Nevada’s water supply problems are inextricably tied to its rapid population growth. Urban and rural demands, over-withdrawal of groundwater, and ecological degradation are all worsening under the stress of a fast-growing population.
Nevada’s leaders and citizens need to recognize that environmental limits make endless population growth impossible. As they and other states reckon with those limits, leaders at the federal level should embrace policies that make practical sense. Hoping for the best is no longer a viable approach. Ending population growth, while promoting prudent water resource management, are the only ways to avoid catastrophic water shortages in the future.
Thirsty for Growth: How Arizona Is Trading Water for Sprawl
In June 2025, the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) imposed a moratorium on new building permits for subdivisions in some areas in and around Phoenix, after new groundwater models revealed insufficient supply to support further development. Senate Bill 1611 — the so-called “Ag-to-Urban Groundwater Conservation Program” — was passed one month later specifically to override that moratorium, allowing developers to substitute “groundwater credits” for proof of physical water availability. This workaround allows unsustainable growth to continue, under the guise of conservation.
SB 1611 allows farmers near Phoenix to permanently relinquish their irrigation rights, dewatering farms to effectively circumvent the moratorium imposed by ADWR. Real estate interests understood the stakes. “This will alleviate some of that pressure … now they can get their certificates of assured water supply,” one industry leader explained. Another said bluntly, “this will be good for us”, capturing the law’s underlying purpose of serving developers, not the public or the environment.
Governor Katie Hobbs hailed the bill as an “historic bipartisan deal.” But behind the bipartisan triumphalism is a growing ecological deficit. Arizona’s leaders remain unwilling to limit growth, even as water becomes scarcer, rivers dry up, and farms and native species are displaced. |
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SB 1611 accelerates this displacement. With an estimated 425,000 acres of farmland eligible for conversion, it could enable up to one million new homes at suburban densities. That means bulldozing productive farmland, removing natural vegetation, and consuming ever more water to support lawns, pools, and golf courses in arid zones where the groundwater is already depleted. As a result, habitat destruction will increase, wildlife will lose access to water and migratory corridors, and aquifer depletion will accelerate. Human expansion continues to push other species aside — and the politicians responsible refuse to acknowledge the tradeoffs.
Our study of Arizona sprawl reveals a simple truth: no amount of policy tinkering can solve Arizona’s water crisis if population growth continues. Every new home, every new subdivision, every new resident increases total demand for water — not just for household use, but for electricity, food, transportation, and landscaping |
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What Can We Do?
Political leaders in Arizona, Nevada, and elsewhere in the arid southwestern U.S. may continue to celebrate growth, but reality will impose its own limits. The aquifers will run dry. The rivers will stop flowing (as many already have). The land will no longer support the people pouring into it. If we are serious about securing a sustainable future, we must confront the truth: water conservation alone is not enough. We must end population growth — in Nevada and Arizona, and across the United States.
That means saying “no” to more sprawl, ending unsustainable economic practices, and shifting federal immigration policy toward population stabilization. Without those changes, every new policy — no matter how well-intentioned — will be undone by sheer numbers. As long as growth continues, so will the water crisis in the American southwest.
NumbersUSA’s “Six Great Solutions” are legislation that will help curb illegal immigration and reduce legal immigration to levels that create a more thriving, egalitarian, and sustainable society. Visit our Action Board to support Congressional legislation to stop using immigration to force population growth. Thanks in advance for your support, and if you’d care to send items for inclusion in this newsletter, please send them to Philip Cafaro at philipjcafaro@gmail.com. |
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