By Councilwoman Solange Whitehead This week, a Council majority is staging a photo opportunity at Scottsdale’s Water Campus to reassure residents that Scottsdale’s water future is secure. It isn’t. The backdrop may be our award-winning Water Campus, but the reality is different. The experts who built Scottsdale’s nationally recognized water utility are gone. Funding for critical water projects has been … Read More
The Colorado River Is Running Out of Time. So Is Scottsdale.
By Ronald Sampson The seven states that share the Colorado River have now blown through two consecutive deadlines to renegotiate water-sharing rules. They missed November 2025. They missed February 2026. With the existing federal guidelines expiring this fall, the U.S. Department of the Interior is increasingly likely to impose its own interim framework on the basin, whether the states agree … Read More
Do They Know We Have an Impending Water Crisis?
By Alexander Lomax The Numbers Are Not Subtle Scottsdale gets roughly 70 to 75 percent of its tap water from the Colorado River via the Central Arizona Project canal. The current agreement governing CAP allocations expires at the end of 2026. Negotiations among the seven Colorado River Basin states have stalled. The federal government may impose cuts when that agreement … Read More
Guest Editorial: Preparing for what we can’t predict
By Thyra Ryden-Diaz, PE, MPA Interim Senior Director – Scottsdale Water Good water management is not about predicting the future. It is about preparing for it. The future of water in the Southwest will be influenced by many factors. Some are within our control. Others are not. Scottsdale cannot determine how much snow falls in the Rocky Mountains. We cannot … Read More
Op-Ed: Let’s Talk Honestly About Scottsdale’s Water Future
By Thyra Ryden-Diaz, Scottsdale Water Interim Senior Director If you follow water news in the Southwest, you’ve likely noticed a shift in tone in recent months. While the headlines remain serious, the conversation is becoming more balanced. Alongside concerns about drought and Colorado River reductions, there is growing recognition of the planning, investments, and regional cooperation helping stabilize the system. … Read More
The Consequences For Scottsdale Could Be Even Worse…
The following is an op-ed from Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and Mesa Mayor Mark Freeman which originally ran in the Arizona Republic Few issues unite Arizonans more than water security. Throughout the desert, we understand that water is life and take pride in our culture of conservation. The careful stewardship of our water has guided our state and our cities, … Read More
Lake Powell and the Dam That May Not Hold: A Crisis Decades in the Making
The Colorado River has been in trouble for a long time. But a new wave of reporting suggests the situation may be moving from chronic to acute, with Lake Powell potentially reaching “deadpool” status before the end of 2026. For the 40 million people across seven states who depend on the river, this is no longer a distant warning…it is … Read More
Is Water Taking a Back Seat in Scottsdale City Governance? A New Development Implies As Such
By Ronald Sampson Scottsdale has long prided itself on being one of the most forward-thinking cities in the American West when it comes to water policy. For a desert municipality that has watched the Colorado River shrink for decades, that reputation wasn’t just a point of civic pride; it was existential planning. Which is what makes a quiet but consequential … Read More
Mayor Borowsky blasts draft Colorado River plan, urges adequate protection for Scottsdale’s future
Scottsdale Mayor Lisa Borowsky is calling on the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to revise its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for post‑2026 Colorado River operations, warning that the current proposal fails to protect cities like Scottsdale that depend heavily on the Central Arizona Project (CAP) for its water supply. Mayor Borowsky submitted a detailed letter to the Bureau of Reclamation … Read More
Water Issues are Back to the Forefront in Arizona: How Concerned Should You Be?
The collapse of Colorado River negotiations on November 11 wasn’t just a bureaucratic failure; it’s a warning sign that Arizona’s water future remains deeply uncertain. When Governor Katie Hobbs and bipartisan legislative leaders jointly urged federal intervention, calling Colorado River reliability “a matter of national security,” they weren’t being hyperbolic. The question isn’t whether Arizona faces water challenges, but how severe those … Read More
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