Tucson has 5.5 years of excess Colorado River water stowed in a secret reservoir
Arizona is facing dramatic cuts in water deliveries from the drought-imperiled Colorado River. But many water managers there aren’t that worried due to a long in the works conservation strategy.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:It is drier than it has been in the Southwest for 1,200 years. And the fast-growing states there that rely on the Colorado River are seeing their water deliveries being cut out like never before. But as NPR’s Kirk Siegler reports, in Arizona anyway, few people appear to be panicking.
KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE:Tucson’s water manager, John Kmiec, is standing on a patch of desert shrub more than 330 miles from the shrinking Colorado River. Tucson gets the bulk of all of its drinking water from the river, but there’s no five-alarm fire right here.