[COLUMN] By Doug MacEachern | The Republic | azcentral.com
(Editor’s note: Posting opinion pieces does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Rose Law Group.)
When it comes to water and water law, Arizona is an acknowledged national leader.
Yes, you read that right.
The Arizona Groundwater Management Act of 1980 is widely viewed as one of the most effective and far-sighted state laws ever enacted. Nearly all the great federal events related to water policy over the generations were led to one degree or another by Arizonans, from Sen. Carl Hayden to Rep. John Rhodes to Sen. Jon Kyl, who despite his retirement from the Senate isn’t done leading on water issues.
One of the nation’s greatest-ever feats of engineering, the Central Arizona Project, a 335-mile system of canals and tunnels that pushes water uphill, was shepherded by Arizonans, for Arizona.
And it was a group of mostly Arizona water experts who developed the ingenious practice of “water banking” — using underground storage as de facto reservoirs that allow water transactions between different regions of the state, and even between Arizona and other states.
But it is foolish to assume in the arid American Southwest that people have conquered nature.
Continued: http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20131103new-arizona-water-main.html
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