Attempts to protect Arizona s groundwater and rivers meet legislative resistance Ian James, Arizona Republic
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The Arizona Legislature has taken up a range of water-related measures this year, but some bills that would strengthen the state’s water rules to protect declining groundwater and desert streams have run into opposition and have failed to move forward.
Republican and Democratic legislators introduced several bills that would establish some groundwater rules in unregulated rural areas where there are no limits on pumping and where water levels are dropping.
Those bills, which were opposed by the agriculture industry and key Republican leaders in the Legislature, haven’t been heard. Similar measures died in the Legislature last year.
February 5, 2021
With dozens of water bills introduced in the Arizona Legislature this session, EDF Action and the Water for Arizona Coalition are focusing on long-overdue steps needed to ensure water security for all, especially rural communities that face high water risk.
Rural Arizona is the only substantial region left across the seven Colorado River Basin states where an “open access” approach to groundwater management is still the norm. This anything-goes approach puts people and ecosystems in rural Arizona at a disproportionate risk of water insecurity and economic instability.
A farm in the Sonoran Desert, Arizona.
The consequences of unchecked groundwater pumping