Important news and updates about water issues in Arizona and the West, including news about the Arizona Water Blueprint and the Kyl Center for Water Policy.
Groundwater is water found in the cracks and small spaces between soil particles and fractured rock beneath the Earth’s surface. An underground layer that is saturated with water is called an aquifer.
The Kyl Center for Water Policy’s new report and interactive map allow you to explore the water use intensity, that is, average water use per acre, of many Central Arizona cities and towns. Although water demand is commonly thought to be tied to population, it is more directly linked to land use. Local decisions on density, industrial and agricultural patterns and the amount of irrigated or natural open space all greatly impact a community’s water use intensity.
Because of the 1980 Arizona Groundwater Management Act, the Valley of the Sun is one of the few areas in the world where groundwater stocks are not in steep decline. However, the future for the Valley’s groundwater is less bright.
For nearly thirty years, Arizona's innovative system for creating Long Term Storage Credits (LTSCs) has allowed water providers to store vast amounts of water in local aquifers. Discover the fascinating world of water banking and Long-Term Storage Credits (LTSCs) in Arizona through our engaging and informative story map.
Key Points
•To ensure long-term water supplies for current residents, the state has imposed limitations on some new housing subdivisions and other types of development.
•While the new limitations may increase the costs of new homes in some parts of the Greater Phoenix area, cities have a variety of strategies available to encourage lower cost development to mitigate those impacts.
Key Points
• Results of a new groundwater model show that all of the physically available groundwater in the Greater Phoenix area is fully allocated.
• This will not impact new development within the service area of water providers with a Designation of an Assured Water Supply (DAWS), the vast majority of Phoenix-area communities. In addition, the model results will not impact subdivisions with a Certificate of Assured Water Supply.
Learn new Arizona Water Blueprint skills and ask questions!
Through September 2022, staff from ASU's Kyl Center for Water Policy at Morrison Institute will be holding monthly, virtual office hours so users can ask questions about using the Arizona Water Blueprint.
For the first 10-15 minutes of each session, Kyl Center staff will highlight a Blueprint capability and explain a data layer.
The Kyl Center for Water Policy at Morrison Institute is proud to partner with Arizona Project WET, which provides teachers and students statewide with accurate, comprehensible learning material about our state's water resources. Recently the Kyl Center worked with Arizona Project WET and the National Forest Foundation to produce an easy-to-understand explanation of the health and function of Arizona's watersheds.
The recent Colorado River shortage declaration has generated a lot of discussion about whether Arizona could and should acquire additional water supplies. Throughout early 2022, the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Morrison Institute will be diving into this topic. This is part one in the series, "Arizona Water Augmentation: What, Where and How?" The series is available here.
