Arizona’s water: Stop digging the hole

OPINION – Every Arizonan knows the image: bathtub rings on Lake Mead, grim headlines about shortages, and talk of “shared sacrifice.” But the deeper crisis is what’s disappearing beneath our feet.

As the Colorado River dwindles and the Central Arizona Project canal faces an eventual shutdown, we are quietly mining the last of our ancient, non-renewable groundwater — and the ground itself is starting to give way.

Across Pinal and Maricopa counties, the desert is collapsing. When fossil aquifers — ancient water stored thousands of years ago — are pumped dry, the sediments above them cave in. The land sinks, storage capacity is lost forever, and deep fissures slice through fields and roads. The Arizona Geological Survey has mapped hundreds of these fractures. They are the physical scars of a water policy that has run out of time.

Arizona’s 1980 Groundwater Act was built for growth, not sustainability. It left rural regions unregulated, allowing “wildcat” developers to drill wells without proving a 100-year supply. These subdivisions, scattered across Yavapai, Cochise and Pinal counties, are draining the state one straw at a time.

Meanwhile, cities tout “water credits” for storing surface water underground — but those are accounting fictions. The deep fossil water we’re depleting can’t be replaced, not by recharge basins or policy spin.

When Lake Mead hits “dead pool” and Hoover Dam can no longer release water, the CAP canal will go dry. Without that supply, Arizona’s dependence on groundwater will intensify — accelerating collapse.

We can still choose differently. Real security demands groundwater regulation, degrowth and conservation. Close the wildcat loophole. End the absurd practice of foreign-owned alfalfa farms pumping Arizona’s groundwater to export hay overseas. Support farmers shifting to drip irrigation and drought-tolerant crops.

Water is not a commodity; it’s the foundation of our survival. The warning is clear: stop digging the hole we’re standing in.

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