Phoenix and its surrounding area is known as the Valley of the Sun, and downtown Phoenix – which in 2017 overtook Philadelphia as America’s fifth-largest city – is easily walkable, with restaurants, bars and an evening buzz. But it is a modern shrine to towering concrete, and gives way to endless sprawl that stretches up to 35 miles away to places like Anthem. The area is still growing – and is dangerously overstretched, experts warn. — The Guardian
With cities in the Desert West, like Las Vegas and Phoenix, rapidly growing in size and population, water is becoming an evermore hot commodity; all while the source of that water, primarily the Colorado River, is becoming increasingly unreliable due to climate change.
"And yet despite the federal Bureau of Reclamation reporting in 2012 that droughts of five or more years would happen every decade over the next 50 years," writes Joanna Walters for The Guardian's Overstretched Cities series, "greater Phoenix has not declared any water restrictions. Nor has the state government decided its official drought contingency proposal."
4 Comments
Is it really creeping up on any of these desert metros? Prior to the 2008 bubble bursting LV was using every power it had to drain Utah wetlands for its water needs. It seems they always feel there's someone else that can give something up to keep the party rolling. Eventually economics won't be able to overcome natural realities, changes will have to be made, but it'll obviously be a painful process for places like Phoenix if they're still framing this as a looming issue.
drought? what drought?
fuckin' bullshit that every yard in phoenix has grass... ok. not every yard, but most. Write that in the code books... all vegetation must be supported by the natural environment not drip irrigation... same for denver and all the desert southwest. duh!
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