It's just past seven a.m. in Phoenix. I'm standing at the top of Camelback Mountain. It's the highest

point in the area. And I can see for miles in every direction. And what you see for miles in every

direction is green. There is an unbelievable lushness to this place, not just in terms of green lawns

and golf courses, but even the tree canopy. And if you drive an hour in any direction,

the contrast couldn't be more clear. You hit almost totally bare in desert. And so the first

impression and the overwhelming impression that you get from looking down on Phoenix from above

is it's a miracle. Somehow, humans have managed to build a garden in the desert. And a garden

whose scale is impossible to capture. From the New York Times,

I'm Sabrina Tavernici. And this is the daily. A comprehensive times investigation reveals

that in much of the United States, Americans are pumping out groundwater at alarming rates.

And that this essential source of water for much of the country has reached a critical point.

Today, my colleague Christopher Flaville goes to the state at the forefront of this crisis

and looks at one especially controversial idea to address it.

It's Friday, September 1st.

So, Chris, tell me about this groundwater crisis that you and our colleagues spent months

reporting on. So almost every part of the US relies on groundwater for drinking, for farming,

for basically fueling modern society. And that water has built up deep underground over thousands.

In many cases, over millions of years in aquifers has pumped up through wells. But what's important

is that water isn't just replaced by rain. Even hurricanes like the one in Florida this week

won't be enough to replenish them once that water is pumped out. In many cases, it's effectively

gone. So what we did is something that no one else has done, really. We built a comprehensive

database using data we could find all around the country trying to get the best picture possible

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