limited example: )
Alltucker, Ken p1
Arizona Public Service Co. p2
Arizona Republic, The p1
Bonsall, Mark p2
Salt River Project p1, 2
Salt River Project's
board of directors p2
etc....
=============================
Sample text. Assume 1 inch borders, 5 pages total, each article starts on new page.
-------------
SRP will not pass Palo Verde costs to ratepayers
Ken Alltucker
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 12, 2006 05:48 PM
Salt River Project will absorb $40 million in extra fuel and purchased power costs mainly tied to Palo Verde outages rather than immediately passing the bill to ratepayers.
The public utility's move means a typical Salt River Project residential customer's bill will be $104.17 based on 1,155 kilowatt hours of electricity use.
Salt River Project said it will pay for higher summer fuel costs through its $55 million "rate stabilization fund" that includes extra money the utility socked away during the fiscal year ended April 30, 2005.
"We put some money away from that good year to apply to fuel expenses in the forthcoming year," said Mark Bonsall, SRP's associate general manager of commercial and customer services.
That doesn't mean SRP customers will be immune from a bill increase this fall.
The public utility reviews its fuel costs twice each year and decides whether it needs to charge customers for those costs.
Salt River Project expects its $55 million rainy-day fund will largely be depleted by the end of the year, so the public utility may need to raise its customer fuel charge this fall.
Since 2002, Salt River Project has passed along higher fuel costs to customers five times. Salt River Project also has raised its general electricity rate each of the past two years.
Unlike regulated electrical utilities in Arizona, Salt River Project only needs its board to approve general electricity rate and fuel charge increases. Regulated utilities such as Arizona Public Service Co. need the Arizona Corporation Commission's approval to raise electricity bills.
Salt River Project's board of directors voted in late March to use the utility's rainy day fund rather than raising customers' bills this summer. The board's decision not to raise summer fuel charges came on the eve of an election that saw a majority of its incumbent directors re-elected.
Even though the summer rates were approved more than two weeks ago, SRP spokesman Scott Harelson said the public utility decided to delay announcement until this week to coincide with the mailing of bills and letters to customers explaining the decision.
Bonsall said the main driver of the $40 million in higher costs has been repeated outages at the Palo Verde nuclear plant. The triple-reactor nuclear power plant located in Wintersburg has shut down more than 20 times since February 2004 mainly due to worn equipment, design, maintenance and other problems.
The frequent outages have forced Salt River Project, Arizona Public Service and the plant's five other owners to replace the cheaper nuclear fuel with other, more expensive sources of electricity such as natural gas.
Natural gas prices have fluctuated wildly in recent months. Since peaking in December at more than $15 per British thermal unit, natural gas has dropped below $7 per BTU for May delivery. That's a good trend for SRP customers who must absorb fuel costs, Bonsall said.
APS has not raised its electricity bills as frequently as Salt River Project in recent years, but it has pending emergency and general rate cases that could raise bills more than 20 percent.
APS also wants the Corporation Commission to approve electricity bill increases to pay higher fuel costs related to the Palo Verde outages.
So far, the Phoenix-based utility has asked the state to approve $44.6 million in higher bills to cover last year's Palo Verde-related outages. It expects to seek another $41 million because a vibrating pipe has sapped Unit 1's electricity output this year.
The state agency is conducting a review of those charges to determine whether the Palo Verde outages and related fuel costs were prudently incurred.
The Phoenix-based utility's slow recovery of fuel costs has alarmed Wall Street agencies, which have threatened to downgrade the company's bond rating to junk status. The company's stock also has traded at or near its 52-week low of $38.76 in recent weeks, closing at $39.35 on Wednesday.
Under its existing, state-approved rate structure, APS is allowed to recover 90 percent of proper fuel and power costs. In other words, it's required to pay for 10 percent of those costs.
APS representatives noted that the utility's share of fuel costs in 2005 and 2006 will be $46 million.
Reach the reporter at ken.alltucker@arizonarepublic.com or (602)444-8285.
Lack of rain forces SRP to tap wells
Increased use of groundwater costs more, depletes aquifers
Shaun McKinnon
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 26, 2003 12:00 AM
Arizona's persistent drought and an ever-increasing demand will force Salt River Project to pump nearly 100 billion gallons of groundwater this year, three to five times more than usual.
