Arizona town to cut off water to Rio Verde Foothills amidst western water crisis 

A problem that has been getting increasingly serious over the past couple of years, but I don't see any water saving measures. I see lawns, pools and desert farming.

I raised my kids on a little farm in Pa. We depended on a well for water and our well was shallow. We were very cautious about water use. Pa. Had plenty of water but rural areas did not get it. Now I live in Texas and I am amazed at how people waste water in this super dry and hot area. When asked Texans say “We are entitled to us water-we pay for it “ They think water is unlimited even tho the News gives us the aquifer level daily. This whole city of San Antonio survives on 1 aquifer and it is growing rapidly with not thought of water. Americans are going to have a grim future if we don’t learn to use resources sparingly.

He never once mentioned bad farming practices and clear cutting trees that used to hold the water in the soil to make way for farming

Sounds like they should have never built homes there in the first place if they didn't have a reliable source of water, but they did anyway. Something tells me they've been warned about the cutoff for a long time too, so they had their chance. I'm also blown away that building is still being done, mind boggling

I'm reminded of the Utah governor saying "pray for rain" while small high desert cities like St. George have 13 golf courses. Whatever.

It's not a water problem per se, it's a attitude problem.

Rio Verde is a millionaire based community which most homes are either investments or snow birds. Maybe half of the people who reside there live there year round. It’s built around a huge golf course, I have no sympathy for that community and the situation they’re in. The devs bought up land cheap and flipped it with their left clients holding the bags. The community should sue the dev company. There’s no way Scottsdale is going to sell them more water as well as other communities.

To paraphrase the wise philosopher Kinison: "See this? This is sand. You can't eat it. Nothing grows in it. In a hundred years, you know what it will be? Still F-ing SAND!"

The people in Rio Verde have the 'freedom of living outside the city limits" 0:42. I wonder if that means that they have freedom from paying city taxes and conforming to city building codes etc. Freedom of that kind comes at a price.

We waste so much water on golf courses, fountains, lawns... No one is taking this seriously. They will once people are literally fighting over water. Edit: Yes I'm aware grey or recycled WATER is typically used for agriculture, golf courses, ect.. It's still WATER though..we need to conserve WATER.

Cut off water to all the alfalfa crops owned by Saudi Arabia in AZ. I lived here since 1958, been through the water crisis prior to the Colorado River allotment. We don't need olympic size pools in every other yard either.

And now even Kari Lake is drying up.

Our agriculture Wants/needs take a MASSIVE toll on our environment, and the worst part is almost 40% of the food in the US just goes to waste and doesn't even get eaten.

It would be VERY different for those of us in AZ if we were actually paying what water actually cost. That would bring immediate clarity to a difficult situation.

"The pioneer attitude" as the gentleman said at the end is nostalgia and romanticism. The 'old west.' The Mayor of Scottsdale isn't being stingy. He has a million constituents to serve. His decision is in fact the embodiment of the pioneer attitude: you are on your own. He's only forcing those desert home owners to face up to their realities.

What is REALLY strange to me is as follows: people in those 7 states are still planting lawns (grass🙂), contractors are still building with no guarantee of potable water, people are still moving to/buying, golf courses are being watered (gotta have those greens), etc. And then, Alfalfa....grown here in Arizona and Nevada on Saudi-OWNED farms and harvested and sent to Saudi Arabia to feed their horseflesh. Why. Oh why.

The town of Rio Verde is about a 20 minute drive from me. It's a golf course community. I don't understand why gold courses aren't closed first when water is scarce.

And how will the Hoover Dam make electricity with a dry river?

When you live in a desert, this is what happens.

lives in desert.... ACTUALLY surprised water is hard to come by... 🤡

I’ve got a friend in AZ I asked about the water crisis and he said don’t believe everything you hear . Guess he’ll find out if he’s right or not

Phoenix will soon be home to a giant Silicon Chip Factory-a water hog industry‼️The Colorado River cannot give more than it has...🌊

I did not hear one mention of all of the hotels, golf courses, residence, shopping resorts, extravagant water, fountains, and pools that take up an enormous amount of water from the Colorado river in Las Vegas. The argument always comes down to farmers. Nobody’s questioning why….

