Municipal water providers include cities, towns, private water companies, and irrigation districts that deliver groundwater for non-irrigation uses. The Department regulates those providers serving more than 250 acre-feet of water annually as large municipal providers. Those serving 250 acre-feet or less annually are regulated as small municipal providers. Municipal providers that as of January 1, 1990 were annually serving untreated water to at least 500 persons or supplying at least 100 acre-feet of untreated water during a year are regulated under the municipal conservation program as large untreated providers.

The municipal sector in the Pinal AMA includes residential, commercial, and industrial uses and accounts for nearly 30,000 acre-feet, or about 3 percent of the AMA’s total annual water use. Although municipal use of Central Arizona Project (CAP) water began in 1992, the municipal providers that serve water to the AMA’s four incorporated municipalities (Casa Grande, Coolidge, Eloy, and Florence) are still largely dependent on pumped groundwater. Use of reclaimed wastewater (effluent) is steadily increasing but serves only a small portion of municipal demand. Moderate to rapid growth is expected in the municipal sector as new residents continue to move to the area. Over the past two years, the AMA’s population has been increasing at an annual rate in excess of 8 percent. Most of this growth is occurring in the Casa Grande area and in the vicinity of the unincorporated communities of Arizona City and Maricopa.

The Total GPCD Program allows for annual recalculation of the total GPCD components, with conservation reductions ranging from zero to 7 percent applied to residential GPCD rates. Non-residential GPCD rates will be capped at baseline levels for each provider, while lost and unaccounted for water cannot exceed 10 percent.

The ACP, like the Total GPCD Program, calls for reductions in the residential GPCD rate, but does not hold providers regulated under this program to non-residential use requirements. Instead providers must implement a series of Reasonable Conservation Measures (RCMs). The ACP requires that providers cap their groundwater use.

The NPCCP also affords municipal providers an alternative to the Total GPCD Program. The NPCCP is not based on GPCD requirements, but instead utilizes specific RCMs that are designed to achieve water conservation savings equivalent to those of the Total GPCD Program. The NPCCP requires that providers either gradually reduce their groundwater use, using no groundwater by 2010, or obtain a Designation of Assured Water Supply.

Other programs, including the Large Untreated Provider Program, the Institutional Provider Program, and the Small Provider Program, are also included in the Municipal Conservation Program for the Third Management Plan.