Water well drilling
Nearly 80 percent of Arizona has no regulations over the pumping of groundwater, leading rural residents and leaders to push for change as wells go dry, something Gov. Katie Hobbs has vowed to enact.
Wyatt Myskow
Inside Climate News
It’s been nearly a decade since Steven Kisiel’s well at his home in Wilcox, Arizona, ran dry.
In the years since, his neighbors—along with other rural Arizonans across the state—have encountered the same sight he did when turning on their water facets: a slow trickle of water accompanied by fine sediment, a sign the well is beginning to fail. The cost to reach more water can run tens of thousands of dollars—Kisiel spent nearly $20,000 to redrill his well to access water deeper underground. All the while, massive agricultural operations continue to flood into the state and pump huge amounts of water from underground aquifers.
In Wilcox, east of Tucson, Kisiel watched as more and more enormous farming and dairy operations opened up, resulting in over 90 percent of the local basin’s water going to agriculture, something rural Arizonans have witnessed up and down the state.
The reason for the draining of the aquifers is simple—80 percent of Arizona has no regulations over the use of groundwater. It’s the only state in the Colorado River Basin with such lax rules. In more developed areas, such as Phoenix and its suburbs, groundwater is strictly regulated, with aquifers managed to prevent too much water that can’t be replenished by rain and surface water from being pumped out each year. But in rural stretches of Arizona where agriculture thrives—and takes up most of the state’s water supply—there are no rules even to require monitoring of groundwater pumping.
