Mitigating
Drought
Mitigation
Tools for States
Case
Study: Arizona
The state regarded legislation and the central Arizona project as its main mitigative actions for drought in the 1985–92 period. Legislation adopted in 1990 (Arizona Revised Statutes 45–831, Article 2) called for the following:
- To protect the general economy and welfare of this state and its citizens by wise resource management of the water of the central Arizona project.
- To store for future needs the central Arizona project water not now utilized by central Arizona project subcontractors.
- To provide an additional source of water for times of serious water shortage because of a substantial reduction in the supply of central Arizona project water available for delivery to central Arizona project subcontractors or a prolonged interruption of deliveries of central Arizona project water.
Earlier legislation (the Ground Water Management Act of 1980) was another mitigation tool, aimed at controlling groundwater withdrawal to parameters of safe yields.
The state’s other major mitigative action was completion of the central Arizona project, a network of canals to route Colorado River water to various locations in central Arizona. Additional mitigative actions included conservation measures (especially in the Tucson area), limiting urban development, public education, dam renovation, uncapping wells, water hauling, emergency livestock or wildlife feed hauling, construction of emergency water storage receptacles/catchments, and water management.
Mitigation actions on the local level included construction of drought relief wells (new and rehabilitated), transfer mechanisms, water convergence systems (drains, ditches, pipelines), water reuse systems, implementation of emergency livestock feed logistics, wind erosion control measures, and appropriate range control practices. Public information programs to educate the general public on coping, conserving, and finding help were also important in local mitigation efforts.
(Summarized from Wilhite, D.A. 1993. Drought Mitigation Technologies in the United States: With Future Policy Recommendations. Final Report of a Cooperative Agreement between the Soil Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; and the International Drought Information Center, University of Nebraska–Lincoln. IDIC Technical Report Series 93–1, International Drought Information Center, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska.)
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