Arizona will have to learn to live with less water than the Colorado River.
This was the announcement by the managers of the project in Central Arizona (CAP), which distributes river water that flows to consumers in Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties, during a briefing on the Colorado River shortage on Friday.
The river accounts for 40% of Arizona’s water supply.
Twenty-two years of drought in the West, complicated by climate change, have caused a historic shortage of the river and the lakes that preserve it.
Lake Powell is located on the border between Arizona and Utah and is the second largest reservoir on the river. But its water level has dropped within 30 feet of the dead pool. This is the point where water can no longer be discharged through the Glen Canyon, which would also hamper electricity generation. The dam’s generators generate power for parts of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and Nebraska.
RELATED: Water crisis at Lake Powell in Arizona
“We have serious challenges and we all need to be prepared to save more water and use less water,” said Tom Busacke, director of Arizona’s Department of Water Resources.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of the Interior approved a plan proposed by the seven states that use the river to hold nearly 1 million acres of water in the lake, which he said will allow it to continue producing electricity next year.
But as less and less snowfall from the Rockies reaches the river, states must quickly devise mitigation strategies.
“The time frame in which we have to react to these things is shrinking, and we may be trying to avoid when the next shoe falls,” Busacke said.
In the last six months alone:
But these are changes that most of us will not notice, according to Sarah Porter of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at ASU.
“Water will still flow from our tap, but there has been a lot of encouragement for cities to start trying to get people living in Phoenix to use less water. And especially to use less water outside, “she said.
If drought conditions continue as expected, Porter said cities are likely to start using the water they collect underground.
“If CAP supplies are drastically reduced, cities will turn to these back-up supplies,” she said.
But with less river water available and very little rainfall, once that water disappears, there are currently no viable options to replace it all.
House Speaker Randy Bauer said the supplies took time to figure out how to provide more water, not only for cities but also for agriculture, which uses about 74 percent of the state’s water supply.
“I think we have time, but we won’t have fun about it,” he said. “It’s time to move and move at a higher speed.”
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