Is it this?
Oro Valley Water Director: "Enough resources to support future growth?"According to Oro Valley Town of Oro Valley Water Utility Services Director Peter Abraham, Oro Valley has plenty of water:
"...stewardship [of water resources] leaves enough resource availability to support the town’s future growth, even if the CAP drought contingency plans go into effect." (Source) This statement was made in an article he authored for the local advertising circular last week.
This is not the first time Abraham has put forth this proposition.
"In current drought conditions, Oro Valley is able to maintain its current developments, plus more housing units within the current town boundary and an additional 4,000 homes for 100 years, through a mix of ground water, Central Arizona Project water and reclaimed water," Abraham stated at a State Lands hearing.
Or is it this?
"Enough resources to supply our current service area for 100 years"
Apparently, Director Abraham is more confident today in his water supply projections than he was in March.
The town has a web page, "Fact-Checker web page".
One of the questions asked is: "Can the Town's water resources support all this new development?" Initially, in crafting a response to that question, which is essentially what Abraham repeated in his article and in his response at the neighborhood meeting, Abraham did not include the "100 year" assured supply time frame.
In a memo of March 6 , 2018 to the town's communications director, he said something different. He said that he "...did not want people to think that we have the resources to develop at our rate for the next 100 years." He went on: "We have the resources to supply our current service area for 100 years."
A reasoned, thoughtful answer is needed
Our conclusion is that Oro Valley really doesn’t know if it does or does not have sufficient water for expansion.
A thoughtful, considered fact-supported water analysis should be presented to council and to the residents to clarify exactly what is Oro Valley's water situation. This analysis should include estimates of water availability based on differing scenarios of resident water use and differing scenarios of potential rainfall.
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