Arizona announces limits on construction in Phoenix area as groundwater disappears

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Thu Jun 1, 2023, 05:46 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: CNN

CNN — Arizona officials announced Thursday the state will no longer grant certifications for new developments within the Phoenix area, as groundwater rapidly disappears amid years of water overuse and climate change-driven drought. A new study showed that the groundwater supporting the Phoenix area likely can’t meet additional development demand in the coming century, officials said at a news conference.

Gov. Katie Hobbs and the state’s top water officials outlined the results of the study looking at groundwater demand within the Phoenix metro area, which is regulated by a state law that tries to ensure Arizona’s housing developments, businesses and farms are not using more groundwater than is being replaced. The study found that around 4% of the area’s demand for groundwater, close to 4.9 million acre-feet, cannot be met over the next 100 years under current conditions – a huge shortage that will have significant implications for housing developments in the coming years in the booming Phoenix metro area, which has led the nation in population growth.

State officials said the announcement wouldn’t impact currently approved developments. However, developers that are seeking to build new developments will have to demonstrate they can provide an “assured water supply” for 100 years using water from a source that is not local groundwater.

Under state law, having that assured supply is the key to getting the necessary certificates to build housing developments or large industrial buildings that use water. Many cities in the Phoenix metro area, including Scottsdale and Tempe, already have this assured water supply, but private developers also must demonstrate they can meet it.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/01/us/arizona-phoenix-groundwater-limits-development-climate/index.html

---

Article updated.

Original article -

CNN — Arizona state officials announced Thursday that a new study showed that the groundwater supporting the Phoenix area likely can’t meet additional development demand in the coming century.

As a result, officials will no longer grant certifications for new developments within the Phoenix area, as years of overuse collide with hot and dry conditions driven by climate change.


This story is breaking news and it will be updated.

[niyad]

1. Ya think? over 20 years ago, there was a documentary about Phoenix and no

water. It is, after all, a DESERT. It was also pointed out that the cost of using that water was low, because it was so heavily subsidized.

The documentary "He Cadillac Desert" (not the doc referenced above) starts with, "human beings are not meant to live in this climate".

[Easterncedar]

2. I came across the book Cadillac Desert in the 90s

We are so short-sighted. Jimmy Carter was destroyed by his attempt to lead on energy conservation. If only we had listened.

[niyad]

3. Exactly.

[Martin68]

4. This is a pragmatic approach that every community should consider, along with construction in flood

zones, construction on steep slopes, and other considerations.

[Bengus81]

5. Guess they figured that having a rock front yard and maybe back yard would save them...

Till you figure out how much water you have to put back in your POOL each day when it's 115 degrees.

[rurallib]

6. can't imagine that the wealthy will take to this kindly

This will be extremely interesting to see how this plays out. Money somehow always seems to get its way.

[moreland01]

7. The overuse of natural resources

has been discussed since I was a kid. Even Archie Bunker had it out with Meatball about overpopulation.
This isn't a new concept, yet people keep procreating beyond the limits of our resources. Climate change and
drought conditions aren't helping one bit. Put those 2 together and it's a recipe for disaster. [I did not have children
for this reason.]

Since we refuse to limit the number of children people can have (a la China) and we refuse to fix
fossil fuel extraction (among other things) that leads to climate change, we get what we get.

[oldsoftie]

8. Is AZ stopping the Saudis from growing tons of alfalfa with millions of gal of water?

If not, they NEED to.
Change the laws or pass new ones.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

10. I believe it's in the works, yes (nt)

[MarineCombatEngineer]

13. Yes, from what I understand,

this is part of it.

[oldsoftie]

16. GOOD!!

[Chainfire]

9. The only way that folks is Phoenix can get more water is by taking it from someone else.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

11. A lot of the water for Phoenix proper comes from the in-state reservoirs up in the AZ mountains

Other parts of the valley rely on other sources however.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

12. WA PO article on the topic

Phoenix area can’t meet groundwater demands over next century

There is not enough groundwater underneath the Phoenix metropolitan area to meet projected demands over the next century, a finding that could threaten the current home-building boom in outer suburbs that are among the fastest growing parts of the United States, according to an analysis of the groundwater supply released Thursday.

The report from the Arizona Department of Water Resources amounts to a chilling warning for the nation’s fifth-largest city and a metropolitan area with more than 5 million people that has been a development hot spot for new residents and high-tech businesses. In Phoenix’s peripheral areas, subdivisions have spread through the desert on a massive scale and hundreds of thousands more homes are planned. The study means that plans for future housing developments that rely solely on groundwater — in outlying areas that have not yet verified their long-term water supply — could not move forward.

