Groundwater Governance & Management News

Navajo County, located in northeastern Arizona between Coconino and Apache counties, comprises two distinct geographic regions: arid and desert-like mesas, plateaus, and buttes in the north and mountainous piñon-juniper and ponderosa pine woodlands in the south. About 54% of Navajo County residents live in rural areas that depend on domestic groundwater wells for water.

The National Ground Water Association’s (NGWA) annual observance of Groundwater Awareness Week is March 9–15, 2025, and is an occasion in which to remember a major but hidden water resource.

Did you know that most of the Earth’s groundwater is over 12,000 years old? The WRRC and the U of A Department of Hydrology & Atmospheric Sciences co-sponsored a Darcy Lecture on Living Fossils: Ancient Groundwaters in the Anthropocene, given by Grant Ferguson on February 5, 2025.

If you’re curious about the water use conditions in your area, you might find details in the 2024 Supply and Demand Reports (SDRs) created by the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR).

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) has formed a working group to consider opportunities and challenges related to our understanding and stewardship of America’s groundwater.

Simone A. Williams is a WRRC graduate research associate and Director Sharon B. Megdal chairs her dissertation committee. Williams’ research was recently featured in the November/December 2023 issue of Water Resources IMPACT, a digital magazine that highlights the achievements of water management professionals.

The Arizona Department of Water Resources recently released the first seven supply and demand assessments for the state’s groundwater basins. The department is required by a state law signed in 2022 to complete a supply and demand assessment of each of Arizona’s 51 basins every five years.

Gasps of excitement and broad smiles are common when students explore the groundwater system using APW’s 3D student models. APW is very excited and eager to expand this success through a multiyear grant from Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR), which provides funding to educate West Valley students on Arizona’s groundwater conditions. 

The Permanent Forum of Binational Waters is hosting the US-Mexico Transboundary Groundwater Conference, “Innovation and Creativity: Strategies for Unprecedented Challenges,” October 14-15, 2020, via Zoom. Cohosts include Texas A&M University and the Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua. 

Forty years ago today, on June 12, 1980, water managers in Arizona took a monumental step toward addressing severe groundwater overdraft in the State's most populous regions with the passage of the Groundwater Management Act (GMA).