By Rusty Childress | Rio Verde<\/p>\n
OPINION \u2013 At a Western Governors\u2019 meeting, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs accused the Upper Basin states of running out the clock and refusing real Colorado River cuts, while Arizona has already worn the austerity belt. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox sympathized, then quietly made clear Utah isn\u2019t surrendering water anytime soon. Predictable theater.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the river\u2019s operating rules expire at the end of 2026, and the federal deadline for a new plan has already passed. Washington is preparing to intervene because the states haven\u2019t delivered one themselves.<\/p>\n
Yet Arizona\u2019s messaging remains soothing: \u201cWe\u2019re leading on conservation. We won\u2019t accept a deal that dumps all cuts on us.\u201d It\u2019s the state\u2019s greatest-hits playlist \u2014 winter lettuce, semiconductor plants, tribal claims \u2014 politically powerful, but irrelevant to hydrology. The river doesn\u2019t respond to speeches. It delivers what nature allows, and nature is delivering less every year.<\/p>\n
Arizona is already in Tier 1 shortages, losing about 18% of its Colorado River allocation. Next year brings more cuts. After 2026, the conversation shifts to\u00a0millions\u00a0of acre-feet. No number of press conferences can refill that deficit.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s missing is meaningful action. Arizona keeps approving subdivisions based on speculative water. \u201cAssured supply\u201d has morphed into marketing while reservoirs drop. That\u2019s not water management \u2014 it\u2019s donor-friendly theater.<\/p>\n
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Meanwhile, the true crisis sprawls: endless growth, developer pressure and infrastructure expansion built on the fantasy of infinite water. Yet the river is shrinking, reservoirs are falling and the legal scaffolding holding the system together expires in 14 months.<\/p>\n
So yes, blame the Upper Basin. But Arizona must confront its own choices.<\/p>\n
City councils must stop approving growth on imaginary water. Developers must drop fantasies of future augmentation. Voters must demand leaders willing to limit growth when supply shrinks.<\/p>\n
Because in the end, physics\u2014not politics\u2014determines who gets water.<\/p>\n
Please submit comments at\u00a0yourvalley.net\/letters<\/a> or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org<\/a>.\u00a0We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our\u00a0Civility Guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Rusty Childress | Rio Verde OPINION \u2013 At a Western Governors\u2019 meeting, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs accused…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":95385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,407,171,14154,50,5622,1589,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-395287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-education","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-fountain-hills-arizona","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-opinions","16":"tag-phoenix","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115589362859788716","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}