He who controls the water, controls the world.

It's interesting that Scottsdale will not put water restrictions on the people that are growing lawns in the desert even though there's a drought emergency. the State of Arizona allows Saudi Arabia to have Farms which pump out groundwater at an unsustainable level and ship the alfalfa and feed to their country. issue building permits in areas that don't have a water supply pretty insane system if you ask me.

AZ has had record monsoon the past few years. Set up rain harvesting & storage. A change in personal water usage is a must. It can be done with adjustments.

Its frankly amazing on how many people who have lived in Arizona and are still pouring from California are completely oblivious to how serious the water situation actually is. The ground water across the state is to contaminated for consumption and lake mead is afew feet from the cutoff level for Arizona

One of Alaskas early Governors once proposed a water pipeline to California as a revenue source for his state. At that time it made people laugh. It would have been a great use of melting glaciers and a cash cow for Alaskans.

My 88 year old uncle Bob has always told me that land is useless unless it has water. He learned this from his Surveyor/ Engineer grandpa who was literally born in the 1880's

For people who need water so badly, one would think they wouldn't let the hose leak out water all over the ground..

temporary solutions are just silly, the only real solution is less people and less agriculture.

The Great Lakes community would really like to wish you all the best of luck

hydroponics uses less water. Quit growing lettuce in the soil.

“That’s their problem” meanwhile they’re building more houses and continuing to supply water to golf courses.

Rainwater and greywater harvesting are potential solutions that don't get discussed enough. For instance, my modest roof has the potential to collect 15000 gal per year. I also estimate close to 80% of my household water use constitutes greywater that just goes down the drain to unknown destinations rather than to my yard where it could go to carefully selected vegetation that would improve the soil's ability to hold water. What holds me back is the high cost of cisterns and existing plumbing that is not greywaterr-friendly. How hard would it be for contractors to offer their clients these options when building or remodeling homes? As an alternative, how about we just cut California off. j/k :)

I put myself through college hauling water to homes west of St. Louis- there was no municipal water system that served rural areas so home were built with cisterns to contain hauled water. Drilling a private well was costly because of rock in the area. Even today I think many rural homes are either on wells or haul water.

none of those houses should have been built there, and that includes most of scottdale.

no mention of saudi alfalfa farms using millions of acre feet for export

Cut down on the golf courses and grass lawns, Arizonans.

The real problem is people saying "that's there problem" rather than "we have a problem - how can we work together to find solutions". We're doomed.

The Water War is beginning, again.😔

People aren't using the majority of the water! The majority goes to crops like alfalfa to feed cattle. If we eat LESS beef, we can have more water.

First... Stop the foreign owned farms that are foreign crops only. 😡

Farming in a desert is ridiculous.

It's not like anybody hasn't been screaming about this for the last 30 years..... "I never thought..." well, no excuse.

Use desalinized water piped from the ocean to refill it. People still have water, and we combat sea level rise at the same time. They say it's 'too expensive.' so is war and the weapons we produce for them.

This issue will serve as a major case in point for future societies who want to understand sustainability.

As a Phoenix resident I do partially feel for some of these people who have been there awhile. But there are lots of people who've bought and built in recent years that were warned but didn't listen.

Luxury Swiming pools, golf courses, fountains, manicured lawns…

This can be solved in 1 easy step. Shut down a lot of Golf Courses. Arizona has over 370 courses. Currently Arizona golf courses use approximately 120,000 acre ft of water per year. Of that amount, approximately 21,000 acre ft. of water comes from the Colorado River. 1 acre ft. = 326,000 gallons. After doing the math of (21,000 x 326,000) = the golf courses in Arizona are taking 6.8 Billion gallons from the Colorado River per year. And that's just Arizona. California has 921 golf courses, Colorado has 300 courses, Nevada has 88 courses, Utah has 140 courses, and New Mexico has 100 courses. Let that sink in. Source: "Kyl Center for Water Policy"

200 years ago it was a desert. 100 years ago it was a desert. Does anyone else see a pattern here?

