"I haven't heard whether Texas is heavily reliant upon water from other states - the way California is.
Now THERE's a disaster waiting to happen. What's California going to do if Arizona ever cracks down on the siphoning of Colorado River water??"
Note that California is depending less and less on the Colorado River for it's water. In fact, most of the water that California uses comes from inside the state, much of it coming from the Sacramento River delta, which is fed from rivers coming down from the Sierra's and which flows to SoCal via the California Aqueduct System which runs nearly half the length of the state, North to South.
Then there are cities like Irvine, where we live, where they have their own city-owned water system where they've been recycling water for nearly 40 years. Virtually all of the green areas of the city, green belts, city parks, highway medians and shoulder landscaping is irrigated using recycled or 'gray-water'. Also most all new office building built in the city for the past 20 years have been plumbed with TWO separate water supplies, a smaller potable water system for drinking fountains and normal faucets, and a second larger system using again recycled or 'gray-water' for flushing toilets, the largest usage of water in a typical office or other commercial building.
Also farms in the area now use mostly drip and flood irrigation instead of open-air sprinkling which was common when we first moved here 31 years ago.
And another thing which is an effective approach is to make wasting water more expensive. When we first arrived, the water bill was a flat rate in terms of being charged the same for the last gallon of what you used in a month as you were for the first. But at least we were being charged for what we used. Up until about 20 years ago, in many Northern California cities, residential buildings didn't even have water meters. You were charged a flat rate based on the size of your lot and the number of rooms in the house/apartment. Usage was never even recorded. And farms along the aqueduct were allowed to take water without paying anything whatsoever, which is why at one time there were some of the largest rice and cotton operations (two of the worst water hogs there are) in the country up in the San Joaquin Valley, North of Los Angeles. That has all changed now. Virtually everyone is now on a sliding scale where those who waste water now pay for the privilege.
But since you mentioned it, why are you implying that Arizona has some special 'rights' when it comes to the Colorado River? After all, it's coming from Colorado (hence the name), passes through Utah and forms the border between Arizona and Nevada and of course California, before it finally 'flows' into Mexico. Which if you want to feel bad for someone, try driving down to Yuma, AZ sometime and watch how much of the Colorado River finally makes it to Mexico. The river is virtually empty by the time it reaches the border. What about the people living on the other side, don't they deserve their fair share of that water, which was flowing through their land long before America or Arizona ever existed?
OCU
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