In 2022, when the southeastern Arizona community of Willcox considered state regulations that would have halted new groundwater irrigation in the largely agricultural area, voters and special interest groups mobilized to defeat the ballot measure nearly two to one. Despite agreeing that something should be done about the large groundwater deficit that was causing dry wells and fissures, most still balked at giving up control of how the rural community’s groundwater was regulated to the state. But as the first whispers of proposed regulations emerged in the Cochise County farming community, applications for new irrigation wells in the Willcox Basin skyrocketed—almost tripling from the year prior, with some proposing wells practically twice as deep than is normal for the area, according to an AZCIR analysis of state data. Similar scenarios have played out across the state in recent years, AZCIR’s Brendon Derr found: When local conversations about groundwater regulation take place, a surge of well applications follows. And new policy recommendations from a council convened by the governor is cueing up another debate in the Legislature that, experts say, may not bear any fruit. Local farmers, government officials and water experts worry that further legislative inaction will allow larger farms—which already dominate local conversations about regulation in rural areas—to continue drilling additional wells before any future regulation bars expansion in areas facing overdraft. Even a handful of these deeper wells with higher capacity pumps can extract so much water from the surrounding basin that shallower ones can no longer reach the aquifer at all, cutting off smaller farms and homes from their water supply. A recent report on the Willcox basin shows that the water table is now too low for the average well. | 
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