Legislature plans to address groundwater crisis in rural Arizona
By Ian James and Rob O’Dell | Arizona Republic State legislators plan to tackle widespread problems of groundwater overpumping in rural Arizona this session, proposing bills that would make it easier to limit well-drilling in farming areas where residents have asked for help from the state to safeguard their dwindling water supplies. At least four bills have […]
Read More →For decades, groundwater beneath Arizona’s big cities has been spared. That’s about to change
Central Arizona Project canal. / File Photo Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents Fondomonte By Rob O’Dell, and Ian James | Arizona Republic While groundwater is rapidly falling in rural farming communities across Arizona, Phoenix, Tucson and other cities haven’t reached that desperate situation. That’s because in the urban areas of the state — where there are rules limiting […]
Read More →Megafarms and deeper wells are draining the water beneath rural Arizona – quietly, irreversibly
Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents Fondomonte By Ian James, and Rob O’Dell | Arizona Republic Vast expanses of lush green fields are multiplying in the Arizona desert, forming agricultural empires nourished with billions of gallons of groundwater in the otherwise parched landscape. Arizona’s groundwater levels are plummeting in many areas. The problem is especially severe in […]
Read More →Pinal panel picks apart groundwater model
By Suzanne Adams-Ockrassa | PinalCentral The Arizona Department of Water Resources’ new Pinal groundwater model is fundamentally flawed when it comes to predicting agricultural use, according to one member of the Pinal AMA Groundwater Users Advisory Council. GUAC member Scott Riggins made the comment part way through a presentation of the effect of agriculture on […]
Read More →[REGIONAL NEWS] Water fight continues in eastern Nevada, western Utah with church-owned ranch in the middle
Controversial goundwater pumping plan back in court Rancher Dean Baker, a member of the negotiating committee for the Snake Valley aquifer water sharing agreement under consideration by Nevada and Utah officials, stands next to an old trough on the Nevada side of the Snake Valley on Monday, Oct. 19, 2009. /Scott G. Winterton/Deseret News By […]
Read More →West Valley farmers fight APS attempt to take water for nuclear plant
Buckeye farmland By Ryan Randazzo | Arizona Republic Arizona Public Service Co. has applied to pump “poor-quality” groundwater from the West Valley that the company says Buckeye farmers are wasting. But the farmers say the water is neither poor nor wasted. APS wants to take some of the high-saline water from underground and test whether […]
Read More →State House creates panel to address groundwater supply in Pinal County
Arizona City Independent House Speaker Rusty Bowers has announced the creation of the House Ad Hoc Committee on Groundwater Supply in Pinal County. The committee will study available groundwater and renewable water supplies in the Pinal Active Management Area, and it will make recommendations on the modeling criteria for available groundwater supplies in the area. […]
Read More →[REGIONAL NEWS] Digging deeper won’t solve groundwater depletion
By Tiffany Dazet | labroots Did you know that 100 million Americans depend on groundwater wells? Wells remain throughout the country for household, agricultural and industrial use. To circumvent the issue of groundwater depletion, some are digging wells deeper and deeper. According to scientists from the University of California, Santa Barbara, this practice is unsustainable […]
Read More →UA study: Groundwater pumping has reduced stream flows
Mississippi River Basin By Mari N. Jenen | UA Groundwater pumping in the last century has contributed as much as 50 percent to stream flow declines in some U.S. rivers, according to new research led by a University of Arizona hydrologist. The new study has important implications for managing U.S. water resources. Laws regulating the […]
Read More →Water extinguishment credit plan to go to state officials
By Kelly Fisher | PinalCentral A plan to alleviate some concerns from area farmers is proceeding to the state level. The Pinal Active Management Area Water Policy Study Committee unanimously approved a proposal at its meeting Thursday to address extinguishment credit changes, and now that plan is headed to state officials for further consideration. The […]
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