Our AMA
The Douglas AMA was a citizen-petitioned election to protect the livelihood of our residents and rural way of life. It's implementation must be in service of The Citizens, farmers and residential well owners alike.
NEWS
- On April 11th the ADWR will present their draft goals for the Douglas AMA, with an opportunity for residents to give feedback.
- On April 7th there will be a informational presentation for Douglas Basin residents. AMA laws, goals, and plans will be explained. There will be an opportunity for round table discussion of desires for our AMA. Location to be determined.
AMA Goals
Our statutes do not restrict what an AMA goal can be. Below are examples of goals from existing AMAs:
"Safe Yield"
This is the most common goal of existing AMAs. According to Arizona Law, it means "a groundwater management goal which attempts to achieve and thereafter maintain a long-term balance between the annual amount of groundwater withdrawn in an active management area and the annual amount of natural and artificial recharge in the active management area.”
In other words: don't take out more water than gets put in.
AMA Goals
​"Stabilized Water Tables"
Because "Safe Yield" can be interpreted in ways that do not prevent water levels from declining, the residents of the Santa Cruz Basin separated from the Tucson AMA to form their own AMA with an amended AMA goal:
"To maintain a safe-yield condition in the
AMA and to prevent local water tables
from experiencing long term declines."
AMA Goals
"Planned Depletion"
The Pinal AMA differs from other AMAs in that it seeks "development of non-irrigation uses and to preserve existing agricultural economies in the AMA for as long as feasible, consistent with the necessity to preserve future water supplies for non-irrigation uses."
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Rather than achieving Safe Yield or Stabilized Water Tables to sustain their agricultural economy, they are allowing water levels to continue declining with an understanding that agriculture will eventually decline and be replaced by urban development.
