"Lost and unaccounted for water" is an important bellwether for measuring how effectively a utility manages its supply, water experts say. The term reflects a utility's ability to prevent excessive leaks and water line breaks and its ability to monitor how much of its supply is actually used by people and businesses.

It also shows how well a utility's water meters are working at measuring the amount of water they receive and use. Preventing water losses and accurately monitoring water consumption is particularly important now when one of the state's main supplies — the Central Arizona Project canal system — is at risk due to sharply declining flows in the Colorado River, where its water comes from, said Sarah Porter, director of ASU's Kyl Center for Water Policy.

"We know we're going to lose a lot of water, it just can't be this much, and it can't be with Upper Basin states having no uncompensated commitments," said Rhett Larson, a professor of water law at Arizona State University and legal counsel to the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association.

If the Trump administration put out a plan that made those changes, he argued, "that might be scary enough to have the Upper Basin states say: 'We have something to lose. Let's come back to the table.'"

According to Rhett Larson, the Richard Morrison Professor of Water Law at Arizona State University, the crisis is not merely a matter of a dry winter or a bad decade of snowpack. It is a fundamental structural failure. Larson posits that the Southwest is currently attempting to survive using a "19th-century law" to manage "20th-century infrastructure" for a "21st-century climate and population." This framework suggests that the very tools used to build the West are now the primary obstacles to saving it.

As the sun sets over the Pinal Mountains, casting long shadows across the historic storefronts of Globe and the massive tailing piles of Miami, a digital clock is ticking toward a deadline that could redefine life in the rural West. At midnight on December 31, 2026, the current agreements governing the Colorado River will expire. Without a new deal, the river's legal framework reverts to a century-old hierarchy that places Arizona at the very back of the line—a scenario ASU Professor Rhett Larson calls "the Thunderdome."

From water innovation to carbon reduction and food systems, three initiatives from the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University were recently honored at Arizona Forward’s 2026 Environmental Excellence Awards, highlighting their real-world impact on the state’s most pressing sustainability challenges.

The Arizona Water Innovation Initiative and the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions both received coveted a Crescordia Award in their respective categories.

The fleeting and shrinking snowpacks across the West are the result of a warming climate, said Enrique Vivoni, director of the Center for Hydrologic Innovations at Arizona State University.

“There might be winters where there might be more precipitation, it's just not going to persist as a snowpack for as long as it has in the past,” Vivoni said. This, in turn, will whittle stream flows.

Sarah Porter of Arizona State University said a lot of people in the state already understand they need to help and "change what they're doing with water use."

"I am asked all the time by people who are concerned and want to know what they can do in their homes and businesses," said Porter, director of ASU's Kyl Center for Water Policy. "I was even contacted by an incarcerated individual who felt that the state prisons could do more to conserve water."

Sarah Porter of Arizona State University, said a lot of people in the state already understand they need to help and "change what they're doing with water use."

"I am asked all the time by people who are concerned and want to know what they can do in their homes and businesses," said Porter, director of ASU's Kyl Center for Water Policy. "I was even contacted by an incarcerated individual who felt that the state prisons could do more to conserve water."

While "we can’t conserve our way out of this problem" by itself, some cities are going to have to step up the amount of conservation that occurs, she said.

Enrique Vivoni, an Arizona State University professor who directs the school’s Center for Hydrologic Innovations, worked on the study. He said the planes add a level of precision to snow data that can help water managers fine-tune their strategy for releasing water from reservoirs.

“What's critical about this is the timing,” he said. “When will that water that's previously been in the snow and now is in the soil, when it will arrive to the rivers and eventually to the reservoirs, and that timing information is really important for water management.”

“These airborne datasets are helping us train artificial intelligence models using satellite imagery,” said Enrique Vivoni, director of the Center for Hydrologic Innovations at ASU. “That allows us to turn daily images into estimates of snow cover and water content.”

The timing of snowmelt is a critical parameter for water resource management, particularly in systems dependent on seasonal runoff.