Opinion from Joanna Allhands: Two rural Arizona communities have figured out how to successfully ask for more water regulation. That has implications for many more.
It caps irrigated acreage and requires large well owners to report usage, though they remain free to pump as much water as they want.In Douglas, a group of residents called the Arizona Water Defenders did what many had figured was impossible. They ran a nonpartisan campaign with only aIt worked. The measure passed convincingly.
So, they cobbled together cash for the United States Geological Survey to create a groundwater model that the county could regularly update. The county used aerial photography to estimate acreage farmed and crops grown, which in turn helped estimate water use. An INA won’t stop this overdraft. It simply stops digging the hole any deeper – and even then, there are ways around its provisions, as folks in the Douglas basin can attest.Which, of course, makes farmers nervous. They have long fought even modest efforts to quantify groundwater use because they see that as a camel’s nose under the tent:But rural groundwater regulation is no longer a pipe dream.
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