In Search of a Drought-Proof Source - The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Freshwater in the Twenty-First Century - page 282

thing as normal,” Guenther said. “They tell me that's what it's going to be like in climate
change”—more violent shifts in weather, causing droughts one minute and floods the
next. “Life is getting to be a whole lot more interesting.”
Although Arizona is defined by its deserts, it had “banked,” or stored underground, a
surprising amount of water, some 3.1 million acre-feet , or about one trillion gallons.
Guenther has ensured that Phoenix has a diverse portfolio of water supplies: the Central
Arizona Project (CAP), a massive 336-mile aqueduct that annually siphons 1.5 million
acre-feet of water from the Colorado River and jags across the desert like a dark scar;
the Salt River Project , a series of canals and hydroelectric dams on the Salt River; and
from aquifers. Begrudgingly, Arizonans have accepted what Guenther calls “the low-
water-use lifestyle”—which includes xeriscaping (replacing grass lawns with cacti and
rock gardens), strict limits on lawn watering, the restoration of rivers, interstate water
deals, and using treated effluent for irrigation—which has allowed Arizona to use less
water per capita every year.
But the problem in Phoenix is the same as in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, or Dallas: as
the state's climate warms and population climbs, so does its need for water. By 2009,
Arizona had 6.6 million residents, and by 2030 that number is set to double. “I under-
stand why people want to come here. It's a nice place to live,” said Guenther, himself a
transplant from Long Island, New York. But sometimes, he said, “people have to be ree-
ducated” about water use in the desert.
In 1980 the USGS estimated that groundwater beneath Phoenix had dropped 220
feet in places, sometimes causing sinkholes. With the threat of a federal ultimatum
looming, the state legislature restricted ground-water use in parts of the state and
mandated that new homes have a hundred-year supply of renewable groundwater. But
people accustomed to cheap, plentiful supplies have found ways around the regulations.
In 2008 Arizona used about 8 million acre-feet , or 2.3 trillion gallons, of water. De-
mand continued to increase, as weak zoning laws promoted growth. In over 80 percent
of Arizona, developers can build subdivisions with hundreds of houses even if water
supplies are known to be insufficient. Planned communities such as Verrado, on the
western edge of Phoenix, would not have been built under the original water laws be-
cause they were too far from renewable supplies; but with help from the legislature, Ver-
rado worked around the renewable-supply requirements. Rural wells—many of which
are not required to use meters—are steadily drawing from the same aquifers that cities
use for water banking. “That really scares us,” said Kathryn Sorensen, water resources
director for Mesa, a city that has banked water for years. “We hope [the water] is there
when we need it. But we don't have control over the [rural] water pumping.”