LA PAZ COUNTY, Ariz. — Go to the town of Wenden, west of Phoenix, and you'll find a small farming town with lots of green fields.
Go there a year from now and you'll find it almost 3 inches lower than it was the first time you saw it.
That's because Wenden, along with other areas in La Paz County, is sinking. In the past 80 years, the town has dropped 18 feet in elevation, according to state water data.
And, experts say, it's likely because of groundwater depletion caused by unrestricted pumping.
"We're really good at pumping that water out much faster than nature replenishes it," Sarah Porter with the Kyl Center for Water Policy at ASU said.
In areas that are not Active Management Areas, mostly rural areas away from large cities and towns, groundwater can be pumped at an unlimited rate. There's also no state agency that tracks how much water is pulled from the ground in those areas.
The problem comes when too much groundwater is pumped out of the ground, leaving it compacted.
Groundwater, Porter says, is like a sponge. The water is in tiny cracks and fissures between rocks, dirt and sand. When the water is pumped out, everything compresses in a process called subsidence.
Unlike a sponge, however, when groundwater is gone, you can't pour the water back in to "fluff" it back up again.
"The aquifer will no longer be capable of storage," Porter said. "It's done."
Meaning not only is the water gone, but so is the ability to store it.
The subsidence has happened gradually over the years, Porter said, and is mainly noticeable in cracking of roads, if it's noticed at all.
The sinking is a symptom of a larger threat; groundwater depletion that can become so severe that it's impossible to get groundwater at all.
"That's what's the most problematic about aquifer depletion," Porter said.
So far the state has made no changes to the laws that allow unrestricted groundwater pumping, though it has revoked leases for a Saudi company that pumps millions of gallons of water to farm alfalfa.
A large water user was revoked, but the ability to pump large amounts of groundwater for anyone else still remains.
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