Governor’s Office elaborates on financial investments in Arizona’s water future

[grulla]

No author cited
January 21, 2022

As in nearly all his previous State of the State addresses, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey on January 10 emphasized the importance of water to the State’s future. “One area where our work clearly isn’t done is on water,” said Governor Ducey in his eighth and final State of State speech.

“Instead of just talking about desalination – the technology that made Israel the world’s water superpower – how about we pave the way to make it actually happen? So, Speaker (Rusty) Bowers, President (Karen) Fann and I have been working, and we propose that we make a historic investment: $1 billion.

Continue reading at:
https://water.az.gov/news/articles/2022-21-01

[grulla]

Here is a lengthy article about what AZ and the rest of the U.S. desert SW states are up against in ground water sustainability. https://harvardpolitics.com/groundwa...etion-arizona/.

And certain parts of Phoenix, AZ are sinking .75"/year. I recall reading somewhere in the past that the farmland in between Phoenix and Tucson AZ along the I10 corridor has sunk 7' over many years, due to irrigation ground water depletion. https://www.newser.com/story/211253/...y-sinking.html

[Islander]

Thank you for posting this, Grulla. I probably won't find time to read a lengthy article, but then again, I've been following the situation closely in connection with climate change so I'm familiar with what the Southwest is up against. In fact, when I first started teaching this situation my college freshman classes were reading an essay that predicted the desertification of the entire US Southwest, so no one should be surprised that this is news. It's just that no one wants to recognize it because that would require having to act upon it in some way. I worry especially because I have a son and daughter-in-law in Vegas where Lake Mead is the lowest it has been in history and no one seems to be taking any precautionary measures whatsoever.