And as the climate gets hotter and drier in the West, and major water sources such as the Colorado River diminish, dwindling supplies of groundwater as outlined in the new report could portend a vastly different future than the one residents in the Southwest have come to expect.

The long-awaited report, announced by Gov. Katie Hobbs (D), projects that about 4 percent of the demand for groundwater, or 4.9 million acre-feet of water, will not be met over the next 100 years without further action.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/06/01/phoenix-water-shortage-population-growth/

[not fooled]

14. yuma says "Hold my beer"

the dumbasses in county government--who are mere stooges for the developers who actually run this armpit county--are busy approving every massive development & wildcat subdivision that's a gleam in a developer's eye. This frenzy of paving it all over is facilitated by the local aquifer, which is being systematically plundered. The passive, cowed, ignorant, apathetic populace--who thinks they can ignore what is going on because government officials would never behave so irresponsibly as to endanger sustainable groundwater--are in for a rude surprise when falling water levels force them to give up their wells and pay exorbitant amounts to get put into expensive privatized water companies handed out as cash cow prizes to connected insiders who will loot the locals and ration water.

Where do developers get water to keep building? From cutting back what existing residents use.

By a mysterious coincidence the county board of supervisors includes e.g. the local roofer who puts up a lot of the roofs on these drab, shoddily built subdivisions, plus an inlaw of one of the worst developers, all without recusing themselves from voting in these projects from which they or their close connections profit. Ethics are for suckers, apparently. And, the county refuses to disclose records of dealings with developers, telling me "we have our own disclosure laws which we don't have to reveal to you" which is blatantly in violation of AZ state law mandating that county government business is subject to public record keeping and disclosure.

That's what no effective local journalism or other checks and balances will get you. I would love to see what a good investigative journalist could do with this place, but because it's such a dingy armpit of a town, the local crooks probably will continue to be safe from exposure or accountability.

It's the movie Chinatown except with goobers.

On the bright side, I just went into escrow on a house far, far away so will soon be rid of this place.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. This was a culmination of decades of a real estate and tourist industry

that denigrated the east coast and midwest in the most craven manner as "the Rust Belt", and encouraged, if not demanded, that people leave those locations and move to the "Sun Belt" (the south/southwest).

Over that time, I watched my city (Philadelphia) go from 4th, to 5th, and now most recently 6th largest, as the population "fixes" were in and the denigrating narrative was amplified by the popular media (we even had to battle the Census multiple times to get revisions corrected).

I know we often talk about the "oil barons" and "railroad barons" but there most certainly are the "real estate barons" (like Toll Brothers, etc.), who race to throw up shoddily constructed developments as fast as they can and charge exorbitant prices for the McMansions in them.

[not fooled]

20. I think most people have no idea

how much these development decisions impact the quality of their lives down the road, and how the system functions (or doesn't).

The collapse of local newspapers makes the situation so much worse because now there are virtually no eyes on these people. But, you saw it happen earlier anyway.

After my experiences here, I am convinced that the people in local government who run this business--because it is a business--are basically high scorers on the sociopathy spectrum, willing to hurt people for greed, power, and money.

[BumRushDaShow]

21. You are absolutely correct - and especially about the collapse of the "local" (community) papers

I know over the past 10 - 15 years, there were entities buying up "bundles" of small town papers and then milking them and shutting them down, so that effectively a particular community has to rely on getting scraps of coverage from a larger, more distant paper.

That effectively kept the "eyes and ears" away from monitoring many of the underlying changes happening in communities that went unreported until something "exploded" into the news, where people had no idea what had been planned and implemented until it went awry.

[dembotoz]

17. well that will send prices thru the roof

so you can't build on a new lot but perhaps you can tear down and rebuild an existing house on an existing plot. Suddenly that old house that would not qualify as a fixer upper has value

[AllyCat]

18. My dad lived in phoenix a long time ago

The bemoaning of not having a green lawn from my stepmom was intense. We lived in 2 different houses, both with desert landscaping. One place had a pool. He filled it constantly.

Neighbors with green lawns had sprinklers going all morning. Water all over the cement. 115-120 degree days and everyone watering. As an 8 year old, I wondered what sense that made.

Unreal. But the rich will have their way.

[The Jungle 1]

19. Phoenix is one strange city.

You fly in and there is desert far and wide. Then you see a blue line the runs into the city and the city is green.
If people are going to live in the west farming must stop.