The utility, known for its namesake river and string of high-country reservoirs, will tap even deeper into the Valley's underground aquifers in 2004 if the coming winter fails to produce enough runoff to replenish the reservoirs.
Pumping that much water costs SRP three to four times more than taking it from reservoirs, officials say. It also adds to the Valley's widening groundwater deficit, the difference between how much water is taken out and how much is returned through recharge projects. The annual deficit could nearly double with SRP's stepped-up pumping.
But utility officials say it's the price of weathering the drought and preparing for more. Mixing in the extra groundwater helps stretch SRP's normal supplies and deliver enough water to Valley communities to avert shortages or even mandatory restrictions.
Although SRP was built around its six storage reservoirs along the Salt and Verde rivers, it normally includes at least some groundwater in its overall supply. The reasons vary: Some customers in the utility's service area, for example, are too far away or uphill from the canals that distribute water from the reservoirs.
"We have areas where we are obligated to provide water where the only way we can get there is from wells," said Mark Hay, principal geohydrologist at SRP.
The utility owns about 300 wells scattered across the Valley and keeps about 250 working or on standby. In a typical year, the wells can supply as much as 25 percent of what SRP delivers, although in years when the reservoirs are full, the amount is much less, even negligible.
Drought changed that. The mix is now about 65 percent groundwater and 35 percent surface water, which in this case means some water from SRP's reservoirs and some from the Central Arizona Project, the Valley's pipeline from the Colorado River.
That means SRP could pump nearly 100 billion gallons this year, nearly its total capacity and far more than the 20 billion to 25 billion gallons it typically takes. The groundwater amounts would be even more lopsided except that SRP has reduced its overall deliveries to cities and farmers by one-third.
In addition, Hay said, "the CAP is a large influx of water we didn't have a few years ago." SRP will purchase as much as 32 billion gallons from CAP this year and again next.
The extra pumping doesn't run afoul of Arizona's groundwater codes, which are among the strictest in the West. The state does not limit SRP on how much water it can pump, although it does regulate where the wells can be drilled, said Dave Roberts, SRP's water rights and contracts manager.
Some of the wells sit alongside and empty into SRP canals. Others empty into lateral canals, and still others are connected directly to the pipelines that deliver water to cities. They can pump 1,000 to 3,000 gallons a minute and are monitored remotely by computers. Depending on demand in a certain area, a pump can be started or stopped at various times during a day.
SRP drills two to four wells each year, mostly to replace older ones. Early in the Valley's history, the wells reached down about 500 feet or less, Hay said. Today, as water tables fall and water quality in the upper aquifers worsens, wells are drilled an average of 1,200 feet deep.
Changing the mix of the water it delivers doesn't affect Valley cities much, although groundwater is generally easier to treat than surface water.
"We treat all water that comes off the canal system the same," said Rick Scott, superintendent of water operations for Glendale.
Using groundwater "actually helps, makes it a bit simpler to treat," said Keith Greenberg, superintendent of water production for Phoenix. But, he added, SRP's altered mix won't affect the city's treatment operations.
Water quality is sampled every few hours and the treatment adjusted based on the results, Greenberg said. The samples would reflect the added groundwater, but the potential savings in treatment chemicals is minor.
The increase in pumping will put extra pressure on the Valley's groundwater supply, which continues to shrink even with the tough regulation. The annual deficit is about 82 billion gallons. SRP will add to it this year by almost the same amount.
But the utility regularly recharges water back into aquifers. Hay said those efforts have produced results. The groundwater table has risen around a key recharge basin near the Granite Reef Dam.
SRP envisions expanding its recharge efforts, Hay said. Some of the wells that were used for years to withdraw water from aquifers likely will be used some day to recharge those same aquifers.
Drought, SRP rationing spur aggressive plans
Shaun McKinnon
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 13, 2004 03:00 PM
Underscoring the seriousness of a drought that has persisted for nearly a decade, Salt River Project voted Monday to ration its dwindling water supply for an unprecedented third consecutive year.
SRP's board of directors voted to again deliver a third less water to its agricultural, municipal and residential customers next year. The utility's water committee recommended the cutbacks, as it has each of the past two years.
The smaller allocations are unlikely to create shortages for homes and businesses because the cities that buy water from SRP can make up the losses from other sources.
Those sources are usually wells or the Central Arizona Project, which delivers Colorado River water to Phoenix.
