![]() ![]() The political inaction has locked in the status quo. … There just wasn't the support, so that was a chapter that I just wanted to put behind me.” “We took enough grief over that thing that I just kind of quit talking to people about it. “It pit neighbors against neighbors, that have been maybe lifelong friends for 40 or 50 years, and all of a sudden now they're at odds,” Seitz said. A petition from local water users asking the Department of Water Resources to form a new managed area in nearby San Simon also ended in acrimony.Īlan Seitz, one of the leaders of the 2015 effort in Willcox, said he has stepped away from trying to fix Willcox’s water situation because of how it divided the community. And more than three years later, the community remains divided and is miles away from mounting any collective response to combat the rapid declines in groundwater levels. They came up with a locally led proposal to manage water and conserve it on farms.īut their proposal failed to win enough support and in 2016 the effort was abandoned after fruitless meetings with members of the Arizona Legislature. Recognizing the situation’s peril, a group of farmers, homeowners and business people got together in 2015 to talk about how they could address the problem. The wells are also being drilled deeper. The average depth of all wells was 358 feet deeper in 2018 than it was in 2010. In 2015, 123 new wells were completed in the Willcox basin, compared with 43 in 2010. Though groundwater levels have been in decline for years, drilling isn't slowing down - it has accelerated in the past 10 years, according to an Arizona Republic analysis of state well-drilling data. Well levels in general are dropping, and at some point in the future, it's going to be a major problem - and for some guys it already is.” You can argue about the numbers, but I think everybody has to agree that we're sucking more out than is going back in. ![]() “To me, that's something that's just an irrefutable fact. “The best-case scenario, we're sucking out four times as much as we're putting in,” said John Hart, president of the Cochise County Farm and Livestock Bureau. As the water is pumped out, the ground is sinking. As the earth settles, fissures are gouging cracks in the roads.įarms and other well owners are pumping more than four times as much water as the estimated natural recharge that goes into the ground in an average year, according to data from the Arizona Department of Water Resources. There is no restriction on how much they can pump out of the ground.īig farms around Willcox draw on wells as deep as 2,500 feet. As they do, water levels throughout the area are plummeting and homeowners’ shallower wells are increasingly going dry. Though the arid Willcox area averages 12 inches of rainfall a year, the farms have access to huge amounts of groundwater. The farms, along with vineyards and wineries, have moved in to take advantage of the year-round sunshine and ample farmland. When the family started rationing water, their peach trees shriveled. After Richard Wilson’s well ran dry in July, he bought a 2,500-gallon tank and started paying for water deliveries. Groundwater levels have been dropping for years as large cattle operations, cornfields, pistachio groves and other farms have pumped out billions of gallons of groundwater.Īfter Richard Wilson’s well ran dry in July, he bought a 2,500-gallon tank and started paying for water deliveries. They saw no other option but to continue hauling water.Ī growing number of families have been struggling with dry wells in the farming towns around Willcox in southeastern Arizona. But no driller would guarantee how long a newly drilled, deeper well would last. They maxed out their finances to buy the home last year, and they had heard a driller might charge them $30,000 to $50,000 for a new well. They considered drilling a deeper well, but they were concerned they couldn’t afford it. They were able to buy a 2,500-gallon tank. The couple began paying $300 a pop for someone to haul water to the property. A full tank could last a few weeks as long as they rationed it and didn't water their trees. They watched their prized peach trees wither. ![]() Not a drop of water,” Richard Wilson said. “So, at that point you're like, 'Now what do I do?’ I've already been a week without water, having to haul water home from town so that we can take showers with buckets.” He suggested first checking the water level and lowered a probe to the bottom of the well. They later hired a technician to install a new pump. Unable to get water for days, they started to haul it in buckets from their restaurant in nearby Sunsites. ![]()
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