By Tom O’Halleran, chairman of the Verde River Basin Partnership | Camp Verde Bugle
Every once in a while all the dots connect and we have a clear vision of what the image looks like. In regards to the water resources in the Southwestern United States the dots are lining up and our water-resource future is clear.
The conclusions and recommendations from a series of studies and reports on future water availability in the southwest puts into perspective the critical need to change how we manage our water supplies as a region and locally. It is critical that our water-resource managers use all the management tools available in order to maximize and sustain the resource. The Northern Arizona Regional Groundwater-Flow Model is one of those tools.
In 1950 the Verde Valley had a little over 250 groundwater wells; today we have over 6400 wells. The effects of our past water-management decisions are clear, they just have not worked. The choice for the future, as indicated by resource experts throughout the Colorado River Basin, is clear. Understand the extent of our water resources, plan and manage regionally for the future today, identify options available and potential cost, acknowledge that population growth and water-resource management are linked, that although conservation is a very important option it is not the total answer and that our precious groundwater and surface waters are interconnected.