But the worsening dry spell is pushing some cities to consider more aggressive drought-response plans, including measures to help residents prepare for possible mandatory restrictions if the drought does not ease next year.
"Phoenix is still in a position where we have more water supplies than we have demand," said Tom Buschatzke, the city's senior water adviser. "Our goal is to be able to progressively respond if the drought gets worse, ramping up any actions so it's not all of a sudden that we swing the hammer."
Among the first changes residents could see are limits on outdoor water use, including when and how often sprinklers could be used. In the meantime, Phoenix and other cities plan to refine their drought-response message, increasing public awareness and offering more detailed ideas about using less water.
"We believe this will help the city protect its water entitlements and water rights," Buschatzke said. "We want to show leadership and be willing to take the first step as a city."
SRP has never kept reduced deliveries in place beyond two years, but Charlie Ester, the utility's water resource operations manager, said there was little choice this year but to recommend continued cutbacks.
"It's much more prudent with the conditions of reservoirs at 40 percent full," he said. "If the drought continues or got worse, it's going to put a real strain on those reservoirs. It's best to stay on reduced allocation."
The 101-year-old utility delivers water to farmers, cities and residential irrigation customers. In a normal year, customers receive water based on an allocation of 3 acre-feet per acre of land within SRP's service area. An acre-foot of water is 325,851 gallons, enough to serve one or two households for one year.
The SRP board voted in 2002 to reduce the basic allocation to 2 acre-feet of water per acre of land. The proposal before the board today would leave that smaller allocation in place for 2005.
Ester said the utility's water experts looked at a range of factors before recommending a third year of rationing, including the severity of the drought, the conditions of SRP's six reservoirs and whether it appeared the drought might ease.
"That one's a real coin toss," he said. "There's a ton of consensus that this drought isn't like other droughts, that it's likely to sustain itself for a while."
Even if the coming winter is wetter than the past few years - and a weak El Niño pattern in the Pacific Ocean could send more snow to the Southwest - there's no guarantee dry conditions won't return the following year, Ester said.
During the nine years since this drought began, one brought considerable moisture to Arizona. That was 1998, when the weather was influenced by El Niño.
With SRP's reservoirs at barely 40 percent full, the utility is relying heavily on its wells scattered throughout the Valley and on water borrowed from the CAP. Since 1996, SRP has bought or borrowed more than 600,000 acre-feet from the CAP; without it, Ester said, the reservoirs would have fallen to 14 percent of capacity.
With the cuts in place, SRP's mix of water is 35 percent surface water, from either SRP reservoirs or the CAP, and 65 percent groundwater.
Tempe relies on SRP water more than almost any other city but has been able to avoid limits on residents. Before the allocation was trimmed, SRP water accounted for about 92 percent of the city's supply. That figure is now about 70 percent, with the losses covered by CAP water and wells.
But if SRP cuts its allocation further, Tempe will likely shift from Stage 1 of its drought plan to Stage 2, said Eric Kamienski, city water resource administrator.
Stage 2 could include mandatory conservation measures, such as a ban on heat-of-day lawn watering or limits on the number of days residents could water outdoors.
In the meantime, Tempe could consider more incentives to use less water, such as higher rebates for converting grass to low-water landscaping or swapping old toilets for low-flow models, Kamienski said. The toilet rebate would likely be expanded to include apartments, which could help older buildings near Arizona State University.
Phoenix also will ask residents to consider changes that will reduce water use, Buschatzke said. One program set to roll out will teach homeowners how to perform a sort of "drought triage" on their landscapes, removing high-water-use plants and trees and replacing them with low-water vegetation.
The idea is that if the city imposes water restrictions, homeowners would be less likely to watch their landscape wilt or die.
"If they do it now and get the plants established, then if they have to cut back down the line, they'll have plants that can survive," said Tom Babcock, Phoenix's water conservation chief. The city will offer classes in native landscaping with the help of the Desert Botanical Garden.
Most cities are studying their drought plans with an eye on possible shortages on the Colorado River. The CAP would lose its connection to the river first if the drought deepens, which could cut into the reserve supplies that have protected the Valley even as SRP has tightened its taps.
Using MS Word, this is the info I get to index the text starts out with these instructions:
"How to Create an index
1. Do one of the following to mark index entries:
Mark words or phrases
1. To use existing text as an index entry, select the text. To enter your own text as an index entry, click where you want to insert the index entry.
