On 6/20/24 6:16 AM, Ryan Petris via PLUG-discuss wrote:
>> And what are you guys going to do about the coming lack of water?
>
> It's all FUD. If anything, agricultural land uses more water than 
> residential land, and agricultural land is what's getting converted to 
> residential. So every acre converted means /less/ water use.
>
> I think they're making a big deal out of it to make sure we don't lose 
> some water rights from the Colorado river, as California is trying to 
> take a larger portion of it.

I disagree that it is FUD, but there is certainly a lot of blame to go 
around.

The fact of the matter is, the Colorado River has been drying up due to 
both over-consumption and drastically reduced snowmelt caused by global 
heating, and it's affecting the entire region. One wet winter does not 
magically undo a couple decades of drought (Lake Mead still isn't even 
remotely close to pre-2000 levels). Just as significantly, other major 
sources of water in the geographical area are also drying up (word is 
that the Great Salt Lake will become the Great Salt Puddle, then the 
Great Arsenic Flats, in less than a decade). Underground water tables 
are being pumped like there's no tomorrow (similar to oil), with very 
limited means of replenishing them. And did I mention that snowmelt over 
the long term and rainfall over the long term are WAY lower than 
historic norms?

Wreckless and wasteful water use by agriculture is a major problem, to 
be sure, and certainly the low hanging fruit that we can attack. But to 
say that agriculture should be taking the brunt of it, and not 
addressing ALL sources of increased water consumption, is foolish. Maybe 
the impact won't be as high, but it's still meaningful in aggregate. 
Per-capita, Arizonans consume more water than most states, and we must 
do better as a state.[1] And of course California, Nevada and Utah need 
to do their part too.

1. https://mapazdashboard.arizona.edu/article/arizonas-water-use-sector

And depending who you ask, Phoenix (and Las Vegas) should not exist at 
all! Having lived here my entire life, I'm starting to agree with that 
sentimet.

But that's just my 2 cents.