ASU’s Free Water Tools Let You Look Up Where Your Tap Water Comes From, and Its AI Bot Sends You Back to the Sources

Ask most people in the East Valley where their tap water comes from and the honest answer is a shrug. It might be the Colorado River, the Salt and Verde rivers, an aquifer, or some mix of all three, and the answer can change from one neighborhood to the next.

A research center at Arizona State University wants to make that question easier to answer. The Kyl Center for Water Policy, part of ASU’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy, is pointing residents to two free tools: About My Water, a map-based app that pulls local water information into one place, and Kyl Bot, an AI chatbot built on the center’s own research. ASU News described both in an Oct. 16 story by Marshall Terrill.

For gardeners in San Tan Valley, Queen Creek, Gilbert and the rest of the region, the tools offer something practical: a faster way to learn which provider serves a given address, where that water comes from and what long-term rules apply to it.

Why local water is hard to read

Sarah Porter, the Kyl Center’s director and a professor of practice in ASU’s Rob Walton College of Global Futures, told ASU News that confusion is understandable because the situation is genuinely local.

“Around the state, and even from community to community, the challenges and opportunities vary, because each community’s water portfolio differs, and different parts of the state rely on different sources of water,” Porter said. “I think this is why many people feel that it’s hard to understand what’s really going on with their water.”

ASU’s story notes that concern is widespread. It cites a poll by the Center for the Future of Arizona that found more than two-thirds of Arizona voters lack confidence that the state has enough long-term water to sustain future needs.

About My Water: a map of your own supply

About My Water lives on the Arizona Water Blueprint, the Kyl Center’s online hub for water data and maps, at azwaterblueprint.asu.edu. The Blueprint describes the app as a way to bring “trusted, publicly-sourced data together in one place to provide a clear view of local water providers, groundwater conditions and water sources.” Its topics include Active Management Areas, groundwater and municipal water.

Porter said the app lets users see whether they are vulnerable to groundwater depletion and which long-term water supply planning requirements apply to their specific water provider. “About My Water provides the basic facts people need to understand what’s going on in any particular part of the state,” she said.

She also offered some reassurance. “The vast majority of Arizonans are served by a water provider that is subject to rigorous long-term water supply requirements that buffer customers from disruptive shortages,” Porter said. “This should temper some of the concerns.”

The Blueprint also offers other maps, including a Groundwater Level Change App, along with help pages on getting started and navigating the maps.

Kyl Bot: an AI that cites its homework

The second tool takes a different approach. Kyl Bot is named in honor of the late U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, whose work on Arizona water policy inspired the center’s creation. According to ASU, it is trained on the Kyl Center’s publications and a curated dataset, and it handles questions about Colorado River policy, groundwater, tribal water agreements, assured water supply, water rights and water accessibility.

Stephen Carradini, an associate professor of technical communication in ASU’s College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, studies how people ask questions online. He explained that the bot builds its answers from the center’s publications and then ends each response with recommended Kyl Center publications and Arizona Water Blueprint tools for further reading.

He offered an example. Asked “Is Tempe running out of water?”, the bot opens with context: “Tempe, like many communities in central Arizona, faces ongoing water supply challenges due to reduced Colorado River flows and long-term drought.” Then it answers directly: “While Tempe is not currently running out of water, the city, along with others in the region, must adapt to shrinking surface water supplies by increasing conservation, using backup groundwater, and investing in infrastructure for water treatment and storage.” Finally, it links to two Kyl Center resources, one on groundwater protection in the Valley and one on how Colorado River shortages affect tap water deliveries in Central Arizona.

When a question goes beyond what the center has published, Carradini said, the bot draws on curated sources, including those behind the Arizona water chatbot at azwaterbot.org, to explain the complexity of the issue.

Porter described the goal in plain terms. She hopes people will think of Kyl Bot as a “friendly reference librarian — someone who can help you find the answers you’re looking for.”

Why a chatbot, and what to keep in mind

Carradini said the choice of an AI tool reflects how search habits are changing. “AI tools are always on and available, allowing people to ask their own questions in real time,” he said. He added that he and his colleague Claire Lauer have found users now expect answers much faster than they did before AI-assisted search.

The design choice that stands out is the hand-off. ASU describes Kyl Bot’s answers as “a starting point,” and Carradini said its real job is to get people to the detailed policy analysis Kyl Center researchers have written and curated over many years. That is a sensible way to use any chatbot on a technical subject: read the summary, then open the source it points to before acting on it.

ASU’s story did not include a direct web address for Kyl Bot in the text we reviewed. Readers looking for it can start at the Kyl Center’s page on the Morrison Institute website, morrisoninstitute.asu.edu, or at the Arizona Water Blueprint.

How a gardener might use them

Neither tool will tell you how long to run a drip line. What they can do is fill in the background behind every watering decision. A homeowner in a newer subdivision can look up which provider serves the neighborhood and what supply rules that provider operates under. Someone deciding between a lawn and a desert landscape can ask the chatbot how groundwater and Colorado River supplies fit together in central Arizona, then read the report it recommends.

Porter said she hopes the app eases worries and invites people into the conversation. “While the state is at an inflection point with respect to water supply, there are solutions, especially for cities,” she said. Learning where your own water comes from is a reasonable first step, and these two tools make it a short one.