The writing has been on the wall for decades. Every home in Southwestern America will be about as valuable as a condo on the beach in Daytona Shores with no beach or sea wall in front of it left. I sold my home and moved abroad for this very reason.. among others two years ago.

When I retired from the Navy in 2005, I foresaw this Crisis in the US Southwest which is why I went back East.

We have to be honest and face the harshest reality there is: farmers have to give it up in these places. They HAVE to.

So instead of cutting down on water consumption they are just self imploding??!! Im so confused by that.

Harsh lessons.

"Humanity has a choice, it is either a collective solidary pact, or a collective suicide pact." - Antonio Guterres (UN Security Council)

Somebody said years ago, "Water will be worth it's weight in Gold".

California is surrounded by water, albeit salt water. Desalinization plants? The other Colorado Basin states don't have this option. Reducing use, and reducing dependancy on Colorado water are needed.

The other explanation is the west was settled during a "wet" period of above-average rain & snowfall. And now we may have entered into a period of average (or below) rain & snowfall, coupled with a population explosion. It's not climate change, it's regression to the mean. The only solution is to consume far less water.

These people who decided to live in the desert are so surprised they don't have water in the desert

Rich people building mansions in a desert away from everyone now can’t get water. Sad.

3:15 the entirety of Arizona sits in the Colorado River Basin, while only a sliver of California does. Yet California is entitled to vastly more water. The water should stay in the Basin.

It’s sad, as I sit in Tempe AZ today, I still see communities promoting their rapid expansion. Buildings popping up EVERYWHERE. The farmer’s concerns are understandable but do we really need to eat strawberries in December, mixed salads in January. Mother Nature is only talking back what’s hers, the DESERT. We humans are spoiled as Sh&t. Grass on desert front yards, year round golf and 24/7 AC March-October. I’m placing my bet on Mother Nature. I’ll be collecting my winnings from my new Midwest home.

easy fix for all of this... STOP BUILDING HOMES AND FARMS IN THE DESERT!

The people of Scottsdale want their green grass and golf courses, and they don't give a flying flip if people downstream die of thirst so that they can maintain the lush, green lawns in the middle of the freaking desert.

Over farming. Corporations are profit based. Grow enough to sell domestically. Disallow over seas sells. Sells will shrink but water conservation will grow. Why should we run out of water to feed other nations?

Where is all this water going in a closed system this doesn’t make sense😊

I would vote for this guy - "That's There Problem" If you build a home and know there might not be water and you still build a home then expect the government to find a solution - that goes against that "pioneer" ethos. Why can't that town pull itself up by the boot straps?

Stating "that's their problem" and pushing it off is not a statement which should be made as far as being a leader. Discussion and solution(s) are the way to go should have been his answer. Side note, I think the Mayor had his veneers or crowns a shade or three too white.

It always astonishes me when experts say, we dont know why the community abandon the town. Evaporating water supply is invisible.

In Pima County (Tucson and surrounding towns) there’s a law that a development has to prove that there’s 100 years of water - except the developers only need to tell ONE household in that development. I thought it was a state law. Apparently I was wrong. Tucsonans are much better with their water usage. Lawns are few and far between. We prefer decorative gravel. After all, we live in a desert.

Amazing REPORT THANK YOU

This is so wrong. Why does AZ feel we need more mansions when there is not water. Why should everyone else have to pay the price. We don't need to be any bigger. Stressing our energy supply and everything else. Enough!!!

This is why we shouldn’t have millions of people living in a FREAKING DESERT!

