In rapidly growing Phoenix suburbs such as Queen Creek and Buckeye, developers have relied on unallocated groundwater to show that they had adequate water supplies for the next 100 years, which Arizona requires for building permits in some areas. Long pumped by farmers and rural residents in Arizona with little oversight, Hobbs and other state officials recently vowed to take more steps to protect the state’s groundwater supplies. But in rural areas, there are few limitations on its use. Under a 1980 state law aimed at protecting the state’s aquifers, Phoenix, Tucson and other Arizona cities have restrictions on how much groundwater they can pump. ![]() The drought has made groundwater - held in underground aquifers that can take many years to be replenished - even more vital. A small amount of the city’s water supply comes from groundwater and recycled wastewater. ![]() Phoenix relies on imported Colorado River water and also uses water from the in-state Salt and Verde rivers. ![]() Over the past two years, Arizona’s supply from the 1,450-mile powerhouse of the West has been cut twice. Much of the focus has stayed on the dwindling Colorado River, a main water source for Arizona and six other Western states. Years of drought in the West worsened by climate change have ratcheted up pressure among Western states to use less water.
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