Just because Phoenix is in the desert doesn't mean you have to use lots of water. The number one killer of all plants and lawns in the desert is caused by overwatering. For some reason people think that everything has to be watered every day. This is just not true and is a waste of water.
In Phoenix and the surrounding cities Bermuda grass is grown in the summer. Bermuda grass is drought tolerant and can withstand the extreme summer heat for two full days without water or turning brown. Water every third day to encourage deeper roots to reduce stress. A 15' x 15' area or 225 sq feet of Bermuda grass needs only 139.5 gallons per week. You only need to apply 69.75 gallons of water twice a week. For a 10' x 10' or 100 sq feet of Bermuda it's 62 gallons per week or 31 gallons twice a week. Since Bermuda grass is only grown from May to October the total gallons per season is only 3,348 or 1,488 gallons per season.
A 15' x 15' or 225 sq feet of overseeded winter Rye grass needs approx. 52 gallons a week total applied every 3 to 7 days (depending on rainfall) after established. Watering 2 times a week means applying 26 gallons every time you water. Rye being a winter grass it's only grown for 6 months of the year making it's total water requirements 1,238 gallons per year.
This makes for a grand total of 4,586 gallons of water for a 15' x15' or 225 sq feet of lawn per year. If you have a community of 174 homes with roughly the same size lawns the approx. yearly cost of water would be $12,000.00.
By adding up all the areas that are grassed that is common but, not including the 15' x 15' lawn directly in front of the homes. Then dividing by 225 & multiplying by 139.5 for Bermuda and 52 for Rye (gallons per week for 225 sq feet) to get the gallons per week. Then take the gallon per week for Bermuda times 24 then do the same for Rye and add the two numbers together for the yearly total.
Then take the water bill and divide the number of gallons used by the total cost to get the price per gallon. Take the number of gallons per year for a 15' x15' lawn and multiply by the number of homes. Add to that the amount of total gallons used for all other areas then multiply by the cost per gallon. This will tell you approx. how much you should be paying for watering the landscape.
Don't forget that any difference can be attributed to the pool and spa. If the difference is more than you think it should be it's time to investigate. Ask your landscapers how much water is being applied in total everytime they water. Then ask them the total number of sq feet that is being watered. Then run the numbers to see if they are over watering. If not, talk to the pool guy.
I would say if the difference is $5,000 or more there is a problem. If the problem isn't with the pool or irrigation then have someone check the bathroom plumbing and make sure an owner didn't tapped into the community sprinklers. If all else fails call the city and have a water audit done.
Once everything checks out I suggest putting the pool, spa, and bathrooms on one meter and the sprinklers on another meter for easy monitoring.
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