Good reporting.

Try to imagine Kari Lake trying to manage any of this. Well, she would try to deny it was going on.

The entire Phoenix Valley needs to have its water source cut and believe me it will be because the environment is going to make it happen live and learn people

Innovation is the only way out. A single monsoon storm holds enough for probably everyone and every farm in the whole state. They need find a way to store water and also a way to retro fit farms to use different techniques to conserve water. Like drip irrigation as opposed to flood irrigation. Saying things like “the desert isn’t meant to be lived in” is stupid. Humanity literally started in a desert. Humans don’t need permission from the elements. We dictate how we live. We must be smarter.

I grew up in the West and it feels like home, but it's making less and less sense to live out here. People who know a lot more about the long-term economy than I do are predicting that towns like Milwaukee, Cleveland, Buffalo and Detroit are going to experience a population explosion soon as a result of people fleeing water scarcity. It's hard to imagine but it makes sense. I know I am going to move to where the water is in a few years.

Building communities in the desert is bound to have water problems . Just like peeps living near rivers ,ocean front etc, are bound to get flooded .

Four things: How on earth are sprinkler systems and their usage still legal - vast amounts of water are lost to evaporation straight into the air & much of the rest evaporates from leaves, never having reached the roots where it's needed? Secondly, appliances such as (domestic) dishwashers, toilets that aren't dual flush - low flushing, taps & shower heads that aren't low flow varieties shouldn't either legally available for either supply & or installation in these drought stricken regions. TBC: low flow DOES NOT mean low pressure. They give the same effect as traditional fixtures but use considerably less water and of course, users have lower water bills. The whole world needs to be far cleverer about how we manage water supplies & usage within our homes, businesses etc. For example: building codes can stipulate that water from baths, showers, sinks, dishwashers, washing machines be collected & filtered for reuse in the flushing of toilets - you DON'T need drinking water to flush a toilet as happens in most of the world, grey water is just fine for this purpose. It REALLY doesn't make sense to expend massive amounts of resources to collect, transport, treat & transport drinking water to the end users only to flush it straight down the loo. That's bonkers & massively inefficient not to mention highly polluting. Water's HEAVY! Massive diesel pumps are used in it's transportation, emitting greenhouse gases along the entire fuel supply chain from well to end users. Currently employed farming practices don't fit nor have they EVER fitted with the region in which they're deployed. If you want to successfully farm in water challenged areas, it is CRUCIAL to do so with a sustainable permaculture design and management approach. Otherwise you won't have a farming business for very long - as farmers are finding out much to their cost. I come from a farming background & I know full well that you ALWAYS have to farm in a way that nature dictates or else. Anything else is pure arrogance.

A recent investigation from Arizona Central has revealed that Fondomonte, a subsidiary of Riyadh-based Almarai in Saudi Arabia, has the bargain of a lifetime: for only $25 per acre annually, it can pump unlimited amounts of water at no cost whatsoever. Fondomonte is using water to grow alfalfa sprouts, which are then exported to Saudi Arabia to feed their prized horses. Nearby farmers pay six times more than the Saudi company. Fondomonte is depleting the groundwater of the Butler Valley, a valuable transfer basin that is seen as a potential water supply for Phoenix. The Saudi company owns thousands of acres across Arizona and has expanded operations in Eastern California. According to one estimate, the company could be pumping as much as 18,000 acre-feet per year, enough to supply 54,000 single-family homes, raising concerns that the groundwater will disappear faster than it can be replenished. Alfalfa is one of the most water-intensive crops there is, and the current breakneck pace of production is threatening to stop the flow of the Colorado River entirely. The question is, how much money was given to Arizona's Governor, Doug Ducey, by the Saudi's? Additionally, the lease has been active from 2015 onward. We elect leaders to serve our interests. Why did our state and federal government, from Obama, Trump, and Biden allow the country responsible for 9/11 to rob the American people? In this video, CBS interviews Thomas Galvin. He's a lobbyist for Saudi Alfalfa and he was elected to the Maricopa County Board Supervisors. Not once does CBS question Galvin's allegiances. Our politicians pledge to work for us but it's not happening. Another example, we passed the CHIPS Act. $280 billion of our tax dollars are being used to subsidize tech companies with the promise that they will bring manufacturing jobs back to America. At the last minute, the requirement to manufacture chips in the U.S. was stripped out of the bill but that's not what we are being told by our government and the media. We are simply being gaslit. Also, since 2020, a staggering $1.4 billion went into the Georgia Senate races. Where does this money come from and what will our politicians do for these donations in return? Our government is selling the American people down the river to enrich themselves and their own interests. In the case of Arizona, politicians are allowing foreign interests to steal their water. How loud do the alarm bells have to be for us to stand up and say, "No more!"

