Environmental and Natural Resources

More than Just a Drop in the Bucket, Arizona Groundwater Supplies Pose Problems and Potential Solutions for Policy Makers

While the local and national press inundate us with articles about the dire nature of Arizona’s water supplies and questions about why people are even allowed to live in a desert, careful planning by water leaders over decades has created resilient responses to these challenges that are unmatched in the Southwest and perhaps the nation.  […]

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Rare Rulemaking Initiated by Arizona Department of Water Resources

by Fred Breedlove The Arizona Department of Water Resources (“ADWR”) announced on September 18, 2021 that it had initiated a rulemaking for three subject areas:  licensing timeframes, well construction and licensing, and dam safety.  Overall, the proposed changes are mostly non-substantive in nature; however, new additions to ADWR’s licensing timeframes (“LTFs”) are welcome changes for […]

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Drought and Water Demand Continues in Spite of COVID-19 Pandemic

by Fred Breedlove The demands on government and private water providers to address the declining availability of water resources in the southwest did not get a reprieve, unfortunately, when the COVID-19 virus emerged in February. Last August, I wrote that even though the snowpack that feeds the Colorado River was 145% of normal for 2018-2019, […]

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Pinal Active Management Area Stakeholders Address Projected Water Deficit

by L. William Staudenmaier In November 2019, the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) released the results of an updated groundwater model that projects a groundwater availability deficit over the next 100 years in the Pinal Active Management Area (AMA) in central Arizona.  The 100-year projection is driven by Arizona’s Assured Water Supply program, which […]

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Divided Arizona Supreme Court Greenlights Major Development in Southern Arizona

by L. William Staudenmaier On August 9, 2018, the Arizona Supreme Court issued a decision with potentially important implications for future residential and commercial development in Arizona. In Silver v. Pueblo Del Sol Water Company, a divided court held that the Arizona Department of Water Resources (“ADWR” or the “Department”) properly applied a long-standing regulation implementing […]

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As Lake Mead Dwindles, Arizona and Other Colorado River Basin States Continue to Plan for a Drier Future

by Bill Staudenmaier It has become a familiar refrain.  For each of the past three years, the United States Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the major reservoirs on the Colorado River, has announced a new “record low” water elevation in Lake Mead.  A quick Google search identifies articles or posts discussing this downward trend in […]

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