River can only support so much growth

The headline on the Monday, March 19th, issue of the Yuma Sun cited a forum on water allocation here on March 23rd, and on Facebook there are requests for people to attend this meeting. In the same issue a newly declared candidate for governor, Kelly Fryer, has said she wants to form a blue-ribbon panel, calling it a “Justice League,” their mission being to develop a system for dealing with what she called “..an ever deepening drought in the state.”

In the first place, local citizen attendance, while well intended and certainly encouraged, will unfortunately carry little weight in the decision-making of those seeking state level positions; these people will cater to the places that have the most votes, and Yuma “ain’t it.” It may, however, be an opportunity to hear what local politicians have to say.

What is really going on is an effort by developers and urban interests to “grab” more water. Sooner or later the uncontrollable truth must be faced: There will never be more water than nature provides. Yeah, there can be all sorts of water conservation programs enacted, but the fact is there is a limit to how much growth, of ANY kind, the Colorado River can support. The only way for the big cities and the developers to get more water is to reduce the agricultural industry — put the farmers out of business. Think about the ramifications of that. GENE LEMON Yuma