ABSTRACT
Arizona is a state with a rapidly increasing population and expanding industrial base. The expansion has been historically dependent in large part upon groundwater. Since the early 1930s, Arizona has been "mining" its groundwater. The Tucson Basin is a broad valley in the basin-and-range province of southern Arizona. The Basin is bordered to the north and east by the Santa Catalina and Santa Rita Mountains and to the west by the Tortolita and Tucson Mountains. The Arizona Supreme Court's decision in the Farmers' Investment Company case motivated the legislature to take action. The interesting part of the legislation is that it mandated that long-term political solutions be reached by creating the Groundwater Management Study Commission composed of legislators and representatives from mining, municipal and agricultural interests. The proposed code, in effect, "created" a great number of new "desert water rights" while it devalues old agricultural ones.
