Is Phoenix sustainable? Experts tell SEJ conference the region plans for heat, drought (2025)

As a major city in the middle of the Sonoran Desert, Phoenix has been in the spotlight in the debate over the sustainability of urban development, so much so that it’s gained the reputation for being an "uninhabitable hellscape."

But some on a panel at the 2025 Society of Environmental Journalists conference on April 25 argued that while Phoenix has its fair share of environmental and sustainability concerns — notably extreme heat and water shortages — a habitable future is still in reach.

Water remains a major concern over the sustainability of Phoenix, especially on the Colorado River, and by extension, the Central Arizona Project. The CAP is a system of pipes, tunnels and aqueducts designed to bring water from the river to Indigenous communities and populous regions of the state.

Kathryn Sorensen, director of research at Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University said a plan for the Valley has been in the works in case Colorado River water runs low. She said the plan is to fall back on other water supplies like the Salt River, the Verde River and groundwater.

“It would be highly disruptive – I don’t want to minimize that,” Sorensen said. “But it is something that the municipal water planners have known about, it’s something they have planned for, and we have taken care of our aquifer exactly for that contingency.”

Weakening groundwater laws

But groundwater management remains a contentious battle.

Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter, said she sees this play out at the state Legislature, especially when it comes to the Groundwater Management Act, a law passed in 1980 that established rules for pumping groundwater.

“What I’ve seen in my time at the Legislature is whittling away at the protections that were in that Groundwater Management Act — weakening it, finding ways around it,” she said “Yes, we require a 100-year assured water supply in Active Management Areas … but there are all kinds of ways to get around that, and developers are very influential at the city and the state level.”

One way certain actors try to skirt the rules, she said, is to challenge the legitimacy of models showing that an area doesn’t have the required 100-year supply and calling for other calculations to be used.

Even so, Sorensen said there are reasons to remain optimistic, including increased efficiency in plumbing and appliances like washing machines, local efforts to reclaim and reuse wastewater and removal of grass lawns in exchange for more desert-adapted landscaping.

Planting trees to ease the heat

Phoenix is also notorious for its extreme temperatures, but some neighborhoods, like the Grant Park Neighborhood in south Phoenix, suffer from it more than others. That’s why community volunteers like Silverio Ontiveros are doing their best to plant trees so the neighborhood gets enough shade.

Ontiveros said nonprofit organizations and community groups have previously worked with the neighborhood to plant trees, but maintaining them has proven difficult.

“We’ve planted … around 300 trees, and I would guestimate probably around a third of them are still alive today, only because they don’t get watered,” Ontiveros said.

One reason for this, he said, is that neighborhood residents don’t have the know-how to maintain the trees. He also attributes the tree shortage to the fact that many properties in the neighborhood are rented, and landlords don’t want to shoulder the cost of tree planting and maintenance.

City officials are also making efforts to plant trees in the areas, often using resident feedback and identifying places with the most need, like areas with high pedestrian activity and transportation use, said Willa Altman-Kaough, deputy chief of staff to Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego. Altman-Kaough also emphasized the need for other shade structures for places like street intersections that aren’t hospitable for trees.

All of these factors taken into consideration, journalist and author Tom Zoellner said the narrative of an unsustainable Phoenix, largely fueled by apocalyptic media coverage of the hot 2023 summer, “doesn’t take into account the tremendous adaptivity that has always been a feature of this particular state.”

Naomi DuBovis is a journalism student at Arizona State University, and is part of a student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.

Coverage of the Society of Environmental Journalists conference is supported by Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism, the University of Arizona, the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust and the Arizona Media Association.

These stories are published open-source for other news outlets and organizations to share and republish, with credit and links to azcentral.com.