In rural Arizona, groundwater worries are inviting hard conversations

In northwestern Arizona, Mohave County Supervisor Travis Lingenfelter opened a recent groundwater event in Kingman with a strong message: The future of Arizona’s groundwater-dependent rural communities hinges on decisions made today.

Inside a conference room at Mohave Community College, ranchers sat beside city engineers, and farmers compared notes with hydrologists. County officials listened as residents voiced concerns about growth and the future of the Hualapai Valley Basin.

The conversations reflected a broader shift happening across Arizona. For decades, Arizona has been recognized as a national leader in groundwater management. The state’s landmark 1980 Groundwater Management Act created strict protections for heavily populated regions like Phoenix and Tucson to manage groundwater depletion and ensure long-term sustainability.

But many rural areas remain outside those systems, even as communities continue to rely heavily on groundwater for people, agriculture and economic development.

“Arizona has some of the strongest groundwater management tools in the country, but they were largely designed around urban areas,” said Sarah Porter, director of ASU’s Kyl Center for Water Policy. “Rural communities are now trying to figure out what groundwater management should look like in places with very different economies, geographies and needs.”

The Kingman gathering is one in a series of Rural Groundwater Resilience Workshops led by Impact Water – Arizona, a pillar of ASU’s Arizona Water Innovation Initiative. The initiative is a statewide effort, led by ASU’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory in collaboration with the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, to support water resilience planning across Arizona. 

The workshops are also supported by the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy, a center of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and the Arizona Institute for Resilience at the University of Arizona. 

In the Hualapai Valley Basin, nearly all municipal water comes from groundwater stored deep beneath the desert.

University of Arizona hydrologist Neha Gupta explained that much of the groundwater in the region is “old water” that has accumulated over thousands of years and is slow to naturally recharge in an arid environment where most rainfall evaporates before reaching the aquifer.

“The basin is a community retirement account,” said ASU hydrologist Jay Famiglietti, who presented satellite-based groundwater data tracking water storage changes across the Southwest. “We’re past the era of abundant and easily accessible groundwater.”

Participants repeatedly returned to questions about uncertainty and trust: How much water actually exists underground? How quickly is it declining? Which data should communities trust?

“The problem is data interpretation,” one attendee said during a breakout discussion. “We argue over what the data actually says.”

Much of the tension centered on growth and identity. Some participants described hopes for economic opportunity and expanded opportunities for younger generations. Others worried about rapid development and loss of the area’s rural character.

Data centers and large industrial users emerged as particular flashpoints.

“AI doesn’t feed us; agriculture feeds us,” one participant said during a discussion about balancing economic growth with long-standing agricultural livelihoods.

Several ranchers and farmers pushed back against the perception that agriculture alone is responsible for groundwater decline, emphasizing investments in drip irrigation and conservation measures.

“Food should be recognized as critical infrastructure in our town,” said local farmer Andrea McAdow of Rosebird Farms during a panel discussion.

Participants also raised concerns about water affordability if declining groundwater levels eventually require deeper wells or more expensive water treatment infrastructure.

“How do we prevent a public health crisis by pricing out low-income communities from water?” one attendee asked.

Despite disagreements over regulation and growth, participants repeatedly converged around several shared priorities: better groundwater monitoring, stronger local collaboration, recharge projects and more public water education.

“This is not just the farmers’ issue or the city’s issue,” city of Kingman Water Resource Manager Bob Posey told attendees. “We drink from the same well.”

Participants identified priorities including expanding groundwater monitoring wells, creating more public access to groundwater data, improving recharge infrastructure, reducing outdoor water use and strengthening local leadership groups.

Several breakout groups focused specifically on recharge strategies already being tested elsewhere in Arizona, including stormwater capture basins and distributed recharge projects designed to slow runoff and allow more water to infiltrate underground.

Those discussions mirrored similar groundwater resilience efforts underway in Cochise, Santa Cruz, Coconino and La Paz counties, where communities are experimenting with groundwater monitoring, recharge projects and local collaboration around water planning.

Several participants described the gathering as a rare opportunity for groups that often disagree to sit at the same table.

“When you get people into a room, people find they have more in common than they realize,” one attendee reflected during the closing session.

Organizers say the workshops are designed not to produce one-size-fits-all solutions, but to help communities identify locally driven strategies that reflect the realities of their own basins.

“This is the first time this community has had all of these perspectives in the same room for this kind of generative conversation,” said Michelle Oldfield of Impact Water – Arizona. “These are difficult conversations, but communities are showing they want to be part of shaping their own water future.”