2. Press ALT+SHIFT+X.
etc ..."
Could someone show me an example of the end result and what commands were used to generate this index?
(similar to this limited example: )
Alltucker, Ken p1
Arizona Public Service Co. p2
Arizona Republic, The p1
Bonsall, Mark p2
Salt River Project p1, 2
Salt River Project's
board of directors p2
etc....
=============================
Sample text. Assume 1 inch borders, 5 pages total, each article starts on new page.
-------------
SRP will not pass Palo Verde costs to ratepayers
Ken Alltucker
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 12, 2006 05:48 PM
Salt River Project will absorb $40 million in extra fuel and purchased power costs mainly tied to Palo Verde outages rather than immediately passing the bill to ratepayers.
The public utility's move means a typical Salt River Project residential customer's bill will be $104.17 based on 1,155 kilowatt hours of electricity use.
Salt River Project said it will pay for higher summer fuel costs through its $55 million "rate stabilization fund" that includes extra money the utility socked away during the fiscal year ended April 30, 2005.
"We put some money away from that good year to apply to fuel expenses in the forthcoming year," said Mark Bonsall, SRP's associate general manager of commercial and customer services.
That doesn't mean SRP customers will be immune from a bill increase this fall.
The public utility reviews its fuel costs twice each year and decides whether it needs to charge customers for those costs.
Salt River Project expects its $55 million rainy-day fund will largely be depleted by the end of the year, so the public utility may need to raise its customer fuel charge this fall.
Since 2002, Salt River Project has passed along higher fuel costs to customers five times. Salt River Project also has raised its general electricity rate each of the past two years.
Unlike regulated electrical utilities in Arizona, Salt River Project only needs its board to approve general electricity rate and fuel charge increases. Regulated utilities such as Arizona Public Service Co. need the Arizona Corporation Commission's approval to raise electricity bills.
Salt River Project's board of directors voted in late March to use the utility's rainy day fund rather than raising customers' bills this summer. The board's decision not to raise summer fuel charges came on the eve of an election that saw a majority of its incumbent directors re-elected.
Even though the summer rates were approved more than two weeks ago, SRP spokesman Scott Harelson said the public utility decided to delay announcement until this week to coincide with the mailing of bills and letters to customers explaining the decision.
Bonsall said the main driver of the $40 million in higher costs has been repeated outages at the Palo Verde nuclear plant. The triple-reactor nuclear power plant located in Wintersburg has shut down more than 20 times since February 2004 mainly due to worn equipment, design, maintenance and other problems.
The frequent outages have forced Salt River Project, Arizona Public Service and the plant's five other owners to replace the cheaper nuclear fuel with other, more expensive sources of electricity such as natural gas.
Natural gas prices have fluctuated wildly in recent months. Since peaking in December at more than $15 per British thermal unit, natural gas has dropped below $7 per BTU for May delivery. That's a good trend for SRP customers who must absorb fuel costs, Bonsall said.
APS has not raised its electricity bills as frequently as Salt River Project in recent years, but it has pending emergency and general rate cases that could raise bills more than 20 percent.
APS also wants the Corporation Commission to approve electricity bill increases to pay higher fuel costs related to the Palo Verde outages.
So far, the Phoenix-based utility has asked the state to approve $44.6 million in higher bills to cover last year's Palo Verde-related outages. It expects to seek another $41 million because a vibrating pipe has sapped Unit 1's electricity output this year.
The state agency is conducting a review of those charges to determine whether the Palo Verde outages and related fuel costs were prudently incurred.
The Phoenix-based utility's slow recovery of fuel costs has alarmed Wall Street agencies, which have threatened to downgrade the company's bond rating to junk status. The company's stock also has traded at or near its 52-week low of $38.76 in recent weeks, closing at $39.35 on Wednesday.
Under its existing, state-approved rate structure, APS is allowed to recover 90 percent of proper fuel and power costs. In other words, it's required to pay for 10 percent of those costs.
APS representatives noted that the utility's share of fuel costs in 2005 and 2006 will be $46 million.
Reach the reporter at ken.alltucker@arizonarepublic.com or (602)444-8285.
