Arizona Archives

Opinion: Colorado River Deal Forever Changes the Price of Water in the West

June 6, 2023/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Kristiene Gong /CalMattersby Grayson Zulauf

For the first time in this drought-stricken century, a new price for water in the West has been set – and it’s 25 times higher than what farmers have paid for the last 75 years.

Arizona, Nevada and California recently agreed to reduce their water consumption from the Colorado River by 13% through 2026. The federal government will pay their irrigation districts, Native American tribes and cities $521 for each acre-foot of water they don’t use.

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Arizona Limits Construction Around Phoenix as Its Water Supply Dwindles

June 2, 2023/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /The New York Times by Christopher Flavelle and Jack Healy

Arizona has determined that there is not enough groundwater for all of the housing construction that has already been approved in the Phoenix area, and will stop developers from building some new subdivisions, a sign of looming trouble in the West and other places where overuse, drought and climate change are straining water supplies.

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SoCal Water Officials Hail Tri-State Agreement to Cut Colorado River Usage

May 23, 2023/in Home Headline, Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Mike Lee /Times of San Diegoby Debbie L. Sklar Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

Leaders of Southern California’s water wholesaler hailed a three-state agreement announced Monday aimed at dramatically reducing the amount of water pulled from the Colorado River over the next three years.

The proposed deal among California, Nevada, Arizona and the federal government would stave off what could have been far more dramatic cuts imposed by federal regulators had the states not brokered a deal by the end of the month.

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As Arizona Looks to Desalination as a Drought Solution, Questions Mount

May 2, 2023/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Fox 10 Phoenixby Steve Nielsen Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

While Arizona received more rain and snow in recent months, a wet winter will not save the state from the decades-long mega-drought that is gripping the region. Water officials have worked on finding unique solutions, including desalination.

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Wildflowers Are Popping Up Across the Western United States

April 21, 2023/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /NPR

A wet winter in parts of California and Arizona means an epic wildflower season. In some areas the so-called “superbloom” can be seen from space.

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Opinion: Your Water Bill is Going to Go Up. Arizona Can’t Keep Ignoring This Fact

February 24, 2023/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /AZ Centralby Joanna Allhands

Water is going to get more expensive.

It’s a matter of supply and demand:

Clean, easily accessible water is dwindling across Arizona, while those who rely on it aren’t going anywhere. That means we’ll all pay more for the thing that no desert dweller can live without.

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A Suburb in Arizona Lost Its Source of Water. Residents Warn: We’re Only the Beginning

February 22, 2023/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /CBCby Alexander Panetta

A man in Arizona sees a glimpse of a potentially frightening future. A future where the planet is hotter, the soil is drier, and our most precious resource is evaporating.

His job is delivering water. And his job is getting harder.

John Hornewer is now having to drive hours farther each day to fill his truck, which, in turn, fills the subterranean tanks at homes in an area outside Phoenix.

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Nevada Outlines Framework for Colorado River Cuts as States Show Their Cards

January 13, 2023/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /The Nevada Independent by Daniel Rothberg

At the end of last year, the seven states in the Colorado River Basin committed to once again work together and negotiate a consensus framework for making significant cuts to water use, an attempt to stabilize the nation’s two largest reservoirs and avoid an even deeper shortage crisis.

The states recommitted to considering a consensus deal, by Jan. 31, after several deadlines passed in 2022 — with seemingly irreconcilable differences over how to make painful cuts in a watershed relied upon by 40 million people who use the river for drinking water and agriculture.

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In a Water Deficit, Arizona Contemplates a Future Without Colorado River Access

January 11, 2023/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Courthouse News Serviceby Joe Duhownik

Water from the Colorado River covers more than a third of Arizona’s total water usage, but the state is increasingly losing access to that supply.

The state is no longer in what Terry Goddard, the president of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District Board of Directors, called “a fool’s paradise.” Arizona had maintined a surplus of water since the mid-1980s, but that’s not the case today. Now, it’s losing water, and it’s losing it fast.

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How Colorado River Cities Are Preparing for Shortages With Conservation and Alternate Sources

December 30, 2022/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /The Arizona Republicby Brandon Loomis

The grass beneath the palm trees at the Foothills has no function other than to look lush and inviting for people driving up to the gated community’s entrance. The homeowners’ association there, like many that govern such developments dating to the 1980s and 1990s, was still sprinkling Colorado River water on about 50,000 square feet of turf this year.

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