Rock and no water and the sandy road
More from the “people in Arizona don’t seem to grasp what an arid climate is” department:
Rio Verde Foothills, a suburb of Scottsdale, was cut off from the city’s water supply on 1 January. The controversial move left hundreds without access to running water, prompting residents to file a lawsuit demanding that services be restored.
Scottsdale argues that it bears no responsibility for Rio Verde. In a statement published on 16 January, the city of Scottsdale said that it had for years “warned and advised” Rio Verde – which is governed by nearby Maricopa County – that it could not depend on the city’s water supply, particularly during periods of drought.
Yes but the people in Rio Verde really need water.
A lawsuit filed on behalf of residents last week claims that Scottsdale has placed Rio Verde residents under an “unconscionable amount of stress and anxiety by discontinuing their domestic water supply”.
Except it’s not “theirs,” is it.
“The lack of fresh potable water for families to be able to bathe themselves or running water to flush their toilets is a well-known basic necessity,” the lawsuit added.
Of course it is, which is why people should stop moving to desert towns. It’s not why people should move to desert towns and then demand that others supply them with water.
Arizona is one of 33 US states currently experiencing drought conditions, according to the US Drought Monitor.
Oh, only 33 out of 50. We’ll be fine.
But they’ve lawyers, guns, and money. They always work, right? (Though it’s proper etiquette to save the guns ’til last.)
Nope, Lawyers, Guns, and Money is not on their side:
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2023/01/the-end-of-arizona-water
Water Rights Law is big business in Arizona.
“Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over.”
The city of Scottsdale basically blew it by agreeing to provide water in the first place, which made a tacit promise to continue supplying it. So whether or not the state of Arizona passes legislation to make Scottsdale supply the water, in the future it’ll be a wet day in hell before any city in Arizona supplies water to anyone other than themselves.
JA: I actually like what my California County does: what is urban shall be municipal. If you want to live a faux rural life and to avoid big gubmint stepping on your freedumb, you don’t get water and sewers. Good luck when your wells run dry!
Brian M, what’s also dumb is that Scottsdale was providing the water at cost to Rio Verde. Definitely some political backscratching and/or bribery going on there.
Even though we’ve gotten deluged lately, it seems that Washington is technically in a drought. I’m not certain how that is defined, but I do know that I’ve been seeing a lot of brown on the hillsides of late, which I never used to see. So I guess we’re in that 33. Who woulda thunk it.
We’ve been in a drought, too. I don’t know if the eight inches of snow we got today will be enough to break the drought. It is enough to close the school, which was closed today, also, because of the ice storm last night.
I wish I thought it would break the drought. Not enough, unfortunately.
Here in London Ontario we’ve had very little snow. We had some for Christmas (YAY!), but that’s gone. Since then we’ve had no more than a dusting or two, but not enough to cover the grass. I’ve been aware of winters here for over 50 years; I don’t ever recall one with as little snow as we’ve had so far this season. It’s weird and unsettling. We’ve had some rain, but I’m not sure if it’s been equivalent to the amount of precipitation we’d usually get as snow or not. What this means to our local water overall, I’m not sure. Our drinking water comes from Lake Huron, so we’ve got a bit bigger buffer than areas that rely on slow – if ever- to replenish aquifers, but even the Great Lakes are not infinite, and disrupted weather patterns, however they manifest, will not help agriculture.