Skip to main content
Arizona Department of Water Resources Logo

Arizona Department of Water Resources

Protecting & enhancing Arizona’s water supplies for current and future generations.

Search form

  • About Us
    • ADWR Strategic Plan and Annual Reports
    • Mission - Values
    • History of the Department
    • Arizona Water Facts
    • Small Business Bill of Rights
  • How Do I?
    • Apply For
      • Change of Ownership
      • New Well
      • Permit
      • Statement of Claimant, Assignments, Amendments
      • Well Driller's License
    • Locate
      • A Surface Water Right
      • A Well
    • Get Data
      • AAWS Interactive Map
      • ADWR Dictionary
      • GIS Data Center
      • Data Queries
      • Groundwater Site Inventory
      • Imaged Records
      • Land Subsidence in Arizona
      • Wells 55
      • Wells Data
    • Pay For
      • Annual Report Fee
      • Invoice
    • Report
      • Complaint or Concerns
      • Water Use
      • Share or Report a Water Level - 3rd Party Water Level Data Portal
      • Report Dry Well Data
    • Find Info On
      • Arizona Reconsultation Process
      • Conservation
      • Colorado River Shortage Preparedness
      • Drought Contingency Planning
      • Laws, Rules, & Policies
      • Public Records Request
      • Pinal Groundwater Supply Updates
      • Public Meetings
      • Public Notices
      • Water Levels
      • Wells
      • Legislative Affairs
  • ADWR News
    • ADWR News
    • Blog
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Archive
  • Home
  • Programs
    • Active Management Areas
    • Adjudications
    • Assured and Adequate Water Supply
    • Colorado River Management
    • Community Water Systems
    • Conservation
    • Dam Safety
    • Drought
    • Engineering
    • Floodplain Management and Flood Warning
    • Governor's Water Augmentation, Innovation, and Conservation Council
    • Hydrology
    • Irrigation Non-Expansion Area
    • Laws, Rules, & Policies
    • Legislative Affairs
    • Management Plans Work Group
    • Recharge
    • Statewide Planning
    • Rural Programs
    • Surface Water
    • Wells and Permitting
    • Water Banking Authority
    • Water Protection Fund
  • Online Services
    • Annual Water Use Report
    • Application Forms
    • GIS Data
    • Hydrology Publications (eLibrary)
    • Land Subsidence Maps
    • ADWR Live Queries and Reports
    • Recharge Long-Term Storage Credit Balance
    • Imaged Records
    • eNOI
    • Online Notice of Well Capping
    • Pump Installation Completion Report
    • Online Driller's Log
    • Online Payments
    • Change of Ownership
    • Assured & Adequate Water Supply Pending Applications
    • Water Atlas
    • Surface Water Online Notices
    • Databases
      • Assured and Adequate Water Supply Interactive Map
      • Community Water System (CWS) Interactive Map
      • Groundwater Site Inventory (GWSI)
      • Well Registry Data (55)
      • Web Maps and Data Applications
  • Contact Us
    • Concerns
    • Human Resources
    • Contact Us
    • Public Records Request

For all of us, "water awareness" means more than just conservation

WAM Banner

For all of us, "water awareness" means more than just conservation

Published: April 5, 2017

By proclamation of the Governor in 2008, it is Water Awareness Month in Arizona.

So, what do you suppose that means?

On a personal level, being “water aware” almost universally means learning to conserve water. It is a precious and scarce resource, after all. As citizens of an arid Western state who are approaching our 17th consecutive year of drought, water conservation is an imperative.

Arizona Water Champions

As the British used to say during the grim days of World War II, we all need to “do our bit.”

In a “Water Awareness Month” promotion in the lobby of the Arizona Department of Water Resources building, state employees offered plenty of suggestions for conserving.

 Taking shorter showers is good. So is avoiding over-watering plants, fixing leaky faucets and toilets and collecting rainwater in old-fashioned barrels.

But while conservation indisputably is a big part of “water awareness,” that’s not all it means.

It also means being aware of the nature of water in our arid environment. It means reaching beyond the kitchen faucet.

Only when we understand and appreciate the sources of our vital liquid resource can we truly claim to be water “aware.” Making wise choices as water consumers is important, but making wise water choices as a society is just as important. Maybe more so.

Perhaps the most important water-conservation choice Arizonans ever made as a society came about in 1980 when the state Legislature approved the Arizona Groundwater Management Act, which placed strict regulatory limitations on groundwater pumping in Arizona’s most populous regions.

Arizona Water Champions 2

That Act, as well as other legislation governing groundwater use enacted in subsequent years, is credited with making the difference between the genuine, drought-inspired crisis that California recently endured, and the comparative ease with which Arizona has managed to navigate its own much-longer period of drought.

In 1980, Arizona’s elected leaders clearly were water aware.

Today, water awareness includes having at least a rough appreciation for our state’s sources of water.

How many of us, for example, know that the largest portion of our water supply doesn’t even originate in Arizona?

Forty-one percent of Arizona’s annual supply – on average 912.4 billion gallons per year – begins its existence as snowpack on the Western slopes of the Rocky Mountains, eventually flowing into the Colorado River system through countless tributaries that become hundreds of streams, then dozens of rivers before rushing into the single, mighty and vital Colorado.

Another 16 percent of our supply, meanwhile, arrives at the kitchen spigot via the complex capture of in-state surface-water sources, notably the Salt River Project’s system of dams and reservoirs along the Salt and Verde rivers.

Arizona still gets 40 percent of its water supply from its underground aquifers – so-called “mined” groundwater. Just three percent, meanwhile, comes to us through reclaimed sources, although that percentage has risen sharply in recent years.

And tomorrow’s sources? Gov. Doug Ducey’s Water Augmentation Council is researching the prospects of adding new supplies, including desalination projects that could rehabilitate brackish water or even tap into salt-water sources off the coast of Mexico or southern California.

The governor’s council is… aware of every option. As citizens of the arid West, we all should be too.

waves.png

Waves icon
  • Overview
  • News Articles
  • News Blog
  • Audio Podcasts
  • Video

 

telephone-icon.png

Telephone icon
  • [email protected]
  • (602) 771-8500

 

Follow Us

Contact Info

Arizona Department of Water Resources
1110 W Washington Street Suite 310
Phoenix, AZ 85007
Find in Google Maps
Phone: 602.771.8500 | Fax: 602.771.8689
File a complaint

Newsletter Subscription

Sign up to get breaking news and information about Arizona’s water industry!

Lists*

© 1980 - 2022 Arizona Department of Water Resources - Statements & Policies | Site Map