"Mesa" is Spanish for "Water-Filled Playground"

Hey, remember when the Colorado River actually reached the ocean? Yeah, me neither.

The American West is dealing with its worst drought in 500 years, so naturally, the residents of that region have formed a plan.

Huge Water Park Planned for Ariz. Desert

Sweet! I guess there's LOTS of water down there after all! Can we get a description of this futuristic aquatorium?

A massive new water park that would offer surf-sized waves, snorkeling, scuba diving and kayaking - all in a bone-dry region that gets just 8 inches of rain a year.

If constructed, the park would use as much as 100 million gallons of groundwater a year.

Nice. Groundwater has always pissed me off. It just sits there in the GROUND, when it could be ENTERTAINING me on a hot summer day. It's the laziest form of water (except, maybe, for glacier ice. Pick up the pace, you alpine slowpokes!)

Can we get a quote from the far-sighted developer who's making this happen?

"I couldn't imagine raising my kids in an environment where they wouldn't have the opportunity to grow up being passionate about the same sports that I grew up being passionate about," he said.

Man, that's a relief. I figured he was just doing it for the money. But he's really doing it so his kids can go surfing without having to move away from America's burgeoning kid-topia: Mesa, Arizona.

Of course, it's not just one guy forcing this through.

Mesa voters overwhelmingly approved their proposal on Nov. 6, granting the Waveyard an estimated $35 million in tax incentives with more than 65 percent of the vote.

"We don't have a property tax in our city," said Eric Jackson, chairman of the Mesa Chamber of Commerce. "It requires us to be very heavily dependent on revenues from sales taxes."

Got that? If you live in Mesa and want your streets paved, fire trucks running, or schools open, you gotta build a huge-ass water park. It's the responsible thing to do.