Except I don't have an issue with more people living in Arizona. I don't want it to become like S Calif with 24/7 traffic jams but the amount of less water people use vs agriculture is significant. Water is extremely low priced to farmers in the Colorado river basin - no wonder 70-80% is used for agriculture. If they made the farmers pay for the infrastructure the taxpayers paid to build Hoover Dam, Glen Canyon Dam, and all the canals and machinery to get the water to the Imperial valley, China wouldn't be able to buy alfalfa at subsidized rates. Why are water rates subsidized? (politics, incl Gavin Newsome who loves to spend Federal monies)
AZ has been pushing water conservation and has limits on population growth so we are not the problem despite people in semi-arid Denver throwing stones. I have a zero-scape yard (no grass), how about you?
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If we are going to subsidize water rates for anyone, shouldn’t it be farmers? I’m not really excited about the prospects of eating lab made fake meat in the future. This entire conversation started because BW said beef prices were high because of Biden. Now we have conservatives openly looking to make life harder on ranchers. Get ready for even higher beef prices.
I do quite a bit to limit our water. Already have turf in most of our backyard, about to remove the rest of the grass to put in concrete and a basketball hoop.
I also moved to one of the only towns in Colorado that put limits on population growth, so yes, I’ve been putting my $ where my mouth is. If my suburb was excitedly talking about bringing in data centers and hundreds of thousands of more people, I’d be very vocal in my opposition to it.
Colorado growth is just as much of a problem as Arizona growth. The only difference is, people from Colorado seem to recognize it. You’d be hard pressed to find a native Coloradoan (I married one, which is why I live here) excited about the prospects of adding a couple more million people.
