Groundwater is running out in rural Arizona | Hacker News Reader

Groundwater is running out in rural Arizona

azcentral.com

14 pointsgbenga4real7 comments

Pretty obvious to point this out. Arizona as well as the entire SW relies heavily, if not 100% outright, on the Colorado river. Said river is dry and the alarm bells have been ringing loudly for decades.

Yet someone still thought it'd be a great idea to build large cities (PHX) where there's literally no water. TSMC also thought that such a locale would be ideal to build a massive chip foundry that utilizes tons of water. seems that some smart people can also be blind.

I'll be fully honest that this is a bit biased as someone who lives and grew up in AZ.

I do have to say though out of all the states in the southwest, Arizona has had better resource management and conservation of the limited water resources we have. As early as the 50's and 60's Arizona took a pretty aggressive stance on securing water rights and even in the 80s took steps to ensure that as large metro areas grew that water sustainability was something that at least had passing thoughts about when new developments are built.

AZ might have been one of the earliest adopters of water policies focused on drought conditions[1]. While California was draining basins, aquifers and depleting their surface water, areas under active management in AZ were focused on ensuring that our aquifers were (somewhat) sustainable.

Is that enough? Almost certainly not. Is there more we should do? Unequivocally yes.

What you are seeing is rural areas who fell outside these management schemes having their chickens come home to roost.

This is in stark contrast to parts of Phoenix where there have been areas where the water tables have been rising [2] (which I assume) are due to the reduction in water heavy crops, landscape management, etc.

TL;DR: AZ has water problems, but we have known about this since the 80's and at least tried to take action.

[1] - https://new.azwater.gov/aaws

[2] - https://www.azwater.gov/gwsi/Hydrograph.aspx?SiteID=33475011...

yeah - PHX water usage has apparently fallen, so I'm not surprised water tables have risen.

Un-incorporated areas north of Scottsdale are already seeing their aquifers run dry(1,2). I'm not sure who would buy a house in the desert without knowing where their water was coming from. According to the New Yorker article, people were STILL buying the houses KNOWING they had no water and no well...

1 https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/the...

2 https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/joannaallhands...

I knew it was Rio Verde before I even clicked on it, lol...

This goes to show how important it is having a sustainable, intentional water management program. From 1980 -> 2020 census [1] in PHX metro the population went from 1,600,093 -> 4,845,832. This is all while certain water tables have grown in size.

Rio Verde supports a bunch of farmland which isn't under a sustainable water district on that water table.

I didn't know there's farmland up there...the new yorker article made it sound pretty 'yuppy desert retreat'. What I find really weird is their assumption that Scottsdale will just bail them out.

>>This goes to show how important it is having a sustainable, intentional water management program.

Yeah - it's also really fascinating all the work that goes into it. That GRUSP water storage facility seems really neat..Also, using waste water to cool Palo Verde was pretty ingenious. Largest nuke plant in the country, powered by grey water :-)

PHX is in better shape then a lot of places for water. The work SRP puts in to ensure that is really interesting (1, 2, 3) PHX actually gets water from 3 rivers (colorado, salt, and verde) as well as huge groundwater 'banks' (holding a multi year supply). We're also using less water per year due to conservation, etc. However, outside of PHX its a different story. Agriculture and 'urban sprawl' are rapidly depleting ground water.

In summary, I guess I'm saying I have no qualms about water living in PHX...but I'd be really worried if I lived outside of PHX. Also, it really is fascinating how SRP manages it all...

1 https://www.srpnet.com/grid-water-management/water-managemen...

2 https://www.srpnet.com/grid-water-management/water-managemen...

3 https://media.srpnet.com/srps-granite-reef-underground-stora...

edit: fix link formating

The west will go down in history as the dunce who farmed lettuce in a desert while also increasing the numbers in its population centers.

California and Arizona has no business farming and building more homes. We have no water.

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