Central Arizona cities have kept the taps flowing to residents without restrictions, even as a 30-year drought deepens on the Colorado River. That may change in the next year or two.

What happens to water supplies depends on negotiations among the seven Colorado River states and 30 tribes, who are trying to finish a new drought-management plan to replace an expiring plan.

Most cities can draw on stored groundwater for short-term cutbacks, but if Arizona is forced to take deeper cuts, the cities would likely ask residents to conserve more or pay higher rates.

As Chuck Cullom addressed an audience at a June water conference in Colorado, the snows high in the Rocky Mountains behind him were warming into water, which would soak into dry soils, evaporate into sere air and yield only a paltry

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