In the years since, his neighbors, and other rural Arizonans across the state, have encountered the same sight he saw when he turned on the water. That's a slow flow of water with fine sediment, a sign that the well is starting to work. Accessing more water can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Kisiel spent almost $20,000 re-drilling a well to access water deep underground. All the while, large-scale agricultural operations continue to flow into the state, pumping vast amounts of water from underground aquifers.

In Wilcox, Kisiel witnessed the opening of increasingly large-scale agricultural and dairy operations, resulting in more than 90% of the local watershed's water being used for agriculture. This is what rural Arizonans are witnessing across the state.

The reason for aquifer drainage is simple. Eighty percent of Arizona has no regulations regarding groundwater use. It is the only state in the Colorado River Basin with such lenient regulations. In more developed areas, such as Phoenix and its suburbs, groundwater is highly regulated, and aquifers are managed to ensure that excess water that cannot be replenished by rain or surface water is pumped out each year. But in rural Arizona, where agriculture accounts for much of the state's water supply, there are no rules requiring monitoring of groundwater pumping.

At the end of last month, the Water Supply Council Finally announced policy recommendationsThe bill would close a loophole in state law that allowed developers to build homes in urban areas without securing a water supply, requiring rental homes in places like metro Phoenix to have water certificates. This extends to making it compulsory to obtain a book. Most controversially, the Council provided a framework for enforcing local groundwater regulations.

“I am pleased that the Council rose to this task. With six short months of hard work, compromise, and dedication, we will improve water security and continue economic growth in Arizona’s urban and rural areas. We have put together a series of recommendations to help ensure that,” Hobbs said. said in a press release announcing his recommendations.

After decades of failure, local leaders, water experts and environmentalists are optimistic that change may finally be coming to the state's groundwater laws.

“It's easy to put it off until the well dries up,” said Kisiel, a Wilcox resident. He has long advocated for new groundwater regulations to be enacted in the region before more wells start drying up.

In the most populous areas of the state, the Groundwater Management Act of 1980; Active management area Achieving sustainable yields from the aquifers on which these regions depend means they cannot pump more water out than comes in. Under the law, water in the five AMAs is monitored and all new developments are required to certify from water authorities that they have enough water. 100 years, with some exceptions.

This allows the state to suspend new groundwater pumping if state water agency data shows groundwater has been over-allocated. The same thing happened with the Phoenix AMA this summer after the state released a report showing the aquifer beneath the Phoenix metropolitan area cannot support new groundwater development. Groundwater wells that had not yet been approved. New developments without a reliable water supply will need to find water outside of aquifers.

However, in rural Arizona, no such regulations exist, except for some recently established AMAs. Created by Douglas Voters last year. Wilcox also tried unsuccessfully to get voters to approve the AMA. In some rural areas of the state, reporting of groundwater withdrawals is required in areas without irrigation expansion, and restrictions are placed on the development of new users of irrigation water, such as farms.

“We are at a crossroads in terms of water security and water security for all Arizonans,” said Christopher Kuzdas, senior water program manager at the Environmental Defense Fund, who serves on the Governor's Water Council. “There is,” he said.

On the one hand, he said, if the state maintains its status quo, groundwater use could go unchecked and wells could become increasingly dry in rural Arizona. Or they could enact new legislation to address the problem for the first time in 40 years.

The council's recommendation mirrors similar legislative proposals over the years and would establish a third way to regulate water in local groundwater bodies.

Under this new framework, states will have more flexible and less stringent ways to protect local groundwater that they can apply themselves or that residents can initiate through county board votes or petitions. or

The state water board will then conduct a survey to determine the condition of the watershed and determine if it is truly at risk. If so, new groundwater expansion would be paused while water boards and local communities work to develop aquifer goals and management plans to achieve them. Each watershed has its own rules and regulations, which proponents say is key to maintaining local control over the process and gaining support from local residents who oppose state mandates.

Key to the proposal, proponents say, is to keep regulations in rural areas and place stricter regulations only in watersheds facing serious overconsumption problems, even if they are That means more than just enacting new regulations across the state, even in areas without aquifers.

But for now, the fate of the water board's recommendations rests with next year's Arizona Legislature. Key vote holders, including the female chairwoman of the Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee, have long blocked similar bills from coming to the floor, but they intend to oppose any bill based on the council's recommendations. It shows.

“Instead of reducing the size of government, these bills create a new layer of government, giving additional taxing, zoning, planning, and condemnation powers to a small group of unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats. “They will give you money, determine your community's economy, and tell you what you can do with your private property,” she wrote in an op-ed.

She's not alone in her opposition. Arizona Farm Bureau Association President Stephanie Smallhouse and Republican state Sen. Cine Carr, a Buckeye dairy farmer and chair of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, were originally members of the Groundwater Council; resigned in October in protest They are concerned that efforts are underway to bring more water under state control and that this proposal would exclude the voices of rural Arizonans from the discussion.

But many rural Arizonans, from city leaders to county supervisors to state representatives to local residents, aren't objecting and the local aquifers they rely on are shrinking. The government has been pushing for reforms for years.

Holly Irwin, supervisor of La Paz County, located along the Arizona-California border, and a longtime advocate for protecting rural groundwater, said, “At some point, we need to do something to protect rural areas.'' There is a need,” he said. “Not just for my future and my children's future, but for their children's future.”

Unlike other industries, agriculture has a free pass for water-dependent operations, even in areas where it's not wanted, Mohave County Supervisor Travis Lingenfelter said. He is another leader in rural Arizona advocating for stronger groundwater regulations. Kingman's home county, located in northeastern Arizona along the Nevada border, is experiencing similar water shortages and is attracting an influx of farming operations from California and the Middle East.

In the Arizona context, agricultural operations on land larger than 5 acres are not regulated in any way by local governments (laws and regulations (also applies to railways, mines, metallurgy and grazing operations). All the operation needs to do is notify.

“Combine that with the fact that this is the 'wild west' and you can drill as many wells as you want, as much as you want, pump as much water as you want, and you don't have to report it. Send it to anyone '' Lingenfelter said. “From a business perspective, you're basically inviting a future public health crisis around water.”

He said Mohave County was able to turn away non-agricultural water-intensive projects because it can only rely on groundwater in places like Kingman, the county seat.

The Arizona Department of Water Resources began rolling out a series of plans this month. Supply and demand survey of groundwater basins in rural areas. Previous reports show that many of the watersheds are already in overdraft, with more water being pumped out each year than is replaced by rain and surface water, supporting robust agricultural operations. The water we have is in the worst condition ever.

In Willcox, for example, water levels are below the average depth of wells, and the watershed is projected to have a deficit of 108,428 acre-feet in 2022, about the same amount of water that Tucson uses each year. It turns out that there is something. Almost all of that water is used for agriculture.

One of the biggest problems for Irwin is that little data exists on the state of the county's aquifers, giving guidance on how much is being taken away and how much the region can sustain. Both residents and residents alike are plunged into darkness. Her county has yet to conduct a full-scale assessment of the health of its aquifer.

Local leaders and water experts said such headlines made it impossible to ignore the issue as a threat to the state's economic development. The question now is whether change will eventually come to rural Arizona.

“We've known for a long time that the total lack of groundwater management across the state has been an issue,” Kuzdas said. “The community has been begging for a solution very publicly for years. It's time to get something done.”