graphic by USGS
Arizona’s Groundwater Management Act limited groundwater pumping within active management areas (AMA) and left groundwater pumping largely unregulated in most of Arizona. This has allowed massive agricultural and sometimes industrial entities to move in and further deplete precious water resources, contributing to land subsidence, earth fissures, and ever lower groundwater levels that contribute to wells drying up. This is all at enormous costs to individuals who live in these areas.
SB1520 rural groundwater is weak and inadequate and codifies over pumping of additional groundwater basins. SB1520 establishes only three Basin Management Areas, ignoring numerous other basins that need groundwater management. SB1520 caps the groundwater percentage reduction at one percent annually and not more than 10 percent over 10 years, far below what is needed to stabilize these and other aquifers in our state. It also includes weak goals that do not promote stabilizing the aquifers to limit land subsidence, earth fissures, and the continued decline of water levels, plus there is nothing to recognize the impact of groundwater pumping on surface waters in certain areas.
Ask your Representatives to please oppose SB1520 and instead work with the broad range of stakeholders to develop a strong, sustainable framework for rural Arizona.
