Lake Mead sinks to record lows (Phoenix, Page: how much, home, buying)

[maverick974]

It seems like the same reaction whenever something is in scarce supply. Just charge more for it. Sounds simple except the people that can least afford it are the ones that get hurt the most.
The people that have the money certainly don't lose any sleep because their water prices go up. They don't take less showers, they don't typically water their lawns less and they don't use their pool as a flower garden. All they do is write a bigger check.
There are other alternatives out there but most don't care about the little guy. Too bad. Get a better job. That's usually what those people hear.

[BIG CATS]

Originally Posted by locolife

Just because AZ uses less now than it did in the 50's doesn't mean we aren't wasting water. There's plenty of waste here still, I splash through intersections constantly where people let their sprinklers literally water concrete, each and every single day. The amount of lawn here and acres of desert covered in high water use winter grass for the game of golf is truly mind boggling.

^ This.

People claim its a "drop in the bucket", but take the amount of water wasted watering grass each and every day, for decades. It adds up, and quickly. And most of the people I see watering lawns are using inefficient sprinklers, half of them aimed at the street, and watering mid day.

They say it doesnt make a difference? Then ask why the city offers people money to rip up grass. Ask the people of CA why theyre using artificial lawns, or having their grass painted. It does make a difference!

[JGMotorsport64]

Originally Posted by BIG CATS

^ This.

People claim its a "drop in the bucket", but take the amount of water wasted watering grass each and every day, for decades. It adds up, and quickly. And most of the people I see watering lawns are using inefficient sprinklers, half of them aimed at the street, and watering mid day.

They say it doesnt make a difference? Then ask why the city offers people money to rip up grass. Ask the people of CA why theyre using artificial lawns, or having their grass painted. It does make a difference!

The point being that, unlike CA, we can have both agriculture and greenery in the central city through smart planning and incentives to farmers. Behind the scenes, that is the real battle, how to get farmers to switch to efficient irrigation methods. As the law stands now, they have virtually no reason to do so. You could rip up every shred of grass in Phoenix and barely scratch the surface of the actual problem. You would be trading QOL for a mere 1-2% water use reduction. That would be a bad economic move for AZ and thankfully it knows that. It knows that minimizing the visible aspects is crucial to maintaining an economy.

If you could switch farmers using flood irrigation to drip irrigation you could reduce water use as an aggregate more than 15x what would be accomplished by ripping up grass. And it wouldn't be hard, just expensive because they are gaining leverage as the drought rolls on. Much like unadjudicated streams (Gila and Little Colorado) and the tribes/parties to that adjudication.

[azdr0710]

[corydon]

The farmers are not watering the lawn........ It is your food.

[JGMotorsport64]

Originally Posted by corydon

The farmers are not watering the lawn........ It is your food.

It's more complicated than that.

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by JGMotorsport64

It's more complicated than that.

While the overall picture is more complicated than that, Corydon's statement is one of those simple truths that cannot be denied.

[cre8lite]

i found an interesting link:

Lower Colorado River Operations | Lower Colorado Region | Bureau of Reclamation

shows the lake level history of lake mead

[KurtAZ]

While Lake Mead does fluctuate over time...it is not exactly the bellwether for our State Water supply. CAP gets its water from Lake Havasu, which is below Lake Mead, and brings it over to Lake Pleasant...but that is only one of our sources. SRP has multiple lakes/dams/groundwater facilities that make up their supply. There are numerous aquifers, one of the most recent found under Goodyear...and the article is claiming that we are in trouble because the lake has gone down 100 ft or so in the past 15 years? We aren't in trouble...Vegas and Central CA are as they get the lions share of their water from Lake Mead. I am all for water conservation but we are far from the sky falling here folks.

[goolsbyjazz]

Originally Posted by KurtAZ

While Lake Mead does fluctuate over time...it is not exactly the bellwether for our State Water supply. CAP gets its water from Lake Havasu, which is below Lake Mead, and brings it over to Lake Pleasant...but that is only one of our sources. SRP has multiple lakes/dams/groundwater facilities that make up their supply. There are numerous aquifers, one of the most recent found under Goodyear...and the article is claiming that we are in trouble because the lake has gone down 100 ft or so in the past 15 years? We aren't in trouble...Vegas and Central CA are as they get the lions share of their water from Lake Mead. I am all for water conservation but we are far from the sky falling here folks.

I hope you are right KurtAZ!