Lack of rain forces SRP to tap wells
Increased use of groundwater costs more, depletes aquifers
Shaun McKinnon
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 26, 2003 12:00 AM
Arizona's persistent drought and an ever-increasing demand will force Salt River Project to pump nearly 100 billion gallons of groundwater this year, three to five times more than usual.
The utility, known for its namesake river and string of high-country reservoirs, will tap even deeper into the Valley's underground aquifers in 2004 if the coming winter fails to produce enough runoff to replenish the reservoirs.
Pumping that much water costs SRP three to four times more than taking it from reservoirs, officials say. It also adds to the Valley's widening groundwater deficit, the difference between how much water is taken out and how much is returned through recharge projects. The annual deficit could nearly double with SRP's stepped-up pumping.
But utility officials say it's the price of weathering the drought and preparing for more. Mixing in the extra groundwater helps stretch SRP's normal supplies and deliver enough water to Valley communities to avert shortages or even mandatory restrictions.
Although SRP was built around its six storage reservoirs along the Salt and Verde rivers, it normally includes at least some groundwater in its overall supply. The reasons vary: Some customers in the utility's service area, for example, are too far away or uphill from the canals that distribute water from the reservoirs.
"We have areas where we are obligated to provide water where the only way we can get there is from wells," said Mark Hay, principal geohydrologist at SRP.
The utility owns about 300 wells scattered across the Valley and keeps about 250 working or on standby. In a typical year, the wells can supply as much as 25 percent of what SRP delivers, although in years when the reservoirs are full, the amount is much less, even negligible.
Drought changed that. The mix is now about 65 percent groundwater and 35 percent surface water, which in this case means some water from SRP's reservoirs and some from the Central Arizona Project, the Valley's pipeline from the Colorado River.
That means SRP could pump nearly 100 billion gallons this year, nearly its total capacity and far more than the 20 billion to 25 billion gallons it typically takes. The groundwater amounts would be even more lopsided except that SRP has reduced its overall deliveries to cities and farmers by one-third.
In addition, Hay said, "the CAP is a large influx of water we didn't have a few years ago." SRP will purchase as much as 32 billion gallons from CAP this year and again next.
The extra pumping doesn't run afoul of Arizona's groundwater codes, which are among the strictest in the West. The state does not limit SRP on how much water it can pump, although it does regulate where the wells can be drilled, said Dave Roberts, SRP's water rights and contracts manager.
Some of the wells sit alongside and empty into SRP canals. Others empty into lateral canals, and still others are connected directly to the pipelines that deliver water to cities. They can pump 1,000 to 3,000 gallons a minute and are monitored remotely by computers. Depending on demand in a certain area, a pump can be started or stopped at various times during a day.
SRP drills two to four wells each year, mostly to replace older ones. Early in the Valley's history, the wells reached down about 500 feet or less, Hay said. Today, as water tables fall and water quality in the upper aquifers worsens, wells are drilled an average of 1,200 feet deep.
Changing the mix of the water it delivers doesn't affect Valley cities much, although groundwater is generally easier to treat than surface water.
"We treat all water that comes off the canal system the same," said Rick Scott, superintendent of water operations for Glendale.
Using groundwater "actually helps, makes it a bit simpler to treat," said Keith Greenberg, superintendent of water production for Phoenix. But, he added, SRP's altered mix won't affect the city's treatment operations.
Water quality is sampled every few hours and the treatment adjusted based on the results, Greenberg said. The samples would reflect the added groundwater, but the potential savings in treatment chemicals is minor.
The increase in pumping will put extra pressure on the Valley's groundwater supply, which continues to shrink even with the tough regulation. The annual deficit is about 82 billion gallons. SRP will add to it this year by almost the same amount.
But the utility regularly recharges water back into aquifers. Hay said those efforts have produced results. The groundwater table has risen around a key recharge basin near the Granite Reef Dam.
SRP envisions expanding its recharge efforts, Hay said. Some of the wells that were used for years to withdraw water from aquifers likely will be used some day to recharge those same aquifers.
Drought, SRP rationing spur aggressive plans
Shaun McKinnon
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 13, 2004 03:00 PM
Underscoring the seriousness of a drought that has persisted for nearly a decade, Salt River Project voted Monday to ration its dwindling water supply for an unprecedented third consecutive year.
SRP's board of directors voted to again deliver a third less water to its agricultural, municipal and residential customers next year. The utility's water committee recommended the cutbacks, as it has each of the past two years.
