AWWA JAW22499

Mesa, Arizona, the second-fastest-growing city in the United States, has joined other burgeoning Arizona cities in buying rural groundwater rights to secure sufficient water supplies for the future. The state's 1980 Groundwater Management Act established comprehensive rules for controlling the use of this valuable underground resource, but the law has proved insufficient to address water-transfer problems stemming from the clash of urban and rural ideologies that inevitably erupts when cities go into the "water farming" business. This article focuses on Mesa's experience of working closely with rural interests to ensure that its water farming venture will be economically beneficial to both city and rural residents. Includes tables, figures.