OPINION: 'Citizens need to have a baseline understanding of how much water we have to use,' writes Roger McManus, a Tucsonan who headed a national conservation organization and worked in the Executive Office of the President in two administrations.
By many assessments, Arizona’s water future is not looking good. Responsible state and federal officials are sounding the alarm that in the future we will not have anywhere near the amount of Colorado River water we have had in the past. And, we simply do not have the legal structure throughout the state for managing groundwater sustainably.
People are also reading… What can we do to ensure we are managing our water sustainably? Generally, the first step in developing sound policies is to understand and accept the current realities. Citizens need to have a baseline understanding of how much water we have to use. Our government officials and scientists can provide us with the facts and projections about how much we have and how long it will last us at current rates of use.
Our state Legislature apparently is also not ready to recognize the challenges to water security. For example, there is a bill in the House that would prohibit any regulation of washes and arroyos on existing private property and the very large acreage of state trust land sold for private uses. This is despite the fact that our network of washes and arroyos feed water to existing surface waters, like the Colorado River. Many of these ephemeral waterways also help restore water to our aquifers.
Major new development for water resources advanced in Tucson, Pima County and the state should include required assessments of the quantity of water that new proposals will need, and how that supply of water can be best assured. Such assessments should be subject to public review as a formal requirement for new growth. This transparency and potential limits need to be the new standard for our ensuring water security for the future – for present and new development.
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