A water management goal which attempts to achieve and thereafter maintain a long-term balance between the annual amount of groundwater withdrawn in an AMA and the annual amount of natural and artificial recharge in the AMA
ADWR Dictionary
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Sand and Gravel Facility
A facility that produces sand and gravel and that uses more than 100 ac-ft of water from any source per calendar year. For purposes of this definition, the annual water use shall include all water used by the facility regardless of the nature of the use.
Sanitary sewer
Any pipe or other enclosed conduit that carries, among other substances, any water-carried wastes from residences, commercial buildings, industrial plants or institutions.
Secondary treatment
The second stage in wastewater treatment that involves both chemical and biological processes. The screened wastewater is passed through a series of holding and aeration tanks and ponds further removing organic and inorganic substances. Disinfecting with chlorine may be included.
Section
In the U.S. Public Land Survey System, one of the 36 subdivisions of a township. A section represents 1 square mile or 640 acres.
Sedimentary rock
A rock formed by the accumulation and consolidation of loose sediments in layered deposits.
Seepage water
Water that has infiltrated from tailings impoundments into the material underlying the tailings impoundments.
Service area right
Within an AMA, the right of a city, town, private water company and irrigation district to withdraw and deliver groundwater to customers within its service area (as defined in A.R.S. § 45-402), subject to the AMA’s conservation requirements and the Assured Water Supply Rules.
Service connection
A coupling of a municipal provider’s distribution system and its customer’s water system.
Small community water system
A community water system that annually serves 1,850 acre-feet or less of water to customers.
Small municipal provider
Within an AMA, municipal water providers serving 250 acre-feet or less of water for non-irrigation purposes annually. Some AMA's exclude untreated water from this definition.
Snow water equivalent (SWE)
The amount of water contained in the snowpack that would theoretically appear if the snow were melted all at once; also known as snow water content.
Spillwater
Water, other than Colorado River water, released for beneficial use from storage, diversion or distribution facilities to avoid spilling that would otherwise occur due to uncontrolled surface water inflows that exceed facility capacity.
Spring
A place where water emerges naturally from the earth without artificial assistance onto the land surface or into a body of surface water.
State demonstration project
A project for the storage of excess CAP water at an underground storage facility.
Steam Electric power plant
An industrial facility that produces or is designed to produce more than 25 megawatts of electricity by utilizing the Rankin Steam Cycle in which water is heated, turns into steam and spins a steam turbine which drives an electrical generator.
Stockpond
An impoundment of any size that stores appropriable water and that is for the sole purpose of watering livestock and wildlife.
Storage capacity
The maximum volume of water that can be impounded by a reservoir when there is no discharge of water.
Storage facility
A groundwater savings facility or an underground storage facility.
Stored water
Water that is stored underground for the purpose of recovery pursuant to a underground water storage, savings and replenishment permit. Water that is stored underground for the purpose of recovery pursuant to a underground water storage, savings and replenishment permit.
Sub-basin
An area which may be designated so as to enclose a relatively hydrologically distinct body of groundwater within a groundwater basin, as described horizontally by surface description.
Subdivision
Improved or unimproved land(s) divided or proposed to be divided for the purpose of sale or lease, whether immediate or future, into six or more lots, parcels or fractional interests. Subdivisions by definition do not include leasehold offerings of one year or less or to the division or proposed division of land(s) into lots or parcels that are each 36 acres or more in area.
Subflow
Those waters which first slowly find their way through the sand and gravel constituting the bed of the stream, or the lands under or immediately adjacent to the stream, and are themselves a part of the surface stream.
Subsidence
The settling or lowering of the surface of land which results from the withdrawal of groundwater.
Superfund
The federal government’s program to clean up the nation’s uncontrolled hazardous waste sites, also known as “CERCLA,” the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, 42 U.S.C. §§ 9601, et seq.
Surface water
The waters of all sources, flowing in streams, canyons, ravines or other natural channels, or in definite underground channels, whether perennial or intermittent, floodwater, wastewater or surplus water, and of lakes, ponds and springs on the surface.
Surface water standards
Numeric and narrative criteria developed to ensure surface water quality for 6 designated uses; aquatic and wildlife, body contact, fish consumption, domestic water source, and agricultural use for irrigation or livestock watering.