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. […]
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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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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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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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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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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