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Original air date:
11.7.07
In America's Southwest, More People Plus Less Water Equals Trouble
Two of the fastest-growing cities in the United States - Phoenix, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada - are smack in the middle of the desert. While there's plenty of land to build houses on out there, the same cannot be said of another commodity : water. With hundreds of thousands of new residents moving to those areas every year, scientists are warning that they may soon hit "peak water" - the point where there just isn't enough of the wet stuff to go around.
Massive-scale engineering is the only thing that makes it possible for so many folks to live in such an arid environment in the first place. The Hoover Dam, built on the Colorado River near Las Vegas in the 1930's, created Lake Mead, the nation's largest artificial body of water. The lake now provides water to Arizona, California, Nevada and northern Mexico - but after several recent years of drought, on top of ever-heavier demand, it's seriously depleted.
To keep its taps flowing, Phoenix has come up with a 50-year water management plan. One part of the strategy is conservation. By enforcing strict plumbing codes and restrictions on watering large turf facilities, in addition to providing low-flow toilets to low income households, the city has cut the amount of water each resident uses daily from 267 gallons in the 1980s to 198 gallons today.
But Phoenix isn't just cutting the amount of water it uses; they're also storing gigantic quantities of the stuff in an underground waterbank. Water from the Colorado Riveris pumped through canals and delivery channels into an interconnected set of aquifers lined with sand and gravel, creating a vast subterranean lake. Engineers control the flow in and out of this complex with a system of computer-controlled gates.
It's an exemplary system, but unfortunately it's also an exceptional one. Few other Southwestern cities are so well organized, hydrology-wise. WIRED SCIENCE takes you on a guided tour of Phoenix's water woes - and introduces you to some of the desert-dwelling folks outside the city with even bigger problems. And if that's not disturbing enough, check out Worldwide Water Worries for a look at other areas around the world where serious water shortages are already a dangerous reality.
Photo by Ivar van Bussel
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11.7.07 7:06 PM PST
Robert Crooks, M.D.
Great program and very important to bring attention to this important issue. Thank you.
In the program, you mentioned a "family of four in PHX uses 1 acre/foot of water per year." Could you provide me a reference for this figure?
Thank you.
R. Crooks
crooksr@unm.edu
11.8.07 7:13 PM PST
Dan
1 Acre Foot is equal to 326,000 gallons of water.
1 Foot ( 12 ) Inches In depth of water covering the area of 1 Acre of land
DJH
11.9.07 7:43 AM PST
dawn
While Phoenix has water and is doing great things to conserve, they aren't doing enough. The rest of the state, even those of us who *do* get rain and snow, are often on water restrictions. Phoenix rarely is -- and has lush green lawns while the rest of the state does much more xeriscaping. There is a discrepancy between the largest city and those surrounding it.
The gentleman from Kingman is not alone. I have hauled water, as well (although mine is delivered via a large 5000 gallon truck).
11.10.07 8:28 PM PST
Beth
As you drive through Phoenix or Las Vegas, you will see lovely green lawns and road-side medians, huge trees and flower gardens which are not indigenious to the desert, You will also see autos being hand washed, sprinklers running during the day, fountains and many other wasteful water practices. It appears that many of those who have moved to the west/south-west in recent years brought some need to make their new home more like their "old" home, rather than adapting to it's needs and embracing the beauty of living in a uniquely stunning part of the US.
Unfortunately, millions of us that live in southern Arizona, consider both Las Vegas and Phoenix as "Water-Hogs." I live in Tucson, and we have very strict regulations about water use, and yet water bills jump every year. Our area requires xeriscaping in most all building zones - residential, business, mixed, most government property and most of the grounds on the Univ. of AZ campus, water-saving fixtures for all new or remodel construction and a variety of other resource-saving measures. Pools are quickly becoming a true luxury here, where high temperatures soar well over 100℉ for months at a time.
As our neighbors to the north continue to fill their underground aquafers, it's even more water that is not allowed to naturally filter down to the areas south of Phoenix, helping create a larger, faster "artificial shortage," which will ultimately force us to pay very dearly for water in the near future.
What's being done around Phoenix is obviously a step forward - as we continue to face the beginings of "climate change" - but is only a first step towards a much larger, complicated solution, where no one is happy sharing "their" resources. However, this type of planning in other areas similar to ours, or to those who are dependent on Lake Lanier in GA for drinking water, may provide some relief in a severe drought. Any planning must include the entire watershed district, not just at the state and/or local levels, and must have leadership which is non-partisan, objective and the willingness to implement a plan for the very worst of circumstances. The states must also jointly provide laws which have sharp teeth, and hire officials who will enforce these laws across political jurisdictions.
Just as we hope that lessons are learned from Katrina's devistation of the Gulf Coast, PLEASE ASK your political candidates and current representatives, local universities and environmental departments what is in place or in the planning in your area to save and fairly distribute diminishing resources - including potable water. If you don't like what you discover, it's time to step up to the plate, and volunteer your time to make changes. And don't stop until your completely satisfied. If a tiny grass-roots movement can eventually stop a 4-county, $90 million dollar mixed-garbage burning incinerator in 1988, this is also do-able!!
"If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem."
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