Where Arizona Stands When it Comes to its Water Supply
It will come as no surprise, to most, that Arizona can get incredibly hot. With summer temperatures hitting upwards of 120°, a respite from the heat can be a life saver. This includes the need for healthy drinking water.
With over 7.2 million people calling Arizona home, and each resident using a whopping 146 gallons per day, on average, it’s easy to see that the state, and its residents, use a lot of water. With draughts hitting neighboring states, like California, it makes ensuring Arizona residents have enough clean water to drink, bathe, cook, and accomplish other essentials, even more imperative. And it makes knowing the details of where our water comes from a must.
The good news is that, as a state, we’ve done an excellent job of ensuring we have the water we need, when we need it.
In fact, due to the 1980 Groundwater Management Act, Arizona has what’s needed in place to ensure its water supply can help to support future businesses and residents for around 100 years. Likewise, Arizona is a leader in water conservation, and even has 5x more water stored than is used.
Arizona also has the ability to reuse waste water in an incredibly effective way, making up to 93% of it able to be treated and used.
But where does our water come from now? About 36% of our current water supply is something that we get from the Colorado River. While that may seem like a lot, when you compare it to neighboring states, like Nevada who’s 100% reliant on the Colorado River for its supply, or California that’s 60% dependent on it, the number doesn’t seem quite as daunting.
Plus, with 13.2 million acre-feet of water stored for us below ground, Arizona has a different level of flexibility than many of its surrounding states, allowing the state to pull and replace water quickly when needed, like in times of drought.
Even with Arizona’s focus on conserving and recycling water, public officials are still looking for better, more effective ways to ensure there’s always enough water for residents, and that water restrictions continue to be something Arizona doesn’t have to enforce. Some of these methods include looking at current dam functionality and capacity, diving into the most effective ways to use and reuse water, as well as sustainability.
We’ve talked about what water conservation means for homeowners and Arizonans before. You can watch on our YouTube channel below:
