OPINION — Arizona officials love reminding us we prepared for the Colorado River crisis — banking water underground, building conservation programs, negotiating shortage agreements. Every round of cuts brings the same reassurance: Arizona planned for this.
Then look at Las Vegas.
Southern Nevada spent nearly $2 billion building an intake and pumping system that can pull water from Lake Mead even below the elevation where Hoover Dam can no longer release it downstream — dead pool. Officials didn't dismiss that scenario as too frightening to plan for. They built for it.
