No. of Recommendations: 6
Yeah, the Times has a piece today. Sounds like Phoenix and Tucson are going to take pipe, and not in a good way.
America’s Desert Metropolis Is on the Short List to Lose Water
Decades ago, the state won funding for a massive Colorado River project by agreeing to be first in line for cuts at a time of deep drought. The Trump administration says that time has come. From a secure, windowless room in northern Phoenix, technicians control the Colorado River water that sustains America’s largest desert metropolis.
The vast canal system the team oversees has for four decades conveyed an increasingly scarce commodity across 330 miles of rugged terrain to slake blossoming subdivisions, sprawling farmland and, in recent years, a powerhouse semiconductor industry. It supercharged Arizona’s economy and transformed Phoenix into one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities.
But this lifeline, known as the Central Arizona Project, came with a catch. In exchange for billions of federal dollars to build it, the state agreed to lower-priority water rights, putting the aqueduct among the first in line for cuts in a time of deep drought.
“It was the price we had to pay,” said Kathryn Sorensen, a former water director for the city of Phoenix. “The chickens have come home to roost.” nytimes.com - Arizona canals colorado river 