Metropolis of Scottsdale cuts suburb off from water provide amid drought

Tonight a water crisis in Arizona is thousands of residents are about to be left without water the water War hitting those in the Rio Verde Foothills a small but fast growing area outside of Scottsdale two weeks ago the city of Scottsdale stopped the transportation of water making good on a Year's worth of warnings that the Municipal Water Supply.

Was running dry about 500 homes including some mid-construction now counting down the days until their water runs out because their livelihood it's it's now we need water now we can't wait last week Rio birdie residents taking their fight from the steps of City Hall to the first meeting of the year for the Scottsdale.

City council it is not too late to do the right thing within a matter of days our water tanks and our homes will be dry but this is avoidable we just need Scottsdale to process that water Scottsdale had been warning residents of the supply of water brought in by tankers could be cut off noting.

Developers of real Verde bypass the state law which on the books would have required them to prove a Guaranteed Supply of water for the next 100 years but the supply of water in the greater area continues to drop a decades-long drought depleted groundwater sources and reservoirs at record lows leaving real very Foothills and unincorporated town.

Without its own supply of water high and dry Rio Verde residents filed the lawsuit against Scottsdale last week saying the city violates state law it must resume providing domestic water services to the town now only days away from being left out to dry residents are doing what they can to conserve the little water they have left I just.

Cannot believe that a group of people would look at their neighbors and say we're going to slowly kill off your community all right Von Hillier joins us now in studio so Vaughn we know that the municipal water supply is cut is the city doing anything to help these families right that's where now the city.

And these residents are looking outside of Scottsdale but that is where the hard truth about the cost of water come in all of this ultimately factors in to the cost of the water for these residents you're talking about these tanks these water tankers having to drive even further out to other cities and that adds cost because the transportation to.

Bring it back and it's not just about this particular Community but it's also about the future ones you know you're talking about housing demand in the Phoenix area right now and a new project just broke ground three months ago to build a hundred thousand new homes well the governor just released a report just this week saying that there's an.

Inadequate water supply over the decades ahead to sustain that future development so it's not just about the future but it's about the the current residents here of Arizona and whether there is water to truly sustain the greater Phoenix area yeah well I want to go back to something in your report and and you're from Arizona it's one of the.

Reasons why I want you to do the story I I don't know if this is normal but how did that development even get built if they weren't sure there was going to be enough water right they bypassed to state law that is on the book saying that you have to prove that you have a 100 Year water supply and the developers of that new project that I'm talking.

About they also proved it but what they're coming to realize is is that the reservoirs as they continue to go down groundwater continues to be depleted largely because of the demand from agriculture is that the water that they thought is available is not there going forward into the future and so that is where there's talks about moratorium on.

Building into the future but also should there be farming in the greater Phoenix area talking about more than 50 percent of water going to agriculture here when you're looking at the landscape It's just tough to try to sustain the city there in the middle of the Sonoran Desert is this a problem that you remember growing up with or is this.

Something new this has become urgently more of concern growing up we always heard about water turn off the faucet right after you finish washing your hands when you're brushing your teeth turn off the water there but now you're are talking about literally residents not being able to flush their toilets this is something that I never.

Experienced with and we were thinking it would be decades away we're talking about this all happening right now thanks for watching our YouTube channel follow today's top stories and breaking news by downloading the NBC News app

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