Water Planning for Growing Southwestern Communities - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 277

as city-operated utilities absorb the operations of smaller private systems or new munici-
pal utilities are formed to take over the operations of private systems.
Another unique situation that leads to uncertainty of water planning is shared
groundwater with Mexico. A variety of aquifers underlie the international boundary.
These shared resources have been increasingly utilized by urban populations in the border
region, where growth rates have frequently outpaced national averages. Yet there is no
binational agreement related to their shared management and planning across the border.
Sister cities such as El Paso-Ciudad Juárez and Nogales-Nogales pump groundwater
destined for municipal supply from shared aquifers, and while there may exist some
informal communication on local usage, planners at the municipal, state, and federal levels
on both sides of the border lack a binational framework, which would allow for conjunctive
planning. In light of this situation, the U.S. Congress passed the Transboundary Aquifer
Assessment Act of 2006 with the goal of assessing priority transboundary aquifers in the
border regions of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.* As binational assessment activities
are carried out, uncertainties regarding aquifer properties will be reduced, allowing for
more informed future planning strategies.
What is likely of paramount concern to water planning in semiarid regions of the Southwest
are uncertainties associated with physical/natural systems, such as those associated with
drought and climate change. Some say that water-scarce regions are always in a drought. It
is interesting to look at a definition or two of drought. The Pocket Oxford American Dictionary ,
Second Edition, defines drought as “a very long period of abnormally low rainfall, leading
to a shortage of water.” 36 An online source, the Free Dictionary by Farlex, defines drought
as “a long period of abnormally low rainfall, especially one that adversely affects growing
or living conditions.” † Both suggests that drought involves a long period of abnormally low
rainfall, which would mean that rainfall would have to be below the normally low amounts
in many parts of the West in order for drought to be declared. Both also connect the low
rainfall to effects on water availability and, therefore, living conditions. In any case, as com-
munities have grown or are projected to grow into their known water supplies, planning
for future water supplies under conditions of uncertainties about the length and severity of
drought has become of greater importance. Water table declines, of concern in nondrought
conditions, are exacerbated in times of drought. Reduced surface water flows, including
reduced baseflows caused by reduced precipitation or groundwater pumping, have to be
considered. Drought planning is a critically important component of water planning, and
many municipal providers have drafted drought plans. ‡ Yet in Arizona, it was not until 2004
that a Statewide Operational Drought Plan was adopted. Drought preparedness has become
an important component of water systems planning. §
Important to many urban centers of the Southwest are the shortage sharing regulations
for the Colorado River. It was not until late 2007 that then Secretary of the Interior Dirk
Kempthorne approved terms for sharing a declared shortage on the Colorado River. 37 The
terms were negotiated by the seven Colorado River Basin states (Arizona, California, Colorado,
Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming) and presented to the Secretary. Mexico, which also
shares Colorado River water, is not included in this shortage sharing framework. The criteria
* For text of the enrolled bill, see http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-214 (accessed April 30,
2009).
† http://www.thefreedictionary.com/drought (accessed March 28, 2009).
‡ Phoenix drafted in 1993 and revised in 2000 http://phoenix.gov/WATER/drtmain.html (accessed April 29,
2009), New Mexico drafted in 2002 and updated annually http://www.ose.state.nm.us/DroughtTaskForce/
droughtplans.html (accessed April 29, 2009).
§ http://www.azwater.gov/dwr/Drought/ADPPlan.html (accessed March 28, 2009).