Interview with Grady Gammage - Central Arizona Project

ut it means we’re using less water so more people can move here. That next
wave of people we may even try to tighten their water use down a little farther.
We’re making a choice there. We’re making a choice that bringing more people
here is more important to us then sustaining the way we’ve been living here. I
don’t know if people were really faced with that choice—do you want another
million people here if it means we can’t have grass anywhere in the future—I
don’t know if people would vote that way. It’s such a slow incremental though
process that we haven’t really faced up to the fact that’s what we’re doing, is that
we’re trading off current lifestyles against future growth. That’s a huge problem
to deal with somewhere long term.
Q. You were part of the campaign for “Growing Smarter” with that legislation
A. Yes.
Q. And that didn’t pass.
A. It did and it didn’t. What didn’t pass was the State Land reform piece. That was
the only piece of “Growing Smarter” that had to go on the ballot. The other
pieces were passed by the legislature and are in affect.
Interview with Grady Gammage
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