For Star subscribers: Bruce Babbitt, who is also a former Arizona governor, says some farms will have to sell water rights to cities to insure continued urban growth.
Tony Davis As governor in 1980, Bruce Babbitt prodded southern and central Arizona farmers into accepting the first limits ever imposed on their groundwater pumping. Today, he says a different band of farmers will have to give up water again — this time by selling off their rights to it.
It's a highly controversial idea, one that rural riverfront communities have mostly staved off. But Babbitt says the need to buy and retire farms' river water rights is now"the elephant in the room," one that must be confronted even as"nobody talks about it." Babbitt, 84, now a private citizen, lives in Washington, D.C., while considering himself"a loyal and avid Arizonan." After exiting as governor in 1987, he served as Interior Secretary from 1993 to 2001. He has also worked as an attorney in private practice, representing a wide range of clients involved in environmental issues, and has sat on the board of the environmentalist World Wildlife Fund.Q.
A. I’m just telling you that it’s a decision that we have to make, one way or the other. We need to have a wide-ranging statewide debate about how it is we apportion the future between urban growth and agriculture. Q. Homebuilders say the ADWR's recent decisions, closing off parts of Buckeye and Pinal County to new housing due to lack of groundwater like a big housing project proposed by the Howard Hughes Corp., will deprive people of affordable housing and raise home costs.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Solo: A Star Wars Story Star Shows Off Iconic PropSolo: A Star Wars Story was released in 2018 and featured Alden Ehrenreich taking on the iconic [...]
Read more »
Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham Trailer Puts Bruce Wayne In DangerThe Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham trailer shows the Dark Knight in danger, facing cults and menacing monsters.
Read more »
JW Marriott owner, developer Bruce White dies at 70Bruce White, a developer behind hundreds of hotels across the country including the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis, died Thursday due to cancer.
Read more »
Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau gets emotional before Avalanche game as Vancouver tenure reportedly nears endCanucks coach Bruce Boudreau gets emotional before Avalanche game as Vancouver tenure reportedly nears end by BennettDurando
Read more »
Tearful Bruce Boudreau responds to Canucks coaching change rumorsThe writing is on the wall for Bruce Boudreau with the Vancouver Canucks. Despite going 50-38-13 overall in his time in Vancouver over the last two seasons, Boudreau is likely on his way out as head coach of the Canucks.
Read more »
Secrets of a Massive Star Revealed Through Astrophysical LasersALMA scientists used the unique hydrogen radio recombination lines on MWC 349A to reveal hidden collimated jets. While using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study the masers around oddball star MWC 349A scientists discovered something unexpected: a previously unseen jet
Read more »