Hopefully you had a chance to read the New York Times’ piece on California’s water crisis. Perhaps, like me and many of my friends and family, you recognize that this water crisis doesn’t just belong to California—it’s Arizona’s water crisis too. The first paragraph particularly struck a chord for me, on how the great Golden State was where the rest of America came to for a better life. The state with everything. People came, and still come to Arizona with the same ideals in mind—a better life, health, retirement, security and, gulp, making a few bucks off development.

We remember those years, right? When we’ve made it to the records books as the fastest growing state. Growth took over where cotton fields once stood, where groves of cholla and palo verde once stood. Now Arizona is preparing for its own water shortage. It’s time to understand what’s going on, get involved and figure out what we do next—rather than throw our arms up in the air and declare crisis, what are the proactive steps needed to make sure we do the right thing. Here’s a small start: Tomorrow, Friday, April 10, from 10 to 11 a.m., Senator Jeff Flake will hold a water forum at the UA’s Center for Creative Photography. On Wednesday, April 22, at 9 a.m., the Central Arizona Project and Arizona Department of Water Resources will host a joint presentation about a Colorado River shortage preparedness workshop. Our water. There will be a webinar and we understand that there will be a local site to watch it livestream (www.azwater.gov/azdwr). We will keep you posted here, next week. Perhaps this is the time to have those uncomfortable conversations, ones that begin with a reminder that everything we do should be done thinking ahead seven generations and rethinking how we do what we do, like, gulp, development.

— Mari Herreras, mherreras@tucsonweekly.com

This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2015.

4 replies on “Editor’s Note”

  1. Arizona is preparing for its own water crisis by sitting idly by as the city of Benson gets ready to approve a new city three miles south of I-10 in the shadow of the Whetstone Mountains stretching east nearly to the San Pedro River. How about 70,000 more people living in a faux Tuscan town, the Villages at Vegneto? All brought to us by a Phoenix headquartered corporation, El Dorado Holdings, Inc., doing business locally as El Dorado Benson LLC, with investors from all over the country. Get ready for rural Arizona dotted with a brand new golf course or golf courses, vineyards and orchards!, a new resort, eight story commercial office buildings and more. Potential effects on the San Pedro River and its St. David Cienega? Potential effects on the San Pedro as it courses through Cascabel and through Dudleyville, where Gray Hawks and Mississippi Kites nest in verdant cottonwood trees? Here’s a chance to have a real impact. The new city was approved 6-0 by the Benson P&Z this week. Next Monday, April 13, at 7 p.m., the developer’s plan will be voted on the Benson City Council. Write a letter now to the mayor of Benson and the city council (all email addresses are online at the city of Benson web page). Also, attend the meeting, if you can. El Dorado Holdings pops into rural areas like Benson, Maricopa and Buckeye to build its new cities and it hopes no one is watching. This is a water crisis waiting to happen!

  2. Still no explanation as to why a number of features have been dropped.

    What’s going on ? New owners dictating ?

Comments are closed.