The following is the opinion
and analysis of the writer:
Michael A. Chihak
Today’s topic is “DBI” in newsroom parlance. Dull But Important.
Dull because it’s not breaking news and is numbers-heavy. Important because it’s about water, “the most essential and precious resource that has supported humanity for over 1,000 generations.”
That statement came from climate activist Quannah Chasinghorse as narrator of “The American Southwest,” a Ben Masters film showing at The Loft Cinema and streaming online. It’s a must-see.
Masters and Chasinghorse follow the Colorado River from its Rocky Mountains headwaters past thousand-year-old Indigenous dwellings, into Lake Powell, the Grand Canyon and Lake Mead, down Arizona’s western boundary to Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, where a last trickle doesn’t even dampen the delta’s dried mud. Along the way, they introduce wildlife dependent on the river.
The film is a plaintive cry for the 1,450-mile-long Colorado, threatened by overuse, drought and climate change. Tucson, other cities, Indigenous nations and farmers rely on it. How long will it be reliable and in what quantities? Nature itself and new management guidelines in 2026 will decide.
Conditions are worsening, six water experts wrote in a Sept. 11 report: “Consumptive water use in the Colorado River Basin continues to outpace natural flow. The dwindling reserve stored in reservoirs that has long sustained this shortfall might soon be exhausted. Immediate steps should be taken to reduce current consumptive uses...”
One such use: Tucson’s swimming pool building boom, which the Star’s Tony Davis wrote about last week. Depending on size and age, a pool uses 17,000 to 30,000 gallons a year, Davis reported. That’s 46 to 82 gallons of water daily.
Which leads to questions about Tucson’s and other Colorado-dependent cities’ conservation efforts. Figures are from various sources so are not apples-to-apples.
Most Tucsonans conserve habitually. Daily per-person consumption is 76 gallons, 59% lower than in 1975, Tucson Water reports. About 40% is used outdoors, including landscaping and pools, the utility says. The Colorado supplies nearly 70% of Tucson’s water.
Phoenix averages up to 150 gallons a day, down 35% since 1975, and outdoor use is about 70%, the Phoenix Water Services Department says. Slightly more than half is from the Salt and Verde rivers, the rest from the Colorado and groundwater.
Usage in Los Angeles, where the Colorado supplies half the water, fell 45% to 114 gallons a day per person from 1990 to 2023-24, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California reports. The LA Department of Water and Power estimates outdoor use at 16% in winter, 27% in summer.
Those outdoor figures seem low considering LA’s lush residential landscapes and estimated 100,000 swimming pools. In Phoenix, nearly one-third of homes have pools. Pima County’s assessor counted 59,000 residential pools in metro Tucson last year, proportionally more than in Los Angeles.
Pools use a lot of water. Yes, they’re nice, and it’s hot, but we shouldn’t build more. We’re in the desert, after all.
Other must-do conservation: reduce landscape watering, install low-flow plumbing fixtures, repair leaks. We need an all-out effort.
This summer was Tucson’s third-worst monsoon in a century, and annual rainfall is 11-12 inches; Phoenix averages 7 inches and had a similarly poor monsoon; Los Angeles averages 14-15 inches. East Coast cities get four to seven times those totals.
Repeating: We’re in the desert.
Barely mentioned here is agriculture, which uses 52% of the Colorado’s water, several sources report. We’ll save that for a future “DBI” column and conclude this one by reiterating that the river’s peril means urgency to conserve our “most essential and precious resource.”
Follow these steps to easily submit a letter to the editor or guest opinion to the Arizona Daily Star.
