Collection: Read more on water issues affecting Arizona
Read more of the latest stories from the Arizona Daily Star covering water issues.
(23) updates to this series since Updated
Environmentalists ask state to regulate groundwater pumping near the San PedroFor Star subscribers: Environmental coalition, citing studies warning the San Pedro River could eventually dry up, petitions Arizona to manage and protect its aquifer.
For Star subscribers: But two retired U.S. scientists say the judge who prescribed the water rights didn't go far enough — the opposite view of local governments and business interests.
The American Rescue Plan of 2021 included $1.75 billion for tribes, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which said $20 million was for “potable water delivery.”
The consequences of increasing demands on a finite resource include declining water levels — resulting in dried-up wells, land subsidence, earth fissures, property damage, and reduced water flow in ecologically important rivers and streams.
Pima County has emerged successful in its lawsuit challenging Tucson for increasing water bills for customers in unincorporated Pima County.
For Star subscribers: They are unlikely allies to the longtime goal of many environmentalists. But political winds are shifting as the Colorado River runs drier.
For Star subscribers: A federally financed, Arizona-run program to help families pay water and sewer bills ran out of money faster than expected.
For Star subscribers: The loosening of regulation over ephemeral streams, which carry water only after storms, will have a major impact in Arizona.
A city well in east-side Tucson is out of service until some time next week because of bacterial contamination.
For Star subscribers: Without climate change, the mandatory federal cutbacks in water deliveries that befell the Southwest in 2022 and 2023 wouldn't have been needed, UCLA study says.
For Star subscribers: Arizona water officials are unlikely to forecast a shortfall of groundwater in the Tucson area. Too bad: The Phoenix experience shows such findings amount to leverage for conservation.
For Star subscribers: Competing proposals would make it easier or harder for Arizona developers to prove the existence of an assured 100-year water supply.
"We should feel good about our conservation heritage and our current efforts here in Tucson. But now’s no time to rest on our laurels."
For Star subscribers: Discussion was originally set to be open to the public about proposals to change rules and possibly the law requiring assured, 100-year water supplies for urban areas.
County seeks expedited study of whether the Tucson area's groundwater supply can support all subdivision development expected over the next 100 years.
For Star subscribers: Arizona looks at proposals to allow some development to use groundwater in fast-growing fringes of the Phoenix area — after halting new growth relying on groundwater there.
For Star subscribers: U.S. rules will likely no longer cover streams that run only after storms, a big victory for Copper World mining and Vigneto homebuilding projects near Tucson.
The U.S. Supreme Court sides with Arizona in its bid to keep the U.S. government from helping the Navajo Nation get a larger share of Colorado River water.
For Star subscribers: A branch of the influential Moody's firm has come out with a disputed warning about long-term water supply for metro Phoenix, in stark contrast to the mostly upbeat messages of Arizona officials, business leaders and some researchers.
For Star subscribers: The agency analyzed two alternatives for curbing water use in 2024, one that observers say would hurt Arizona, the other that would hurt California, both disproportionately.
For Star subscribers: Tucson will consider measures such as limiting times for outdoor watering and limiting swimming pool sizes to help close an impending gap between water supply and demand.
A bill to let Nestlé treat wastewater at its proposed Glendale plant and pump that water into the aquifer is raising fears that it will pit businesses against other water users.
For Star subscribers: Tucson will be compensated by the U.S. for leaving that Colorado River water in the dwindling lake this year, and lesser amounts over the next two years.
For Star subscribers: The water delivery system that 40 million people in the U.S. West depend on is at risk of collapse as the Colorado River…
For Star subscribers: Fourteen tribal governments, including eight in Arizona, say the U.S. has wrongly left them out of negotiations over major future cuts of Colorado River water use.