Subdivisions with no water? Arizona groundwater being sold to benefit Saudi Arabia?
Who is in charge here? We are in a water crisis in the West, but the building doesn't stop. How does the law work?
What in the law is being done about future calamity?
From Arizona State University News Service: The Colorado River provides water for millions of acres of irrigation and some 40 million people in tribes and cities in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, California, Wyoming, Utah and Mexico. But the literal wellspring of the Southwest region’s vitality is drying up, and fast.
We’re already in the second year of allocation cuts, which directs how much states can draw from the Colorado River, and deeper cuts are on the way. A “Tier 1 shortage” has already been declared, but the feds have recently indicated that a Tier 2 shortage may be declared by the end of this year, mandating larger cuts, especially to Arizona.
The Bureau of Reclamation has already asked basin states and tribes to give them suggestions for how to cut 2 million to 4 million more acre-feet of water consumption per year to keep the river’s largest storage reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, from falling to dead pool and becoming unusable.
Time to talk agua. Bob's guest is Michele Van Quathem, a leading water lawyer.
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