Posted on 04/22/2023 11:18:49 AM PDT by CFW
Maybe you’re right. Maybe I just wasn’t pay close attention to the rest of the state. In my region, the growth is inordinate but they’ve assured everyone there is enough supply for 100+ years regardless of what happens with the river. One of the reasons I relocated where I did. But if what you say is accurate, I’d guess at some point they won’t have choice but to increase prices across the board.
The problem really is they spent so long insisting CAP was gonna fix everything. So they didn’t up rates much while that was being built to avoid rebellion. And then there was the delay in figuring out how to use CAP (even though there was only really ever one answer, yea government) which eventually went to multiple votes. And again no serious rate rises during that, because honest CAP will fix everything. And now here we are, CAP is helping certainly. But it didn’t fix everything. And the Phoenix draw keeps threatening to functionally end CAP for us. They are periodically getting some rate raises in there. But no politician has the balls to say “we’re charging 1/3 as much as Detroit, and it’s not because Detroit it paying too much, we’re in the desert, we need to pay accordingly”. And I don’t necessarily blame them. I’d probably be the only person in town to actually vote for them... maybe their mom... maybe not.
Sadly the only people I know that kinda get the problem are liberals. Conservatives just aren’t paying attention. And liberals of course always blame the company. “How dare almond farms come here?” Have you looked at water prices? I know how they dare. It’s a great business decision, at least for 15 years or so.
I grew up in Palmdale - moved there in ‘62.
It was a wide spot in the road surrounded by desert.
I’ll read up on CAPS.
Central Arizona Project. Siphoning water from the Colorado River to Phoenix and Tucson. Through a meandering open trench that coincidentally when through a lot of land Bruce Babbitt used to own. A fine idea, not very well executed.
The Saudis could easily buy land to grow alfalfa in Oregon or other places where water isn’t an issue. The fact that they pick Arizona is very telling!
You can also skip fumigation because the heating and pressurization does the same trick.
Trump was perfect on energy policy. One area where he excelled.
“Again, where I am in AZ we’re told we have 100 years of water, even factoring in growth.”
Where are you?
Here is a fact: 70% of the water in Arizona goes to agriculture. We have more than enough water for all the cities. What we DON’T have is enough water to EXPORT IT!
That “100 years of water” thing is a joke. It sort of exists where the CITIES are because cities don’t use much water. But places like Willcox or the areas in western Arizona? They are draining the ground water. These foreign farms do NOT drill 2,000 foot wells because there is tons of water there.
I don’t expect Tucson or outlying areas like where I live to go dry in the next 100 years. No agriculture here. But I spent a bunch of time looking for a home in SE Arizona and a big part of the problem was finding a place where the water table isn’t dropping. We nearly bought a house in one place. Glad we didn’t. The following year, they expanded a nut orchard by thousands of acres. Those nut farms use a LOT of water and the 400’ well the house had would be threatened.
This is insanity. The CITIES probably won’t have problems with water. Small towns? Rural areas? Whole different problem.
Smaller town, not a major city, well under 100k, with little or no agriculture I’m aware of and it’s high elevation. Not reliant on the river. 100 year supply, that’s what was said. Are they lying? Who knows, I wouldn’t be surprised.
It’s a neat project. And for a government project pretty successful. Definitely had its issues, and still does. The site probably won’t get into most of the problems. All in all though, I’m glad it happened.
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