WORDS BY TOM PITTS | ILLUSTRATION BY ERIN HAMBRICK
Before you begin reading, please pour yourself a glass of water with a couple of ice cubes to honor the season. Now, think about how many millennia passed before anyone where you are today could have such easy access to a glass of cool water. Arizona has never had enough water for its settled population. That has been obvious since the early days of statehood. In 1922, Arizona participated in a seven-state compact to secure Colorado River water for Maricopa, Pinal, and Pima counties, primarily for Phoenix and Tucson.
One hundred percent of our water, on the other hand, comes from local rainwater and snowmelt. We claim, capture, and use that water via aquifer-fed wells, springs, or river-fed irrigation systems, recycling where possible. Regardless of how we use it, someone else claimed it long ago. According to a recent study by the Arizona Tri-University Recharge and Water Reliability Project, more than 95 percent of the precipitation that falls on Arizona never reaches an aquifer, a river, or a faucet.
Arizona has generally done an outstanding job of responding to its water challenge. Phoenix uses less water now than it did 40 years ago—with many more people. Xeriscaping replaced lush lawns, and much water has been captured, stored, and recycled. We’re still growing. To reach our full potential, we must develop new sources of water. The current Ag-to-Urban (A2U) Conservation Program assumes that urban growth is more important than agricultural use and would allow developers to build in active management areas using groundwater from agricultural land. Is urban growth truly more important than access to fresh, locally grown food?
When the Colorado River crisis got serious in 2022, it became apparent to everyone again that we needed additional sources of water from outside the state. One hundred years after the original Colorado River Compact, the Arizona Legislature appropriated an initial $1 billion fund for Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona (WIFA) with a promise of additional funding as needed to support the efforts to locate and develop new water solutions for the entire state, including such potential projects as the desalination and delivery of water from the Gulf of California.
Many years ago [I won’t say how many, but before the rise of social media and after Arizona attained statehood], I studied chemical engineering at UofA, including desalination of saltwater. Fellow students from Saudi Arabia went home and put that knowledge to work. Apparently failing to recognize our own long-term needs, we went home and forgot all about it. It’s time to put that knowledge to work for Arizona. I recently participated in statewide water work sessions and discovered that Arizona has been sweeping the WIFA funds for other projects and not using them to develop water sources as promised. It’s time to reach out to our elected representatives to try to get back on track.
Visit azleg.gov/findmylegislator to identify your district, contact your representatives, and voice your concerns.
