Here in Tucson, we live in the incomparable beauty and grandeur that is the Sonoran Desert. Because we live in the desert, our water supply is limited. We Tucsonans understand that water is precious, and we conserve water more effectively than almost any other place in the nation.

Even with our culture of conservation, we’re going to need to do more. Tucsonans have told me that they’re worried that Fred is talking about the inevitability of funneling treated sewage water directly to our taps.

Fred has been talking favorably about a new Tucson Water study that calls for the use of sewage water for drinking as something we must embrace in our future. I’m sorry, but I disagree. That Tucson Water report simply projects our current development and growth trends into the future, without assuming any change in our patterns.

I believe that the people of Tucson, with our proud history of water conservation, are willing to change our growth patterns away from wasteful sprawl and toward more compact, water-wise development, instead of using treated sewage as fuel for unplanned growth.

As a councilmember, I will focus on conserving the water we have, making sure that new developments must meet strict water use limits and encouraging more compact projects so we can grow sustainably, then we won’t have to drink our own sewage.

If we do that, we’ll discover that more compact development provides the added benefit of making it cheaper for all of us to live, drive, and pay taxes in the city as well. That’s what a group of Utah business, government, and community leaders discovered when they overcame differences and created their own smart-growth and water-conservation organization called Envision Utah.

If good planning can be done in the reddest of red states, it can be done here in Tucson. I intend to lead the effort to bring the entire community to consensus on growing in a healthy way and assuring a secure water supply and a better future for our children and grandchildren.