An overwhelming majority of voters in Arizona and the rest of the Colorado River basin say they’re concerned about diminishing water supplies and want their governments to do something about it. That’s according to a new poll of about 2,500 people across the seven states that use the river’s water.
Eighty four percent of Arizona respondents said addressing diminishing Colorado River water supplies was “important” or a “top priority.” Between 85% and 90% of Arizonans surveyed said they were concerned about different problems caused by those diminishing supplies — such as threats to drinking water, increased risk of wildfire, threats to hydropower, increasing insurance costs and threats to national food supply.
About 90% of Arizona respondents said it was important for state and federal officials to prioritize water security around the region.
The poll was conducted by Morning Consult, a national business research group, and the Walton Family Foundation, a philanthropic organization created by the Walmart founder and run by his family. The Walton Family Foundation has been a major funder of conservation and education projects related to the Colorado River.
“The decisions we make about the Colorado River now will shape life in the West for generations to come,” Moira Mcdonald, environment program director at the Walton Family Foundation, wrote in a press release. “It is critical that Colorado River Basin states, the federal government and Tribal Nations collaborate on long-term investments that work with nature to make the river more resilient, conserve water and protect communities from increasingly severe fires and drought.”
Arizona voters opined similarly to respondents from the six other states that share the Colorado River: California, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico.
Concern about drying conditions and support for solutions appears to be relatively bipartisan. Even when Democratic and Republican respondents differed slightly in their support for programs such as forest restoration and farm efficiency upgrades, those programs were still supported by at least 85% of voters from each party.
Overall, Arizonans supported a balance between short-term conservation strategies and long-term solutions, with 49% of respondents saying that an equal emphasis should be put on both.
Voter concern about water supply comes amid very real threats to the long-term stability of the Colorado River. Drought and climate change have been sapping the water supply for more than two decades, leaving the nation’s largest reservoirs perilously low. The policymakers in charge of the river’s future have struggled to agree on ways to rein in demand.
Politicians in Arizona are increasingly talking about water in office and on the campaign trail. Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has been involved in multi-state talks about the river’s future. Complicated, once-obscure water policy issues — such as groundwater management and the fate of a shuttered desalination plant in Yuma — have come up in debates, and public-facing policy discussions, and campaign advertisements.
A different poll, released in May, showed that water is the top issue Arizonans want lawmakers to prioritize. Earlier this year, Arizona lawmakers tripled the size of the state’s legal fund for potential lawsuits about sharing water from the Colorado River.
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