Tom Buschatzke says it’s not a mistake to freeze new development in Buckeye and the surrounding area because of a canary-like groundwater shortage in a coal mine.

But the director of the State Water Resources Department said early warnings for Arizonans first occurred in Pinal County three years ago. His agency has already refused to issue the necessary permits for new developments that planned to rely solely on groundwater.

More importantly, much of the rest of this drought-stricken state is headed in that direction without new water sources, he said.

In an extensive interview with Capitol Media Services, Buschatzke said communities aren’t immune just because they’re allotted water from the Central Arizona project.

Its resources are also finite. Cities that fail to display CAP allocations also ensure that their 100-year water supply faces similar limits.

He also said developers cannot start construction today relying on the idea that treated seawater might become available sometime in the future.

Buschatzke said his decision not to release analyzes of available groundwater in a location known as the Hassaympa sub-basin near Buckeye until Monday, as Gov. Katie Hobbs said in a state address on Monday. , said it was not an effort. Taking it out of the public so that developers can continue building.

He confirmed that the request to delay the report was actually from her predecessor, staff member Doug Ducey. He said he wanted to release it when he came up with a “potential solution”.

When Hobbes was informed of the existence of the report, he had other ideas.

“I don’t think we can tackle this problem if we don’t know what we are facing,” she said after her speech.

Regardless, Buschatzke said the timing was legally irrelevant: Whether public or not, Buschatzke said what was in the report was a new development in the 886-square-mile area his department is investigating. He said it meant that he had not issued any permits for residential subdivisions.

But the release of the report has brought new focus to the fact that the state is facing water shortages even as people continue to move here.

“We have this double challenge, don’t we?” said the governor. “Addressing the housing problem requires a balance of needs

A crisis that requires addressing water scarcity. “

This “double challenge” is caused by a double problem.

Decades ago, lawmakers realized that the state was well positioned to outstrip demand for available groundwater.

Arizona has long had the right to part of the Colorado River’s waters. But federal law was needed to authorize the construction of a Central Arizona project with the idea of ​​reducing the need for pumps.

Then in 1980, the CAP was introduced, and legislators approved historic legislation aimed at reducing groundwater withdrawals in metropolitan areas. The law is based on the idea of ​​achieving “safe water volume” by 2025.

The only thing is that the supply of the Colorado River, which was allotted for an unusually wet year, has not materialized recently. If you don’t agree, more reductions will be made.

But a report from Buckeye shows that as CAP water runs short, groundwater is not the future solution for much of the state.

“We’ve tried to take the easy way out,” said Hobbes. And the question remains whether Arizona can continue to grow at its current rate.

“I don’t know the answer to that,” she admitted.

“A lot of what we’re facing with the Colorado River shortage is that it’s absorbing more snowfall and running less,” the governor continued. And that’s caused by climate change, she said. Told.

“This is not something that can be fixed by using less water,” says Hobbs. “It’s very complicated.”

But can we actually stop development?

“There are so many questions that I don’t have the answers to.” We need to keep people living and water scarcity going. “

Buschatzke said this was not surprising.

“What I have said over the years is that given the fact that groundwater is a finite resource, we have allocated groundwater for various uses since the Groundwater Management Act of 1980. It was only a matter of time,” he said.Buszczke said the Buckeye won’t be the last area to be affected.

“We don’t know exactly who is next and when it will happen,” he said. It’s all governed by science.

“As always, we are in the process of improving and updating our groundwater model,” continued Buschatzke. “And as we work on them, we may see some of this start to see the sunshine elsewhere.”

So what are your options for continued growth?

One is pumping water from the Hulkuahala Valley further west of Phoenix. A special law permits the transfer from this basin to water-scarce areas of the state.

There is also reclaimed water that has not yet been allocated, such as for cooling at the Palo Verde nuclear power plant.

The Colorado River Indian Community also recently received federal permission to sign a long-term lease for a portion of its 719,428 acre-feet of Colorado River waters annually. An acre-foot supports her family of three for a year on average.

But it still has its limits.

Buschatzke said the tribe is probably looking at lease terms of 25 to 30 years, too short for the community and developers to be part of the 100-year guaranteed supply.

“But you can bury that CRIT water underground and divide the volume by the proper math to get 100 years,” he said. “We can pull it out in 100 years.”

And what about desalination?

The only thing that ever happened, according to Buschatzke, was when the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority told its staff about an Israeli company, IDE Technologies, and a plant that could supply Arizona with water in the future. I instructed them to discuss the possibility of supplying water to the state. But that is far from certain, he said.

“Right now, the potential for desalinated water cannot be presented as an endorsement of someone’s guaranteed water supply programme,” said Buschatzke.

“We have no plants installed, no plants under construction, we are not producing water,” he said. “I need to generate water.”

And it actually says nothing about being available for 100 years.

“Desal could be part of the solution,” said Buschatzke. “But none of the waste being discussed…at this time is going into anyone’s guaranteed water supply.”