Water: The Most Precious Commodity Here In The Desert...Who's Metering The Usage??

Duh!
The problem is that the amount of water pumped by farmers and cities and the amount replenished by storm runoff isn't known.
That's because the state doesn't require farms and other users to meter or otherwise measure their use and there are poor recharge numbers
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Report from the Associated Press:
PHOENIX (AP) — Republican and Democratic Leaders of the Arizona House are again eyeing the state's water supply as a major issue for the coming legislative session that starts next week.
Let's be very clear
“If we’re not measuring, if we’re not metering, then we cannot say that there’s plenty of water,” she said.
“I think we’re being very, very reckless with the sustainability of water for future generations.”
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Arizona's water supply a major issue for legislative session

AP January 09, 2020 at 3:11 pm

By BOB CHRISTIE

GOP House Speaker Rusty Bowers and Democratic Minority Leader Charlene Fernandez both highlighted overpumping in the state's rural areas as a major issue when lawmakers return to work on Monday.

Rusty Bowers:
“I’m not putting up any red whistles or skyrockets without knowing what the real situation is, . . "

“I am very concerned about overdrafting,” Bowers said in a Wednesday interview. But he said he doesn't have enough facts to propose legislation just yet.

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The West Is Trading Water for Cash. The Water Is Running Out

Desert farmers along the Colorado River are striking lucrative deals with big cities. But not everyone comes out a winner. 

By Luke McGrath Bloomberg.com |   ‎August‎ ‎15‎, ‎2019‎ ‎1‎:‎00‎ ‎AM

"The 1,450-mile-long Colorado River serves as a source of water for seven states, but climate change and overuse have caused its levels to drop precipitously. . . climate change is responsible for aridification—the progression from cyclical drought to a permanent decrease in water. . .

With big western cities clamoring for a share of the river’s diminishing supply,

desert farmers with valuable claims are making multimillion dollar deals in a bid to delay the inevitable.

It’s an echo of the historic manipulation that long ago subdued this waterway, . . .

When you combine institutionalized overuse with an accelerating climate crisis, . . that’s when you get “the problem.” . . .

And for rural communities further down the list of water rights, the growing shortage of Colorado River water has become an existential threat.
Arizona’s Pinal County, an agricultural community wedged between Phoenix and Tucson, ranks near the bottom when it comes to claims.
Here, farms lay fallow not for money, but simply because
there’s not enough water.

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For the big deal to spend $200,000,000 of Mesa taxpayers' money in a Field of Schemes to finance Sloan Park,  a stadium here in Mesa for the Billionaire-Ricketts Family, owners of the Chicago Cub's sport franchise, City Manager Chris Brady held up a defiant fist when questioned over the terms of pay-off of the public debt obligations. He was joined by former mayor Scott Smith . . .
city assets would be sold-off:
Water-Rights on 11,444 acres of land.
Brady justified that by stating that the city had 'plenty of water' in August 2019.
Now the story has changed

Let's crack open this latter-day charade

City envisions a $66M pipe as a lifeline to SE Mesa 

Jim Walsh's Story/East Valley Tribune

DUH? Hard to believe city officials are using that same old play-book

"This is just an illustration. We have no idea where the alignment is,’’

----- Jake West, Mesa’s water resources director, said

 

“We’re just in the beginning of an alignment study to make it as successful and economically done as possible.’’

 

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SAY WHAT?

Nov 12  

Pinal County has plenty of water for the next 100 years.

We just need to prioritize demand

Opinion: An alarming prediction about Pinal County facing a water shortage is a myth that’s based on outdated assumptions and incomplete data.
By Jordan Rose and Tom Galvin,

opinion contributors | azcentral"Mark Twain once wrote of his difficulty with math by ascribing a quote about the flexible power of numbers to British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli,

“There are three kinds of lies:

lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
Farmers, developers, landowners, residents and elected officials in Pinal County are now empathetic with Twain because we are trying to dispel a growing notion that “Pinal County is out of groundwater.”
The Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) is working on revising a model based on outdated assumptions and incomplete data that have perpetuated the myth that Pinal County is facing a water shortage. In fact, Pinal County has plenty of water for today, tomorrow and 100 years from now.
Farmers and cities are good stewards
The agricultural and municipal sectors rely on substantial and robust aquifers and are responsible stewards of water for today’s needs and for future demand."
READ ON: 
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21 October 2019

The Latter-Day Charades For Mesa City Manager Chris Brady: Water-Boy

14 years into his job as the City of Mesa's Chief Executive Officer, we're getting some new revelations for what's next: ENVISION A PIPE
“It’s our next pocket of water,’’

City Manager Chris Brady said.

“It’s going to be our lifeline for the future expansion of southeast Mesa.’’

carry water for (someone)

1. To serve, assist, or perform menial or difficult tasks for some person, group, or organization

What does a deceitful person carry in one hand while carrying water in the other?