Majority of Arizona’s land lacks groundwater control, raising future concerns
1980 law helps major cities but leaves rural areas with no control
FLAGSTAFF (AZFamily) — Water is something Arizona takes very seriously, and most cities have control over their water and its availability.
However, up in the High Country, because of a law from the 80s, local counties and cities have no idea how much available groundwater there is, causing concern for the future
In 1980, the Arizona Groundwater Management Act was signed into law, giving Arizona’s major cities, like Phoenix, Tucson, and Prescott, the ability to monitor and regulate their groundwater.
While that covers the majority of Arizona’s population, it leaves about 80 percent of Arizona’s land mass without control over its water.
Coconino County Supervisor Patrice Horstman said for a county that gets the majority of its water from aquifers, it’s extremely concerning.
“Local government has no control over our water, its availability or its use,” Horstman said. “And you can imagine how difficult that is when you’re trying to plan for a future.”
She said that while the Coconino aquifer is deep, they are taking out more than the recharge.
“If we run out of water, we’ve run out of everything,” Horstman said.
Arizona is one of the fastest-growing states in the nation, but the county doesn’t know if it’ll have enough water to sustain that growth in the north.
“You have a community that wants to build a large subdivision, we can’t even look at whether there’s enough water to sustain it,” Horstman said. “Not to mention whether there is enough water to sustain it into a future.”
According to the National Weather Service, much of the high country is in severe drought already. Horstman said they’ve been asking the state legislature for years to help in some way because they could better manage water in drought situations.
“To put the money into determining how much water there is available, what’s the best way to conserve that water and and really to develop a sustainable plan for the future,” Horstman said. “And that’s what we’re trying to do here locally.”
Horstman said they have been proposing a local groundwater stewardship area to give local governments that control the 1980 law doesn’t account for. We reached out to the Arizona Department of Water Resources but have not yet heard back.
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