Can Arizona citizens use the tools of Democracy to preserve the state’s dwindling water?
High Country News, July 6 2022
“in areas not regulated by an AMA — including the Douglas and Willcox basins — there is no oversight of groundwater use. That’s what the Water Defenders hope to change this November. (The Douglas Basin is designated as an Irrigation Non-Expansion Area, but it doesn't regulate the amount water that can be used; it only prohibits new land from being irrigated.)
In the summer of 2021, the Water Defenders — which Ash Dahlke, the group's chair, described as a ‘pretty scrappy group’ that includes ‘a lot of teachers and librarians’ — began the process of collecting signatures. The support of 10% of the basin’s registered voters is needed to put the creation of an AMA on the ballot.
‘People agree we need something,’ said Bekah Wilce, the Water Defenders’ treasurer. Wilce is optimistic that the group’s ‘hard work on the ground of talking to people’ will pay off. ‘People didn’t know this was possible,’ she said, but ‘they understand its importance.’”
High Country News, July 6 2022
“in areas not regulated by an AMA — including the Douglas and Willcox basins — there is no oversight of groundwater use. That’s what the Water Defenders hope to change this November. (The Douglas Basin is designated as an Irrigation Non-Expansion Area, but it doesn't regulate the amount water that can be used; it only prohibits new land from being irrigated.)
In the summer of 2021, the Water Defenders — which Ash Dahlke, the group's chair, described as a ‘pretty scrappy group’ that includes ‘a lot of teachers and librarians’ — began the process of collecting signatures. The support of 10% of the basin’s registered voters is needed to put the creation of an AMA on the ballot.
‘People agree we need something,’ said Bekah Wilce, the Water Defenders’ treasurer. Wilce is optimistic that the group’s ‘hard work on the ground of talking to people’ will pay off. ‘People didn’t know this was possible,’ she said, but ‘they understand its importance.’”
