Lake Mead sinks to record lows

[KurtAZ]

goolsbyjazz...it is pretty simple to research...

Shortage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Arizona_Project
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_River_Project
SRP: Managing water
ADWR - Home Page

[bgray9]

Originally Posted by JGMotorsport64

The point being that, unlike CA, we can have both agriculture and greenery in the central city through smart planning and incentives to farmers. Behind the scenes, that is the real battle, how to get farmers to switch to efficient irrigation methods. As the law stands now, they have virtually no reason to do so. You could rip up every shred of grass in Phoenix and barely scratch the surface of the actual problem. You would be trading QOL for a mere 1-2% water use reduction. That would be a bad economic move for AZ and thankfully it knows that. It knows that minimizing the visible aspects is crucial to maintaining an economy.

If you could switch farmers using flood irrigation to drip irrigation you could reduce water use as an aggregate more than 15x what would be accomplished by ripping up grass. And it wouldn't be hard, just expensive because they are gaining leverage as the drought rolls on. Much like unadjudicated streams (Gila and Little Colorado) and the tribes/parties to that adjudication.

Well said. The numbers don't lie. But a lot of people for some reason seem to not want to have a hard look at agricultural water use, when there are ways to improve it (some of which is being done) that would still allow agriculture to do its thing.


Real interesting story on NPR a handful of months ago about Middle Eastern countries buying up large farms in the Harquahala Valley area to grow hay that is then shipped back to the Middle East to feed dairy cows there. They had drained their aquifers in their home countries, so they had to go elsewhere, like Arizona and of course they're not worried about how much water they use here as they don't have a long term interest here.

[JGMotorsport64]

Originally Posted by bgray9

Well said. The numbers don't lie. But a lot of people for some reason seem to not want to have a hard look at agricultural water use, when there are ways to improve it (some of which is being done) that would still allow agriculture to do its thing.


Real interesting story on NPR a handful of months ago about Middle Eastern countries buying up large farms in the Harquahala Valley area to grow hay that is then shipped back to the Middle East to feed dairy cows there. They had drained their aquifers in their home countries, so they had to go elsewhere, like Arizona and of course they're not worried about how much water they use here as they don't have a long term interest here.

And unfortunately the water laws in place for those with Grandfathered water rights are that if you don't use it you literally lose it, why conserve if you're going to lose a bargaining chip? That would be poor business sense. Even more that water is federally subsidized, I remember farmers in the Central Valley proclaiming "Get your government hands off my water!" That's like saying get "your government hands off my Medicaid!"

[LVguy]

side question I visited lake mead recently, there are a lot of curvy roads it was a fun drive, I went a little over the speed limit when there were no one around. I only saw one police, around callville area/lake mead is it generally very few police ?