Phoenix Splits Its Last Reservoir Draw Three Ways

PHOENIX — With the Colorado allocation drawn down to its August floor, the city's water board this week ordered its steepest tiered cut of the year, capping most households near the survival ration while hospitals and cooling centers hold priority. The Tethys Hydrous Group, which runs the desalination line that now backfills roughly a fifth of municipal supply, told the Oceanic & Atmospheric Assembly its plants are running at contracted maximum through the +2.8°C summer. For Elena Vasquez, a home-health aide in the Maryvale district, the cut means choosing which of three shifts to shower for. "You learn to schedule your own body," she said, filling jugs before the pressure drops at noon. The board stressed the measure is seasonal, not emergency, and lifts with the autumn draw. Across the water-stressed Southwest, officials say the same phrase this month: not a crisis, a floor. Residents note the floor keeps dropping.