Groundwater is one of Arizona’s most important water resources. It is finite and largely unregulated, especially in rural communities that rely solely on it.

To change this, in 2022, the basins around Douglas and Kingman will be regulated by the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR).

Douglas and its surrounding groundwater basins have become Actively Managed Areas (AMAs) through local voting initiatives in the 2022 election. A watershed can be designated as an AMA when groundwater is the largest source of water supply to a particular area and given certain hydrological characteristics.

This is the first watershed designated as an AMA since the Arizona Groundwater Management Act of 1980 designated five watersheds as AMAs. Prescott, Phoenix, Pinal County, Tucson and Nogales are still within the AMA.

About 80% of the state’s population lives within the original five AMAs.

There are laws within the AMA that limit development, mandate conservation, and require annual reporting from water systems. These laws serve a variety of goals, from balancing aquifer withdrawal and recharge.

Natalie Mast

Each AMA has different specific goals based on its specific circumstances, and Natalie Mast, AMA director for the Arizona Department of Water Resources, said the statutory goals for Douglas’ new AMA have not been determined at this time. I was.

The AMA includes guaranteed water requirements for 100 years. This means that all developments building 6 units or more must demonstrate a guaranteed water supply for 100 years before approval. Also, large water suppliers such as cities, private companies and irrigation districts are required to submit an annual report with net loss of groundwater supply not exceeding 10%.

But AMA designation is not a perfect or unified solution for water conservation and management in all rural communities in Arizona, Mast said.

“Rural problems are complex and different solutions will have different impacts on different sectors,” she said.
Residents of Wilcox, in the same county as Douglas, voted against having their watershed designated as an AMA on the same ballot.

The Hualapai Valley Basin, which extends from just north of Kingman and straddles the Arizona-Nevada border, has been designated an Irrigation No Expansion Area (INA).

The INA is designed to limit new withdrawals while requiring annual withdrawal reports from existing water users living in the basin. The INA has been designated to limit the expansion of existing irrigated areas and limit further withdrawals, Mast said.

This is the first watershed to be designated as an INA since the Halquahala INA west of Tonopah in 1982.
The Douglas Basin and Joseph City Basin were designated INAs in 1980 under the Arizona Groundwater Management Act. Groundwater management is nothing new to Douglas residents.

“As a Douglas farmer, you can imagine me not really wanting much growth,” said Sarah Porter, director of the Kyle Water Policy Center at Arizona State University. “AMA is a tool for limiting growth or changing growth patterns.”

Mojave County superintendent Travis Lingenfelter said the lack of regulation in most of rural Arizona is allowing out-of-state businesses to use groundwater as much as they like. . At Kingman, Ringenfelter said these companies “are pumping free water, a finite resource, as much as they want.”

According to Lingenfelter, the Hualapai Gorge watershed is Kingman’s primary source of water.

“There is no plan B,” says Lingenfelter. “We don’t have Colorado River water. We don’t have a canal system, so it’s important to make sure our only water supply is sustainable.”

Lingenfelter said the largely unregulated state of much of rural Arizona is not sustainable and could become a “public health crisis” if left unchecked as it is now. rice field.

Juliet McKenna, principal hydrogeologist at Montgomery & Associates, calls Arizona’s lack of groundwater regulation “unsustainable.”

“The presence of groundwater there has created opportunities for communities and industries to thrive, but their growth is based on finite resources,” McKenna said. “We call it fossil groundwater. This groundwater has been entering these basins over thousands of years and has not been replenished. has been mined and not exchanged.”

Mast said the main problem with groundwater in rural Arizona is the lack of measurement and monitoring of wells and aquifers.

“It’s hard to manage what you don’t measure,” says Mast. “Anything outside the active management area, through irrigation and expansion areas, relies on estimates… It becomes exponentially more difficult to understand the water problems in the region.”

An INA could be set up soon if a bill from Hereford Republican Rep. Gail Griffin establishes a process for registered voters and irrigation users to petition the ADWR to establish a temporary INA in its watershed. It could be easier.
The process under Bill HB2442 begins with a petition to obtain at least half of the irrigation users within the boundaries of a particular watershed and at least 10% of registered voters in counties within the particular watershed.

Once the petition is confirmed, ADWR will hold a meeting in the area and the county oversight board will call for elections by all registered voters in the watershed. If voters approve this action, an INA will be established, ADWR will produce official maps, and INA rules will apply.

The House passed the bill, 31-29, on February 21. The vote was opposed by the Democrats and was contrary to party policy.
In 2022, SB1740 was signed, requiring ADWR to measure water supply and demand for each of Arizona’s groundwater bodies by December 1, 2023. Demand and supply reports for each of Arizona’s 46 groundwater basins. This survey is conducted every five years.

ASU’s Porter said groundwater conditions vary across the state and not all rural areas rely exclusively on groundwater. She said Flagstaff gets some of its water from the surface waters of Lake Mary. Flagstaff is also surrounded by several acres of state land and is not generally an agricultural area.

Cities like Yuma, which are closer to the Colorado River’s main course, have less of a problem because they can use federally regulated water from there and don’t have to rely as much on groundwater, Porter said.

According to Mast, ADWR also does not have jurisdiction over tribal state water rights and management.
Last month, Governor Katie Hobbs established the Governor’s Water Policy Council to “modernize Arizona’s groundwater law,” according to a press release. A press release pointed to an example of “unchecked pump water” at a Saudi alfalfa farm in La Paz county, which Porter calls a “red herring.”

“They haven’t seen groundwater changes and the water table in the area hasn’t fallen,” Porter said. “I think it’s important to consider that not everyone is equally vulnerable to this event, even in rural areas.”

Porter said the Colorado River is a more pressing problem for the state, but not one that the Arizona government can solve. I said yes.

“I’m no political expert, so I can’t make any predictions, but I think it’s important to draw attention to the fact that Congress has the authority and responsibility to address local groundwater problems,” Porter said.