Phoenix, AZ restricts new development due to climate-related droughts and water shortages

[Fantine]

Arizona Limits Construction Around Phoenix as Its Water Supply Dwindles

Arizona has determined that there is not enough groundwater for all of the housing construction that has already been approved in the Phoenix area, and will stop developers from building some new subdivisions, a sign of looming trouble in the West and other places where overuse, drought and climate change are straining water supplies.
The decision by state officials very likely means the beginning of the end to the explosive development that has made the Phoenix area the fastest growing metropolitan region in the country....The decision means cities and developers must look for alternative sources of water to support future development — for example, by trying to buy access to river water from farmers or Native American tribes, many of whom are facing their own shortages. That rush to buy water is likely to rattle the real estate market in Arizona, making homes more expensive and threatening the relatively low housing costs that had made the region a magnet for people from across the country.

Is this karma for red-state climate action obstructionism? Maybe Arizona is getting "awakened," having elected a Democratic governor and reelected Sen. Mark Kelly. In the meantime they are paying for America's refusal to deal with climate change preemptively.

Will Florida be next? The news today said that homeowners' insurance rates are so burdensome that homeowners are crushed financially. Golly, one friend said her brother pays $12K a year for insurance--that's more than many New York homeowners pay in taxes!

 

[essentialsaltes]

Scottsdale bans natural grass in front yards of new houses to conserve water amid Arizona’s drought​

 

[wing2000]

Arizona Limits Construction Around Phoenix as Its Water Supply Dwindles


Is this karma for red-state climate action obstructionism? Maybe Arizona is getting "awakened," having elected a Democratic governor and reelected Sen. Mark Kelly. In the meantime they are paying for America's refusal to deal with climate change preemptively.

Will Florida be next? The news today said that homeowners' insurance rates are so burdensome that homeowners are crushed financially. Golly, one friend said her brother pays $12K a year for insurance--that's more than many New York homeowners pay in taxes!

One thing is certain, the last Republican AZ Governor would hot have issued such an order. Under his watch, the Saudis bought land in Arizona and are sucking using up our ground water for their alfalfa fields....(the current AG is trying to undo that....)

 

[wing2000]

This action won't impact housing now but will in the future...

The state said it would not revoke building permits that have already been issued and is instead counting on new water conservation measures and alternative sources to produce the water necessary for housing developments that have already been approved.

On Thursday, Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, said Arizona was not immediately running dry and that new construction would continue in major cities like Phoenix. The analysis prepared by the state looked at groundwater levels over the next 100 years.

 

[Pommer]

Scottsdale bans natural grass in front yards of new houses to conserve water amid Arizona’s drought​

I swear this said “burns”; anyways the delightful dose of irony that Scottsdale is going brown to go green, is simply tingly!
Who knew that living in a desert was “hard”?

 

[Pommer]

One thing is certain, the last Republican AZ Governor would hot have issued such an order. Under his watch, the Saudis bought land in Arizona and are sucking using up our ground water for their alfalfa fields....(the current AG is trying to undo that....)

Once we’re off of fossil fuels, we will be in dire need of a “dwindling precious natural resource” to shore up the economy. Water’s got a good shot at being that.

 

[wing2000]

Once we’re off of fossil fuels, we will be in dire need of a “dwindling precious natural resource” to shore up the economy. Water’s got a good shot at being that.

....with time, as the price of water increases, desalination plants will become common along the Californian and Mexico coast....

 

[hislegacy]

WHAT! It is hot and dry in the desert? When did that happen?

Just a suggestion. Perhaps we can convince some of the Democrats fleeing California to stay in their state.

 

[wing2000]

Residents, not even those from **California!!**, do not consume most of the water in our state. Agriculture does. And in this case, a Republican state government turned it's head the other way while the Saudis drained our aquifer....and did so legally. Underpinning the current law in Arizona is a belief that if I own the land, I own everything below it, including access to shared aquifers.

BUTLER VALLEY, Ariz. — A megadrought has seared Arizona, stressing its rivers and reservoirs and reducing water to a trickle in the homes of farmworkers near this desert valley.
But green fields of alfalfa stretch across thousands of acres of the desert land, shimmering in the burning sunlight. Wells draw water from deep underground, turning the parched earth into verdant farmland.

For nearly a decade, the state of Arizona has leased this rural terrain west of Phoenix to a Saudi-owned company, allowing it to pump all the water it needs to grow the alfalfa hay — a crop it exports to feed the kingdom’s dairy cows. And, for years, the state did not know how much water the company was consuming.

The lack of information was a choice.

Soon after the company, Fondomonte Arizona, arrived in the Butler Valley in 2015, state planners suggested asking the company to install meters and report its water use, according to a memo reviewed by The Washington Post. That way, the memo argued, the state could “at least obtain accurate information” on water drained from the valley — water that could otherwise serve as backup for booming urban areas.

But the proposal “hit a stone wall,” John Schneeman, one of the planners, told The Post. It was spurned, he said, by officials in the administration of then-Gov. Doug Ducey (R) who were “cautious of tangling with a powerful company.” The proposal also ran headlong into a view, deeply held in the rural West, that water is private property that comes with access to land, rather than a public resource.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/16/fondomonte-arizona-drought-saudi-farm-water/

 

[essentialsaltes]

Residents, not even those from **California!!**, do not consume most of the water in our state. Agriculture does. And in this case, a Republican state government turned it's head the other way while the Saudis drained our aquifer....and did so legally.
For nearly a decade, the state of Arizona has leased this rural terrain west of Phoenix to a Saudi-owned company, allowing it to pump all the water it needs to grow the alfalfa hay — a crop it exports to feed the kingdom’s dairy cows. And, for years, the state did not know how much water the company was consuming.
The lack of information was a choice. Gov. Doug Ducey (R) [was] “cautious of tangling with a powerful company.”

Fortunately, Governor Katie Hobbs (D) is not so weak.

Saudi firm that grows hay in California and Arizona to lose farm leases over water issue​

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs announced this week that the state has terminated one of the leases held by the company, Fondomonte, and will not renew three other leases when they expire in February.

[The company also owns some Arizona land not affected by this decision.]