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We need collaboration over cynicism to solve groundwater challenges
I don’t know what the future holds for all the work we accomplished in the past year, but the Arizona Farm Bureau will continue to stay engaged and vigilant on behalf of Arizona’s farm and ranch families. I agree with others who have said that we are very close – mostly due to the enormous concessions agriculture has made.
Groundwater management needs leadership from ground up
For the past several years, nearly every iteration of legislation to create a management framework for groundwater in rural Arizona has failed. A successful model must incorporate a significant leadership role for agricultural landowners to take the lead in water management, and more importantly, conservation.
County supervisors criticize Kerr, Arizona Farm Bureau head for abandoning talks on water problems
Supervisors from several Arizona counties are criticizing a state senator and the head of the Arizona Farm Bureau for walking away from talks about how to deal with water quantity problems in rural areas.
Water cuts force Pinal County farmers to scale back
Farmers in Pinal County left swathes of land unplanted following Colorado River water cuts. Now yielding fewer crops, they’re forced to find alternative ways to survive, as agriculture faces a bleaker future.
Getting Colorado River water from California farms will take more than just money
The Imperial Valley produces $2.9 billion in crops and livestock each year. That’s because the valley’s Imperial Irrigation District holds the largest single allocation of Colorado River water – bigger than any other farming district or city between Wyoming and Mexico. But now, that water allocation is under increasing scrutiny from water managers looking to cut back on water use and correct[...]
Why proposed rural groundwater control bills are bad
There has been a lot of talk recently about rural groundwater bills not getting a hearing at the Arizona Legislature. Over the years, proposed legislation has gone by many names, including “Groundwater Conservation Areas,” “Special Management Areas,” “Rural Management Areas,” and “Local Groundwater Stewardship Areas.” Regardless of the name, the concept is the same, and all are bad[...]
Feds choose new water and science deputy to focus on drought resilience
The U.S. Interior Department has tapped an official with the federal government's water management bureau to serve as a deputy assistant secretary for water and science.
Climate adaptation in Arizona will require more than just federal funding, luck
The federal government just reached a historic deal with California, Arizona, and Nevada to provide cities, irrigation districts, and tribal governments with around $1.2 billion to temporarily use less water from the Colorado River. In Arizona, these solutions will require unpopular political decisions – and there isn’t much time to enact them.
Irrigation efficiency program incentivizes farmers
Lawmakers funded a program that incentivizes Arizona farmers to reduce unsustainable irrigation practices with a $15.2 million general fund appropriation in the state budget.
How one Yuma farmer sees Arizona’s water future
The agricultural industry in Arizona is reliant on water flowing from the Colorado River. And as the Biden administration and federal agencies rush to remedy a looming water crisis in the Southwest, farmers in the state are concerned that directives from authorities could have an outsized effect on an integral part of the economy.
ADWR completes Kingman area ‘basin sweep’
A team of Arizona Department of Water Resources field researchers recently completed a two-month-long “basin sweep” in the northwestern part of the state, intensively evaluating the underground water levels in the Northwest Basins Planning Area that surrounds the city of Kingman.
In Colorado River talks, still no agreement about water cuts
The Biden administration released an environmental analysis Tuesday of competing plans for how seven Western states and tribes reliant on the dwindling water supply from the Colorado River should cut their use but declined to publicly take a side on the best option.
