WATER SUPPLY: TOUGHER TIMES AHEAD

posted by Michael Chihak

Water harvesting, water rationing, a cultural shift in urban water use and even more dire steps should be expected in Arizona as water managers and politicians seek to stretch the limited water supply.

That's the picture painted by University of Arizona climatologist Gregg Garfin, who has studied drought and water flows and who consults with water officials in the state.

"We've reached actually a crossing point between supply and demand in the Colorado River, so that we're actually drawing more water off the Colorado on a year-to-year basis, Garfin said in an interview for Friday's Arizona Week broadcast.

He said that for city dwellers in Phoenix and Tucson, that will mean water rationing at times, imposition of more conservation measures, including greater limits on outdoor water use, and water harvesting, or capture of rain runoff and reuse of water.

Garfin said his research and that of others shows that Arizona is prone to droughts of 10 to 30 years over the centuries. The current dry spell started in 2000, reached its wordst in 2002 and has had only three above-average water years, Garfin said.

One of those years was this past winter, when Upper Colorado River Basin snow pack and subsequent melt off has been big enough to allow a five-year pushback of any drastic rationing measures in the state.

Most water in Arizona is still taken by agriculture, Garfin said. But he said the priority for water use when the Colorado runs low are Native American tribes first, then urban users and finally agriculture. That means agriculture would be the first to lose supply when flow is low.

Garfin's full interview and an interview with David Modeer, general manager of the Central Arizona Project, will be featured on Friday's Arizona Week, 8:30 p.m. MST on PBS-HD Channel 6.