Notes on Recent Ground-Water Developments in Arizona

Document: "notes on Recent Ground-Water Developments in Arizona," prepared by George H. Davis, U.S. Geological Survey, 1962, page 3Both control of supply and salvage methods require some measure of Statewide or regional responsibility and up to the present neither has advanced beyond the planning stages. Only continued exploitation of the ground-water resource, which requires no management decision beyond the individual water users', is in effect at present. Attempts to control ground-water draft in Arizona by legislation or court action have met with no success. True, the State Legislature has restricted the drilling of new wells to supply new irrigation developments in four "critical areas," but heavy pumping continues in these areas and new developments based on depletion of ground-water storage have begun in other basins since the enactment of the controls. Under present conditions the limitations on ground-water production are mainly physical and economic rather than legal, and ground-water storage is being depleted rapidly in many basins. 3Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 2,293,730 byte