- The situation we're in right now
is that one that we knew we would get to
the dryness of the past year plus has really been worse
than we've experienced in a long time.
And so what's concerning is that the level is dropping.
It's dropping pretty rapidly
and we don't see great prospects for it filling back up
in the near term.
And so this is a different situation
from what we've been in,
and that's why I think people
are paying more attention to it.
And in fact, the level will be that low,
that we will have a shortage
and tier one shortage officially declared.
- The Tier 1 shortage.
Can you describe essentially what it means
in layman's terms?
- Yeah, sure, sure.
So the Tier 1 shortage, which we will know in August
for sure whether it will go into effect in January
but we think it will.
All signs are that it will.
Means that the central Arizona project will deliver
about a third less water than it usually does,
but not to the cities, mostly to the farmers.
And some other uses such as banking for the future
for water that would have been used
to replenish some of the groundwater use.
- The states population is growing.
Is there a way to achieve a balance
when you talk about people who live here
but also living in the desert responsibly?
- You know, there's something that maybe
we need to do a better job of,
and that is connect our land use planning
with our water planning,
and people may think that's happening all the time,
but I'll tell you I'm a co-chair of a national conference
in a month's time exactly,
that is trying to get or foster a better connection
between the land use planners and the water planners
and figure out how was the best way to grow
because you know, you're right, Lorraine,
we are still growing and we will grow.
Arizona remains an attractive place to live and do business
but we have to figure out how to accommodate that growth
in ways that use less water.
And I'll give an example, Las Vegas,
I think maybe the state of Nevada,
I'm not entirely sure
recently adopted an ordinance, banning ornamental grass.
Grass that has no purpose
other than being there as green grass.
And that could be in the median of a street,
which we don't here see here in Tucson.
But I see grasping water
that does not serve any useful purpose.
And so we just need to think
about the kinds of things that we can do differently.
And that doesn't mean we can't grow.
It just means how our new communities look,
how they're designed, what people expect
in terms of grassy areas and common areas.
Maybe we rethink that.
- How did it get so bad here in the state of Arizona?
Because you point to places like Nevada
but here we're talking restrictions and shortages
which is uncomfortable in a state that is growing.
- The reason Arizona is impacted by shortage
and talking about shortage more
goes back to 40 or more years ago actually longer ago.
And it has to do with the building
of the central Arizona project
in order to get the funding,
to bring that new water source into central Arizona.
We had to compromise in the political sphere.
We had to get the agreement of California legislators
to appropriate the money, to build a project
that negotiation led to Arizona's agreement
that the central Arizona project
would be lower priority than any water going to California.
But the truth of the matter is that the health
of the Colorado River system,
upper basin lower basin is not good.
And the concern is to make sure we take actions
to avoid a collapse of system.
And that's what the drought contingency planning
of 2019 was.
So an important message is that the decision makers
and the planners and the water professionals
nobody's been sitting around twiddling their sons,
you know we've had water banking going on.
We've had a lot of discussion in negotiations
trying to mitigate the impact of the shortage,
but things are getting bad or worse, faster than we thought
we have to do, let's say tougher planning,
tougher decision-making sooner than we might've expected.
And we have to hope for rain, but that's the best we can do.
You know, you hope for the best,
but you have to plan for the worst
and things are not put right now.
- All right, we appreciate your transparency,
Dr. Sharon, Megdal the director of water resources
from the research center at the U of A.
Thank you.
- Thank you.