A research project involving Arizona’s three public universities aims to get a better sense of how much water is in Arizona’s groundwater basins — and figure out how to get more water into aquifers, rather than being lost to evaporation. The Arizona Tri-University Recharge and Water Reliability Project finds, among other things, that more than 95% of the precipitation that falls around the state is lost to evapotranspiration. In the Phoenix Active Management Area groundwater basin, the amount of evapotranspiration is about equal to the amount of precipitation. … [T]he project’s purpose is to help the Arizona Department of Water Resources identify ways to capture water that’s currently being lost and get it underground as recharge.

Other groundwater management news:

• SJV Water (Bakersfield, Calif.): Hanford-area groundwater agency extends well reporting deadline, adds workshops
• UC Davis: Blog: Winter grain crops help farmers get the most out of the least water