U.S. Water News Online
PHOENIX -- A century ago, the Gila River flowed nearly 650 miles from the high country of western New Mexico and eastern Arizona to the Colorado River near Yuma.
It drained most of Arizona, collecting water from the state's southern two-thirds. Until 1853, it marked the United States' boundary with Mexico.
But now, the once-mighty river has most of its natural flow halted at Coolidge Dam and none of its major tributaries make it to the main stream.
Farmers and ranchers continue to dip into the river to irrigate crops and support cattle.
Mining companies found rich veins of ore in the mountains that feed the river and its tributaries and staked a claim to some of the flow.
Miners and farmers have left behind contaminants that poisoned stretches of the Gila, which experts say is dying along its lower reaches.
"The river's a mess," said Larry Stevens, a Flagstaff-based river ecologist who now consults on restoration and engineering projects. "The question is: What do we do? Let the river go? A lot of the oldest Arizona families are farming on that flood plain. You can engineer just about anything with a little water and a backhoe. The thing to focus on most clearly is what values do you want to see come out of that system?"
In Graham and Greenlee counties, farmers and ranchers use an estimated 82 billion gallons of water a year, or about 94 percent of the two counties' total water budget. Municipal and industrial users split the remaining 6 percent.
The Gila River delivers more than half of that supply in an average year, but wells make up the difference most years, especially dry years like this one. What's not known is how big a dent those wells put in the river's below-surface supply.
Like most Arizona rivers, the Gila lacks protection from wells that tap into its groundwater sources. State laws don't link surface water and groundwater, nor do they require owners of small wells to report how much water they draw. Unchecked pumping has dried up stretches of the San Pedro River and threatens the Verde River.
On the upper Gila, most of the wells are small, which means no state agency regulates them. Not every well affects the river, but without the laws to monitor them and without better information about rural Arizona groundwater, it's unclear how much flow the wells take from the river.
A proposed water project in New Mexico could force Arizona farmers to drill even more wells. Until now, there were no water diversion projects across the state line, but a provision of the landmark Gila River water settlement approved in late 2004 gave New Mexico the right to keep up to 14,000 acre feet of water a year, or about 4.5 billion gallons.
That may not sound like much next to the 82 billion gallons eastern Arizona farmers use. But in a dry year, it could mean the difference between water in the river and a dry channel.
Environmental groups in both states are urging New Mexico to avoid any plan that would reduce flow and hurt habitat.
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