On New Year's Day, the city of Scottsdale, Arizona, which get most of its water from the Colorado River, stopped sending water trucks to residents in the neighboring Rio Verde Foothills, which sits on the outskirts of Arizona's most populous county — Maricopa County.
According to FOX 10 Phoenix, while "faucets won't go dry," residents of the area would face a near tripling of their current water bills.
One resident, Cody Reim, told The Washington Post his water bills could cost as much as his mortgage or $1,340 per month. This is a "life-changing amount of money for me," Reim told The Post.
"I thought," he continued, "this is the United States of America, we do so much in humanitarian aid to other countries that don't have water; they're not going to let taxpaying citizens of this county go without water?"
"You don't think this could happen," the Rio Verde Foothill resident added. "You have this belief that there's going to be help."
Reim attended a protest last Tuesday at Scottsdale city hall to demand water for his community.
But, as one water expert tells The New York Times, the situation in Rio Verde Foothills is unusually dire. They posit the problem offers a glimpse of what is to come for some 40 million people in the West who depend on the Colorado River for taking showers, irrigating their crops, or run fracking rigs.
"It's a cautionary tale for home buyers. We can't just protect every single person who buys a parcel and builds a home. There isn't enough money or water," said Sarah Porter, the director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University.
The prolonged drought of the Colorado River has already led to unprecedented restrictions. Now the federal government is pressing seven states to cut up to 30% of the river's annual average flow.
Newsmax tried contacting the city of Scottsdale on Monday to determine the nature of the water infrastructure, but was met with no response on Martin Luther King Day.
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