The Roswell Inn owner watched the ongoing South Fork and Salt fires spread outside his home through a security camera as he prepared to host wildfire evacuees.
Brett Fleck does not have an easy job. He manages water for a city in the desert. He has to keep taps flowing while facing a complicated equation: Peoria is growing – attracting big business and thousands of new residents each year – but its main source of water is shrinking.
Standing on the edge of a sun-baked canal with palm trees lining its banks, Fleck watched water flow into the pipes that supply the Phoenix suburb.
“We’re really having a complete changeover in how people view the…