From its very inception when President Lyndon Johnson signed off on the project, the issue has been controversial. Construction, which began in 1973 near Lake Havasu in west-central Arizona, was slow and bogged down by political wrangling. Finally, some 20 years later, in 1993, water from the CAP was pumped into local homes. In November 1995, Tucson residents voted to cut off CAP water for use in homes and require the river water to be used only for mining and farming operations and to recharge the groundwater. The debate continues today, and recently another pilot project to bring the CAP water into local homes was begun.
Growth brings traffic, and surface streets countywide are feeling the effect.
Tucson, like many cities in the Southwest, is vehicle-oriented. Although this helped some, it has not drastically reduced the amounts of pollutants in the air. There is a strong push by city leaders to encourage other means of transportation such as city buses, carpooling and bicycles. The acceptance of these alternative forms of transportation is slow and in small numbers, despite the many days when commuters notice the haze that hangs over the city. A proactive approach to clean air is the city's Trees For Tucson project.