7913

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7913
• Author: Freshwater Society.
• Title: Water Management in Transition, 1985.
• USFW Year: 1985.
• USFW - Doc Type: Navarre, MN.
• Copyright Material: YES

The Arizona Groundwater

The Code has two primary
goals. The first is to control
the severe overdraft of
groundwater currently
taking place in many parts
of Arizona. The second is to
provide a means of
allocation for the state's
limited groundwater
resources to most effectively
meet the changing needs of
the state.

KatWeen Ferris
Chief Legal Counsel
Arizona Department of Water Resources

Arizona is one of the fastest-growing states in the nation. Mostly desert,
it is also highly dependent on groundwater, and its future development
depends on wise management of a limited water supply. Arizona has
developed what is considered to be the most comprehensive state
management system to date for groundwater. This long-range plan for
reaching and maintaining a balance between water supply and water
demand inArizona may serve as a model for other states as they begin
to prepare their own plans for state-based groundwater management.

OnJune 11, 1980, the Arizona Legislature passed the Groundwater Management
Act. The next day, Governor Bruce Babbitt signed the Act into law, calling it "a
statement by the legislature, the mines, cities and agriculture, saying 'We will
put the common good above special interests.'" The state's daily newspapers
heralded the new law in front-page headlines and glowing editorials, Even the
New York Times commented on the Act: "In a state where talk about regulating
water use can be as unpopular as talk about gun registration, one of the nation's
most far-reaching laws for managing groundwater has gone into effect."

The Act ma~e the first significant changes in the state's groundwater laws in 32
years. The bulk of the Act was a comprehensive new groundwater code that is
unique in the United States in its ambitious approach to groundwater
management. How did Arizona, a notably conservative state, come to pass this
pioneering law? The answer lies in the magnitude of Arizona's water problems
and the development of the political will to manage this critical resource.

The Consumption/Supply Imbalance

Arizona's major water problem is the imbalance between the water consumed
and the dependable supply. Averaging less than 10 inches of rainfall per year,
Arizona relies on groundwater for over 60 percent of its water supply. Agriculture
has historically pumped vast quantities of groundwater, and the state's rapid
population growth in recent years has required increasing amounts of
groundwater for municipal and industrial purposes,

According to the 1980 census, Phoenix is now the ninth largest city in the country,
while the population of the metropolitan Tucson area is nearly 490,000. To keep
pace with expanding water uses, Arizonans annually consume approximately
2.5 million more acre-feet of groundwater than is replenished by nature, In
Maricopa County where the city of Phoenix is located, depletion of groundwater
is over 30 times the rate of natural recharge, The city of Tucson, which is totally
dependent on groundwater, is located in Pima County, where uses of
groundwater are nearly five times greater than natural recharge.

Since it took thousands of years for this groundwater to accumulate, continued
pumping at current rates threatens the availability of water for future generations.
Excessive groundwater pumping also contributes to land subsidence and water
quality degradation and causes costly disputes among groundwater users.

The Central Arizona Project (CAP), a federal reclamation project designed to
bring Arizona's remaining entitlement of Colorado River water to centralArizona,
will help to resolve these problems, but it will not be a panacea. In the three
central Arizona counties which will receive CAP water, the estimated annual
overdraft is 1.8 million acre-feet. The estimated long-term CAP water supply will
be 1.2 million acre-feet per year, or only two-thirds of the current rate of overdraft.

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