Is the sky falling in Tucson?

 From the Chicken Little movie

"The sky is falling, the sky is falling!"

This is the popular cry from Chicken Little, the popular fable told to kids. In a nutshell, an acorn falls on Chicken Little's head and mistaking this for the end of the world, runs to warn the king.

This saying also refers to unfounded hysteria that something bad is about to happen, and this fear can lead to bad outcomes.  In the story, a Foxy Loxy ends up eating the followers of Chicken Little, all of them members of the bird family.

Lately there has been a lot of talk about water shortages in the Tucson area.  Once recent report by water experts in Tucson found that we may have shortages as soon as 2012... only two years from now!

In a guest commentary in the Tucson Weekly this week, members of the volunteer citizens' committee, which is working in conjunction with the city and county, had the following to say:

This is an important study for the Tucson region because of what it proposes for growth policies. In the past, we have largely reacted to growth as it occurred. As proposed in the Phase II report, proper planning for growth can protect our existing water supplies, limit the need for costly new water supplies and protect the environment.

We are quickly approaching a time in the Southwest when finding sufficient water for new growth is going to get much more difficult. And when water is found, its cost will greatly surpass what we currently pay. On top of this, there is uncertainty about our current water supplies because of factors outside our local control: climate change and increasing demand for water in the Colorado River basin, where most of our water currently comes from. To address this, the report calls for looking further into the use of local, renewable water supplies, i.e., effluent and rainwater, to replace many current uses of potable water, like outdoor irrigation. This allows us to conserve potable water supplies for essential human uses.

  Lake Powell after just 18 months at low levels

We also must allocate water for the environment. Historically, the environment has been viewed more as a supplier of water than a user. But as we have seen nearly all riparian ecosystems in the Tucson basin altered or eliminated by our ever-increasing thirst, the environment has inevitably been sacrificed at the altar of growth. Viewing this as an either-or issue has caused us to miss opportunities to accommodate both the environment and the economy for the overall good of the community. The Phase II report outlines a series of policy changes that can promote allocation of water necessary for the environment without compromising our ability to support continued growth. Our overall quality of life depends on changes like this.

via Tucson Weekly

Another article in the Arizona Daily Wildcat features a recent study by UA geoscientists that found Arizona is drying up even more, and this is bad news in coming years in terms of water resources.

“You have the supply side, so you have drought, you have less water and then you have the demand side which is of course all the people demanding more water than they used to,” Woodhouse (Connie Woodhouse, a UA geosciences professor) said. “It makes us more vulnerable to the impacts of these droughts.”

Woodhouse said that, regardless if the change is dramatic, it is worthwhile to invest in “no regrets strategies,” like conserving water.

“Humans are just consuming too many resources — especially in a desert,” she said.

via Arizona Daily Wildcat

It appears that many experts are coming to the same (and obvious if you think about it) conclusion.  We live in a desert, we are in no way using our limited water resources in a sustainable way, and things are going to drastically change very soon. These are top scientists, not Chicken Littles, who are trying to warn us all before it is too late.  In contrast, their message is different.

"Sustainable rainfall, from the sky is not falling."

For more info: Read a recent article on Tucson water here. Subscribe now to this column via email using the Subscribe button above, or for your favorite news reader you can find the RSS feed here.

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