ASU helps rural communities tackle local water problems

Much like the 800-year-old mesquite tree outside her shop in Wenden, Arizona, DeVona Saiter’s roots run deep in La Paz County.

Her mother’s family was one of the first to settle in Wenden in the 1960s. “You can't throw a rock without hitting a family member here,” said Saiter, who graduated from ASU's School of Geographical Sciences in Urban Planning in 2018, the same year she opened her “desert spirit shop,” Más Paz.

She has owned the Más Paz building for 20 years. In the early 2000s, it was a coffee house she ran with her mom. But they closed in 2012 when one of several 100-year floods shut down the business.

Más Paz means “more peace” in Spanish, and the name reflects the spirit of tranquility the shop evokes. It offers local and global arts, handcrafted goods, and ceremonial and meditation items.

But the shop’s tranquility is threatened by yet another water-related problem — subsidence. Subsidence means the ground is sinking. It happens when water is removed from underground, and it’s a huge problem in La Paz County. 

Ironically, subsidence can make flooding problems worse. During heavy rains, the water pools in sunken areas.

In March, Saiter was one of 26 La Paz County residents who joined water experts and facilitators for a two-day Rural Groundwater Resilience Workshop. The workshop was led by Impact Water - Arizona, part of the Arizona Water Innovation Initiative at Arizona State University.

The event was the second of several planned workshops around the state. In them, residents and community leaders work with science and policy experts to discuss their concerns and priorities and come up with strategies that work for their individual communities.

Groundwater is exactly what it sounds like — water beneath the ground. It fills spaces in the rock, sand and gravel like water filling a sponge. Groundwater is the largest source (41%) of Arizona’s water supply.

Unfortunately, groundwater is being consumed faster than it is replenished in rural Arizona, according to Susan Craig, director of Impact Water – Arizona. In fact, more than half of Arizona’s 51 groundwater basins are experiencing an overall decline. The depletion in some areas is threatening wells, with many already gone dry.

Saiter said one of her wells dropped nine feet since the end of February.

The state regulates groundwater in a handful of “Active Management Areas,” but for many rural communities outside of these AMAs, groundwater is largely unregulated. It is also highly contentious, with state lawmakers at odds over how to protect both water supplies and residents’ ways of life.

“That’s why it's really important to work with these communities on their groundwater issues,” Craig said.

ASU partnered with the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy, part of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, to host its first groundwater workshop in September 2023 in Sulphur Springs Valley, a rural community in southeastern Arizona, to bring together a community in conflict over how to manage its water supply. 

Sulphur Springs does not have any surface water sources. They only have groundwater. So managing groundwater is a high priority. Residents want that management to be local. 

“I heard over and over that there's a very strong desire for local control, for locally developed and implemented solutions and actions, and that rang loud and clear,” Craig said.

There was also a strong desire to continue their family farming. Craig said the people knew there was a water problem, and they were willing to adjust their practices because they wanted to protect their community and their identity.

“The most powerful thing for me was to understand how important their community was to them,” Craig said. “They wanted to protect that identity. That sense of place people have was pretty powerful.”

One of the main outcomes was the creation of the Sulphur Springs Water Alliance. Craig says the alliance is strong, with members meeting regularly to discuss strategies and accomplishments, including improvements to efficiency and opportunities for recharge.

Their work is already making a difference. For example, the groundwater basin’s largest water user has reduced its water consumption by 14%. Another local farmer, Ed Curry, now serves on the Arizona Governor’s Water Policy Council, putting rural communities’ needs and concerns in front of state leadership.

It was so successful that the team launched Rural Groundwater Resilience Workshops, a series inspired by the Sulphur Springs event.

La Paz County lies nearly 300 miles northeast of Sulphur Springs, but it faces many of the same water challenges. And its residents are equally committed to their sense of place.

One thing Saiter loves about Wenden is that it's a perfect place to grow food year-round. She grows a variety of fruits and vegetables.

“There were small family farms out here that grew crops like melons and pecans and other kinds of things before corporate farming took over,” she said.

Foreign-owned farms began growing alfalfa there in 2015, which rapidly accelerated the area’s subsidence problem. Residents say these operations have intensified pressure on the aquifer as they pump massive quantities of water.

Saiter’s Más Paz building is about 125 years old, one of the original buildings still left in the area. But now, due to subsidence, it is developing cracks and sinking in many places.

Saiter earned her bachelor’s degree in urban planning in 2018 through ASU Online. That’s when she realized how important it is for small towns to have vibrant businesses.

“I saw Wenden as a great place for opportunity because it's inexpensive and accessible and there's not a lot of rules and regulation,” Saiter said. “I can paint the wall this color, and that's OK. I can make junk art and have it outside and it's okay.”

Saiter's husband, Gary, is chairman of the water department in Wenden. She’s an intern there and will also soon be on the water board.

“We've learned a lot about water just by running the water department,” she said. For instance, “a strong indicator of subsidence is that well casings will become separated from the ground. Our well casing a few years ago dropped like four inches, because of the water being gone that used to support it."

Saiter heard about ASU’s water resiliency workshop through La Paz County Supervisor Holly Irwin. Irwin had been working to protect her community’s groundwater for years when she learned about the Sulphur Springs workshop. When Impact Water – Arizona put out a call for interest for other communities to participate, Irwin reached out.

The event started with an evening mixer where they watched a short film about the Sulphur Springs community’s work, “Agriculture and Water in the West: A Community Takes Charge.”

“It was a really great way to get people geared up for what they were about to experience that next day,” Craig said.

The workshop in La Paz brought together a wide range of community members from different demographic groups, occupations and ages.

They talked about what their ideal future looks like and some of the challenges they face. They also heard from experts about topics ranging from different ways to measure water to how current policy might affect the future.

Finally, they came up with strategies for moving toward the future they want, such as addressing current policy, or how to approach the “big players” in agriculture in the area. 

Craig said she heard over and over again how neighbors who were once pitted against each other, with differing opinions on how to protect groundwater, came together to find solutions.

“It is incredibly valuable to be in the community, to listen to people directly, to hear about their issues and to understand them,” she said.

Like the participants in Sulphur Springs, the group from La Paz chose to form a coalition to stay engaged while tackling the issues. They also plan to create an up-to-date water resource website for residents. Saiter hopes people will be able to use it to report their wells going dry or any subsidence issues.

“We need data to back up our end goal, which is some local control,” said Saiter. “I feel like having academia behind us will give us a lot of integrity versus just having a politician lead this.”

Craig also will stay engaged. She believes relationships are key and sees little value in a one-and-done workshop. She still works with Sulphur Springs as well, attending meetings and offering research-backed guidance.

While attending a sustainable cities conference as a student, Saiter said she heard a quote from an African elder that left a huge impression on her. When asked what sustainability meant to him, he said, “Enough for all, forever.” She applies that definition to her efforts to protect groundwater for her community.

Craig said she’s seen a shift in thinking about water since she’s been working in rural communities throughout her career.

“People are definitely getting that there are problems in these areas, and they are ready to focus on them,” she said. “Now you're really starting to see people come together wanting to make a change.”

Participants have told her they appreciate that ASU is listening to them, supporting locally driven action, and staying with them for the long term.

After the workshop in La Paz, Saiter said she felt like the town truly had a team behind them supporting their efforts.

“It made me feel seen, made me feel heard, because these are not new conversations we're having here,” she said.

“People understand that ASU is a neutral convener, we're nonpartisan,” Craig said. “What I heard loud and clear is that people trust us.”

Learn more about the groundwater workshops and other Arizona Water Innovation Initiative activities on the AWII blog.