Is the San Pedro River "toast"?

The former district chief of the USGS Water Resources Division in Arizona says it is already too late to save the flows of the San Pedro River.

In an op-ed piece in todays Arizona Daily Star (http://www.azstarnet.com/opinion/190715), Robert MacNish wrote that "Even if all groundwater pumping in the basin is stopped immediately, the effects of the historic pumping will continue to expand from the pumping centers, and the river will dry up, flowing only during storms."

[right: San Pedro River 2007, Joe Cook/AZGS]

He also said that if pumping were never to resume, "recovery could take more than a century." He called for "agressive, pro-active measures" to be taken immediately or the river is "toast." And concluded that "given the historic responses of the folks in the basin to repeated warnings of the rivers potential demise, it is too late."