BY TAYLOR TASLER | KTAR.com
Editor’s Note: This is the fifth of a five-part series called “KTAR Water Watch,” which will explore the present and future of the water supply across Arizona and metro Phoenix.
Arizona was once in a great spot when it came to conserving water, but a drastic population growth has pushed the state into what experts say is an era of limits.
Since the 1950s, the state’s population has grown by more than 550%, according to the Arizona Department of Water Resources. As a result, leaders are looking for ways to save the states greatest resource.
Water reduction and conservation efforts have allowed Arizona to decline its water usage by 3%, ADWR said.
Director Tom Buschatzke said that number was achieved through multiple methods, but there are some challenges have popped up.
“Some challenges surfaced in certain sectors of our economy and certain uses of our water that create some challenges, but also some opportunities,” Buschatzke added.
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Arizona has seen drastic expansion of semiconductor companies coming to the state, with 200 in the state.
Last year, Intel announced a $20 billion expansion on its Chandler campus. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company also invested $12 million into a new Phoenix campus.
It’s part of a growth plan from Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey.
“ These are companies that could have gone anywhere in the country and have chosen Arizona with our current water situation,” Ducey said to reporters in January after the announcement that Sunlit Chemical, a Taiwanese company that supplies chemicals used in the production of semiconductors, would break ground on a manufacturing facility in Phoenix.
Not only does the sector use a sizable amount of water, it also is contributing to the state’s growing population.