These past few days watching my crypto portfolio decline is very disheartening. Holding doesn't really profit much. Any ideas on how to earn better on the short run?

So why do they continue to build thousands of new homes all over Arizona every year???

TOO MANY PEOPLE!

There’s an obvious solution which no one will agree to. You charge market prices for water. The building of pools will shrink to a trickle immediately.

After living in the Phoenix AZ area since the 1980's my husband and I packed up and moved back to our native state of Indiana a couple of years ago. Even then the writing on the wall was clear as day. No water. We wanted to sell and get the heck out of there before our 4 acre property was worthless due to lack of water. Now we live in the land of rain, lakes, rivers and streams and groundwater that is readily available from our private well. I fear for what the west will become in the next few decades unless they take a hard lesson from Israel and learn to become masters of extreme water conservation. And with the current mindset in AZ I don't see that happening...

Farmers in the desert... Let that sink in. I agree with her Minnesota is not the bread basket but there's a shitload of farmland in the Midwest and the South that is not being utilized. Where Farmers can't grow competitive crops with desert farmers but a desert Farmers don't exist they would.

This is the best TV reporting I have seen on the RPV water issue. The New York Times article is the best thing in print.

wow can't they just close the valve a little on Hoover Dam and let it fill back up while every one scales back a little water?

So they knew for YEARS that their water supply would be cut off and they did nothing.

Do the people getting their water cut off in the foothills use rain catchment?

Republican party standards in action....no support. The shortsighted greed of the gop is going to give the state back to the desert. That with global warming Arizona is all over but the crying

Scottsdale: "stop stealing the water that we stole from a river over 150 mi away from us. We stole it fair and square first."

The 'mayor' said it perfectly, manage your own future and destiny, you have no need for them to do it. Right?

If you are not guaranteed water, by the utility department and live in arizona, do not buy property. Do not believe real estate brokers and developers

Here's something 'small': Some communities here in the southwest are ripping out lawns for artificial turf. BUT . . . the sod makes oxygen. Oxygen that is a factor in disappearing O2 that becomes greenhouse gases. The sod doesn't STAY where it's applied. It 'too' percolates into the aquifer that helps feed Scottsdale. I think it would be wise to necessitate water capture/harvest on homes that need the sod . . . you must remember that 'sod' also combats heat island which generates MORE consumptions of energy that contribute to greenhouse. Golf courses give 'man' to air it out from urban stresses. IF they can see the 'quality of life' needs they might worry about swimming pools and their 5' evaporation. Why not make giant planters of the pools with actual 'greenhouses' OVER the pools. Still being able to experience the garden dreams of flowers on dining room tables and coffee tables. Lot of finger pointing . . . but 'holy' Scottsdale used to elect a Harry Drinkwater to the mayor's office. The agriculture cannot be sacrificed. Just saying. Thanks for your continuing focus on our desert reality, CBS.

So farmers only logical solution is "well I can't grow it in the freezing cold, so I'll grow it in the scorching heat and drought?" Incredible....

Pioneers knew to settle near a reliable source of clean water.