The Arizona Republic reports on the demands of the housing bubble. "Earl Kemp watches daily as earth-moving equipment rumbles past his home in rural Golden Valley, near Kingman, pushing aside dirt and desert scrub as a Las Vegas developer prepares to build the first of more than 130,000 homes."

"The developer, Jim Rhodes, couldn't promise..that he could provide enough water for all the people, a failing Kemp thought would doom the project. ''There's no water out here to begin with,' said Kemp, who pays to have water hauled in. But water worries haven't derailed the project. The Mohave County Board of Supervisors approved all but one of Rhodes' subdivisions in early December, and the fifth was hung up on land issues, not water."

"The Arizona Department of Water Resources has yet to finish its assessment of whether the area has adequate water to sustain nearly 400,000 people. Even if the state finds the water supply inadequate, that's what appears likely unless the builder's engineers can shore up their studies, Rhodes can keep building."

"While developers must prove they have a 100-year assured water supply in Phoenix, Tucson and Prescott, they face no such regulation in rural Arizona and, under the law, can build even if the state rules their supply is inadequate. Many officials worry about losing revenue if growth slows."

"Building a crisis slowly is not a word Denise Bensusan would use to describe the arrival of big-city developers in Kingman. In the space of a year, maybe two, builders have proposed more than 160,000 single-family homes, apartments and condominiums, more housing units than currently exist in all of Mohave County. 'We are in a crisis,' said Bensusan. 'Our entities are not listening to us. The way these plans were rushed through, it was a joke.'"

"Mohave County officials don't deny that they are missing some information about water supplies, but they insist they are only following the law. They angered opponents of the subdivisions when they said state law prevented them from rejecting proposals solely because the builders couldn't guarantee water supplies. 'I'm all for private property rights, definitely,' Bensusan said. 'But when our small group was invited to participate in the Long Mountain area plan, we were called anti-growth and all we were doing is talking about how much water do we have, how much density can we handle here, what about the infrastructure, the roads.'"

"The Water Resources Department will issue a determination of 'adequate' or 'inadequate' to meet residents' needs for 100 years. The actual result isn't binding, but the builders have to disclose the finding to the first buyers of the subdivision parcels. So far, no lawmaker has proposed changing that law. 'This is a very serious issue," said Lela Prashad, an advocate for Arizona Public Interest Research Group. 'In 80 percent of the state, there are no protections so that when people buy a home with an inadequate water supply, they know it.'"

"Rhodes and other developers say that's not their aim. They promise high-quality communities that will improve their surroundings without taxing resources. State officials say they rely on the developer to submit the best information possible. That's especially critical in Mohave County, where little is known about the aquifers beneath the undeveloped areas. Some studies suggest ample water, but there's been no real confirmation. If the state had to issue a report now, Tom Whitmer said, it would conclude that there is inadequate water to sustain the homes."

" Bill Abbott hasn't conducted any engineering studies, but he can offer firsthand evidence that it isn't easy to maintain water in the arid valleys outside Kingman. He and his wife kept a few horses on their small spread and lived for years off two wells. Then the wells started to slow and before long, they'd nearly gone dry. He worries now about selling so many new homes without assurances that the water will hold out. 'When I see my wells going dry, when I see my horse trough going dry, I don't go out and buy more horses,' he said."

"It's no secret that Rhodes intends to market at least some of the houses to Las Vegas-area workers, creating a far-flung bedroom community for people who want affordable homes and don't mind a drive of an hour or more. The completion in 2008 of a bridge designed to bypass Hoover Dam will make such commutes possible and could leave Mohave County with tens of thousands of residents who work in Nevada but live in Arizona."