Opinion: Reform water law to include the environment
Arizona officials are proud of their 1980 state water policy. The Arizona Groundwater Management Act (GMA), after many earlier attempts, was approved only after the federal government threatened to withhold funding for the Central Arizona Project (CAP) unless Arizona controlled groundwater pumping. Without the CAP, California would have claimed “our” Colorado River water and restricted future economic development in Arizona. The environment wasn’t at the negotiating table then, so our rivers were on the menu. The GMA managed groundwater only in limited areas and sacrificed some rivers. We have now seriously degraded five of Arizona’s major perennial rivers: the Colorado, Gila, Salt, Santa Cruz, and San Pedro. Additionally, future perennial flow in the upper Verde River is deeply threatened.
-Written by Gary Beverly, a member of the Sustainable Water Network steering committee.