The smaller allocations are unlikely to create shortages for homes and businesses because the cities that buy water from SRP can make up the losses from other sources.
Those sources are usually wells or the Central Arizona Project, which delivers Colorado River water to Phoenix.
But the worsening dry spell is pushing some cities to consider more aggressive drought-response plans, including measures to help residents prepare for possible mandatory restrictions if the drought does not ease next year.
"Phoenix is still in a position where we have more water supplies than we have demand," said Tom Buschatzke, the city's senior water adviser. "Our goal is to be able to progressively respond if the drought gets worse, ramping up any actions so it's not all of a sudden that we swing the hammer."
Among the first changes residents could see are limits on outdoor water use, including when and how often sprinklers could be used. In the meantime, Phoenix and other cities plan to refine their drought-response message, increasing public awareness and offering more detailed ideas about using less water.
"We believe this will help the city protect its water entitlements and water rights," Buschatzke said. "We want to show leadership and be willing to take the first step as a city."
SRP has never kept reduced deliveries in place beyond two years, but Charlie Ester, the utility's water resource operations manager, said there was little choice this year but to recommend continued cutbacks.
"It's much more prudent with the conditions of reservoirs at 40 percent full," he said. "If the drought continues or got worse, it's going to put a real strain on those reservoirs. It's best to stay on reduced allocation."
The 101-year-old utility delivers water to farmers, cities and residential irrigation customers. In a normal year, customers receive water based on an allocation of 3 acre-feet per acre of land within SRP's service area. An acre-foot of water is 325,851 gallons, enough to serve one or two households for one year.
The SRP board voted in 2002 to reduce the basic allocation to 2 acre-feet of water per acre of land. The proposal before the board today would leave that smaller allocation in place for 2005.
Ester said the utility's water experts looked at a range of factors before recommending a third year of rationing, including the severity of the drought, the conditions of SRP's six reservoirs and whether it appeared the drought might ease.
"That one's a real coin toss," he said. "There's a ton of consensus that this drought isn't like other droughts, that it's likely to sustain itself for a while."
Even if the coming winter is wetter than the past few years - and a weak El Niño pattern in the Pacific Ocean could send more snow to the Southwest - there's no guarantee dry conditions won't return the following year, Ester said.
During the nine years since this drought began, one brought considerable moisture to Arizona. That was 1998, when the weather was influenced by El Niño.
With SRP's reservoirs at barely 40 percent full, the utility is relying heavily on its wells scattered throughout the Valley and on water borrowed from the CAP. Since 1996, SRP has bought or borrowed more than 600,000 acre-feet from the CAP; without it, Ester said, the reservoirs would have fallen to 14 percent of capacity.
With the cuts in place, SRP's mix of water is 35 percent surface water, from either SRP reservoirs or the CAP, and 65 percent groundwater.
Tempe relies on SRP water more than almost any other city but has been able to avoid limits on residents. Before the allocation was trimmed, SRP water accounted for about 92 percent of the city's supply. That figure is now about 70 percent, with the losses covered by CAP water and wells.
But if SRP cuts its allocation further, Tempe will likely shift from Stage 1 of its drought plan to Stage 2, said Eric Kamienski, city water resource administrator.
Stage 2 could include mandatory conservation measures, such as a ban on heat-of-day lawn watering or limits on the number of days residents could water outdoors.
In the meantime, Tempe could consider more incentives to use less water, such as higher rebates for converting grass to low-water landscaping or swapping old toilets for low-flow models, Kamienski said. The toilet rebate would likely be expanded to include apartments, which could help older buildings near Arizona State University.
Phoenix also will ask residents to consider changes that will reduce water use, Buschatzke said. One program set to roll out will teach homeowners how to perform a sort of "drought triage" on their landscapes, removing high-water-use plants and trees and replacing them with low-water vegetation.
The idea is that if the city imposes water restrictions, homeowners would be less likely to watch their landscape wilt or die.
"If they do it now and get the plants established, then if they have to cut back down the line, they'll have plants that can survive," said Tom Babcock, Phoenix's water conservation chief. The city will offer classes in native landscaping with the help of the Desert Botanical Garden.
Most cities are studying their drought plans with an eye on possible shortages on the Colorado River. The CAP would lose its connection to the river first if the drought deepens, which could cut into the reserve supplies that have protected the Valley even as SRP has tightened its taps.