By Joshua Bowling | The Republic
Buckeye leaders recently approved a plan that outlines the city’s current water supplies and how much the suburb some 40 miles west of Phoenix needs to acquire to grow sustainably.
Buckeye, the fastest-growing city in the U.S., doesn’t have the water it needs to meet its loftiest population projections. It has relied since the mid-1990s on a legal workaround that paved the way for building on the Valley’s fringes where there aren’t robust water rights. That workaround, relying on finite groundwater, raises concerns among some of the state’s water experts.
The new plan indicates Buckeye relies on more groundwater — the workaround — than previously reported in city documents. But it also lays out potential steps for the city to get the renewable water it needs.
