For decades, Western cities like Las Vegas and Tucson, Ariz., have embraced water conservation and recycling as a means of preparing for a multidecade drought like the one we’re experiencing. Despite our best efforts, our neighbors in Southern California, Northern Arizona and Utah have not always followed our lead. Cities like Phoenix, Los Angeles and St. George, Utah, have been allowed to grow at an explosive pace with little planning for where water would come from or how long the supply would last.
But now, the combination of long-term climate change and the megadrought parching the Southwest for the past two decades may have finally dried up the West’s explosive growth. Arizona officials put developers in the country’s fastest-growing metropolitan area, Phoenix, on alert last week after determining that there is not enough groundwater available to support existing permits for residential development, let alone new applications.
While officials said they would not seek to revoke permits for projects that are already approved, they would work with developers to implement new water conservation measures and possibility negotiate to stop construction on certain subdivisions in Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located.
Moving forward, new project proposals will need to prove that they have 100 years of water available without depleting groundwater.
It’s a sign of looming trouble in Arizona and across the West that the delicate balance of surface water and groundwater is no longer sustainable for a rapidly growing population.
On the surface, rising temperatures are causing rivers, lakes and reservoirs like the Colorado River, Lake Mead and Lake Powell to evaporate more quickly. Simultaneously, the same temperature increases mean that humans and crops need more water to survive the scorching heat and dry air of the desert. So, more water is removed from the rivers and reservoirs, making them warmer, shallower and subject to increased evaporation. Rinse and repeat. Until the water runs out.
As surface water dries up, demand for groundwater increases to make up the difference. Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and its suburbs, gets more than half its water supply from groundwater. But groundwater is a largely finite resource that takes thousands of […]
Full article: lasvegassun.com