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When
to
Where
webinar
Speaker(s)
Jessica Fox
Water Policy Advisor, AMWUA
On Tuesday, February 15, the WRRC hosted Jessica Fox from the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association (AMWUA) for an engaging Brown Bag webinar. Fox presented, “Reaching Safe-Yield in the Phoenix AMA,” highlighting recent work to assess the AMA's progress toward meeting its long-term management goals. According to Arizona Revised Statutes, the term “safe-yield” is defined as “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goal which attempts to achieve and thereafter maintain a long-term balance between the annual amount of groundwater withdrawn in an active management area and the annual amount of natural and artificial recharge in the active management area.” AMWUA’s analysis shows that from 1985 to 2017, the Phoenix AMA has not achieved its long-term management goal due to many years of overdrafts. Fox also described some of the challenges to achieving safe-yield. For example, groundwater use exemptions place the burden of replenishment (and progress toward meeting the management goals) on new groundwater users within the AMA. Fox concluded her presentation by encouraging stakeholders to remain engaged in the state-led discussions of safe-yield and other possible management goals.
Jessica Fox is the Water Policy Advisor at AMWUA. She earned a B.S. in Environmental Studies from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and an M.S. in Sustainability from Arizona State University. Before joining AMWUA, Jessica spent nearly nine years working as a water policy analyst for the Central Arizona Project and, more recently, the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District.