Developers who want to build around the largest city in the state will have to show their credentials and prove that they will not use the region’s groundwater.
The decision by Katie Hobbs, the Democratic governor of Arizona elected last November, to ban all new real estate projects without guarantees around Phoenix, is partly explained by a report on projections of groundwater needs in the region. . A report set aside, according to the governor, by the previous administration. However, this study concludes that by 2121, there will be a shortage of water to meet the demand of millions of households in the area.
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The western United States is facing a drought that has lasted two decades now, the worst in 1,200 years. The Colorado River, which supplies water to several US states, including California and Arizona, must be protected. Several states agreed a few weeks ago on a restriction of their allocation from the river, so it is another water resource, along with groundwater, on which Arizonans can no longer rely as much as ‘previously. The governor assured during the press conference that her state would not be left without water. She has earmarked $40 million for conservation efforts and has created a “water council” to find lasting solutions.
Desert and golf courses
Real estate projects in progress or already approved are not affected by the Governor’s decision. But for their new projects, the developers who intended to use groundwater as it has done for years, will have to find other solutions, in certain parts of Phoenix, at least. Proof of the construction site: in January, the city of Buckeye, in the suburbs of Phoenix, which grew from 6,000 to 90,000 inhabitants in just 20 years, spent 80 million dollars to have access to underground water. If groundwater is the simplest and cheapest option, developers could, for example, buy water from farmers or from Native American reservations.
In Arizona, water use in rural areas is less regulated than in urban areas. Another track: the desalination of sea water. But it is a method that is expensive, which is not yet fully developed. And then, Arizona is quite simply not at the edge of the ocean.
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You have to realize that Arizona is a desert state. When you go to Phoenix by plane, you fly over hundreds of miles of desert. When you drive around the city, you are in an urban setting, but the desert surrounds you. And yet, Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the United States with 4.5 million inhabitants, one suburb after another has been created where retirees have come to live for the climate and the 200 golf courses of the region. Where also come Americans from all over the country because life is cheaper than in California, for example.
Land in the desert costs less, but obviously if developers can’t build like they used to, those costs are likely to go up and The New York Times [article en anglais], for example, wonders if this is not the end of this all-out growth of Phoenix. As if the conquest of the desert found itself confronted with the principle of reality.