Climate change-driven water shortages won’t soon affect major cities’ tap water amid the Southwest’s historic extreme drought, water officials reassured Arizona residents on Friday.
Water conservation measures may be needed by 2023 in Arizona, which is taking the brunt of the first-ever water shortage on the Colorado River, but they will focus on outdoor water use, said Ted Cooke, general manager of the Central Arizona Project, speaking at a briefing about the increasingly dire status of the Colorado River Basin water supply.
“These are very serious things we’re having to communicate,” Cooke said. “There is no need to panic. There ...