Will Arizona Save Its Groundwater Before It’s Gone for Good?

Ed Curry has been farming chile peppers in Arizona’s arid southeastern nook for 54 years. Over a long time, he’s stored tabs on native groundwater ranges, monitored his wells for declines, and accomplished his greatest to preserve throughout his 2,000 acres. His father, additionally a farmer in Cochise County, did the identical.

However, till very lately, that diligence wasn’t obligatory. When it was handed, the state’s 1980 Groundwater Administration Act centered on city facilities—and for cities, it labored properly, decreasing water demand as inhabitants grew. But the legislation left about 80 % of the state unregulated: Throughout practically all of Arizona’s rural land, anybody may drill a properly and pump as a lot water as they’d like, with out even measuring their use.

Round eight years in the past, as giant out-of-state farms and dairies started working in his space, Curry observed that even wells he wasn’t utilizing had been dropping water. Within the absence of guard rails stopping unfettered pumping, the Willcox groundwater basin that Curry’s farm attracts from has lately been dropping roughly 54,000 Olympic swimming swimming pools of groundwater quantity a yr. To manage, Curry spent $600,000 drilling deeper wells in 2023. Each farmer he is aware of has needed to do the identical: “There’s not one single individual that’s not coping with this,” he says. As land subsides and shifts, the realm can be seeing harm to infrastructure and houses. 

Arizonans throughout the state are going through quickly declining groundwater. Many officers, lawmakers, residents, and conservation advocates say stemming the loss is pressing for communities—and wildlife, too. In 2025, the Arizona Division of Water Assets took an unprecedented step to declare the Willcox groundwater basin a brand new “lively administration space” (AMA) underneath the 1980 water legislation. The designation requires that enormous groundwater customers in Curry’s a part of Arizona report their use, prohibits drilling giant new wells and the growth of irrigated farmland, and units objectives to chop withdrawals over time.

Many now need to see that momentum unfold statewide. Each Democratic and Republican lawmakers lately launched payments that may finish Arizona’s period of limitless groundwater extraction. Whereas their particulars and targets differ, each proposals would assist gradual declines in rural areas, and importantly, supply residents extra flexibility and enter than the present legislation permits. The Willcox basin AMA, for instance, limits farmers’ capacity to commerce water rights, and its formulation are harder on those that have already in the reduction of.

Statewide laws shouldn’t be solely essential for communities, but in addition for birds and different wildlife, says Haley Paul, Arizona coverage director for Audubon Southwest. Groundwater losses imperil the state’s few rivers and essential pockets of riparian forest that many species, like Yellow Warblers and Western Tanagers, rely upon for bugs, nesting websites, shade, and seeds. “These ribbons of inexperienced, these groundwater-fed ecosystems, are actually, actually necessary in an arid surroundings,” Paul says.

For instance, simply west of the Willcox Basin, groundwater ranges beneath the San Pedro River are falling with elevated pumping within the watershed. Consequently, the river’s baseflow—the portion of water that seeps up from the bottom—is dwindling in lots of stretches. If groundwater drops greater than 6.5 toes under the floor, then cottonwood and willow tree roots can’t reliably attain water, says riparian ecologist Davit Merritt. As bushes die off, invasive shrubs like salt cedar transfer in. “That causes a giant collapse,” says Merritt. The degraded ecosystem can’t assist the identical rainbow of birdlife.

Inaction dangers much more irreversible harm. When underground basins that took millennia to fill with floor water are shortly overdrawn, soil can compact and collapse, completely decreasing the Earth’s capability to carry liquid. Groundwater is a “lifeline,” says Emily LoDolce, a hydrologist at ADWR. “As soon as it’s gone, it’s actually arduous to get again.”

With no sustainable water coverage, Curry foresees a future the place water turns into commodified, and farming and residing turns into more and more troublesome in his residence state.  Greater than 40 % of Arizona’s whole water provide presently comes from underground, and in the meantime, local weather change and human interference are additionally placing strain on floor sources, just like the Colorado River, too.

Curry now repeatedly drives hours to Phoenix to testify earlier than lawmakers. However proposed payments have failed up to now, and with the state’s legislature and governorship break up between events, any hope of success rests on what might be troublesome bipartisan compromise. Advocates say a sustainable future requires powerful decisions: “It may well’t at all times be, ‘it’s my water and to hell with everyone else.’ No, it’s all our water and we’ve bought to determine it out,” Curry says. “I need water and meals 100 years from now.”

This story ran within the Summer time 2025 challenge as “Floor Guidelines.” To obtain our print journal, grow to be a member by making a donation today.