Chapter 3—Arizona's Hydrology, Population and Border with Mexico
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Chapter 3 ARIZONA’S HYDROLOGY, POPULATION AND BORDER WITH MEXICO DAVID A. DE KOK There is no denying Arizona’s appeal. Hundreds of hopeful new residents enter Arizona everyday. They are drawn by both Arizona’s great natural beauty, as popularized in the pages of Arizona Highways, and its vibrant economy. The cumulative effect of this unrelenting migration has made Arizona the exemplar of the Sun Belt phenomenon. From a half million people just prior to the start of World War II, the state’s population soared ten-fold in just six decades. The post-war boom shows no sign of slowing down. Although this growth has helped fuel a booming economy, it also has taxed the state’s water resources, revealing the possible limits to growth in some parts of the state. The diversity of Arizona’s terrain, climate, flora and fauna is the state’s most striking feature. Despite the state’s enormously varied physical components, there is one unifying element that serves to define Arizona–its climate; except at its highest elevations Arizona is arid. There is a strong relationship between elevation and precipitation, particularly in the western and southern two-thirds of the state (Figure 3.1). Southwestern Arizona is a low-lying desert–a place where evaporation far exceeds rainfall and where water is severely limiting to life most of the time. The abruptly rising central highlands receive far more precipitation and experience lower evaporation. The northeastern third of the state gets much less precipitation than the central highlands due to its slightly lower elevation and its position in the rain shadow to the lee of the highlands which intercept eastward traveling winter storms. The eastern two-thirds of Arizona receives its maximum precipitation from summer monsoon storms, whereas the western third of the state gets most of its rain in the winter. Each 1,000-foot increase in elevation generally is accompanied by an increase of three inches in annual precipitation and a decrease of from three to 21 Draft of 10/06/04 ARIZONA’S HYDROLOGY, POPULATION AND BORDER WITH MEXICO five degrees Fahrenheit in temperature. In reality, the distribution of precipitation is highly irregu- lar and is affected by both the altitude and arrangement of the state’s landforms and their interac- tion with seasonal weather patterns. Precipitation by itself does not always translate into an available water resource. Evapo- ration reduces it, rocks deflect and channel it and porous soils absorb it. This leads to Arizona’s great water paradox–water is most readily available for human use in some of the state’s most arid parts and, conversely, water is more difficult to access in some of the state’s wettest regions. The recent drought has highlighted the precariousness of water resources in parts of the central 22 Draft of 10/06/04 ARIZONA’S HYDROLOGY, POPULATION AND BORDER WITH MEXICO highlands and plateau uplands where water providers in such communities as Payson, Pine, Straw- berry, Williams and Flagstaff have had to scramble to secure new water sources as shallow aqui- fers and reservoirs have run dry. PHYSIOGRAPHY AND HYDROLOGY Arizona can be divided into three physiographic regions: (i) the basin and range low- lands, (ii) the central highlands and (iii) the plateau uplands (Figure 3.2). Appendix G contains a detailed description of the principal streams and major drainages, natural recharge patterns, ground- 23 Draft of 10/06/04 ARIZONA’S HYDROLOGY, POPULATION AND BORDER WITH MEXICO water resources and regional aquifers found in these physiographical regions. Basin and Range Lowlands The basin and range lowlands contain 45 percent of the state’s land area and 89 percent of its population. The lowlands include all of Yuma, La Paz, Pima, Pinal, Santa Cruz and Cochise Counties as well as most of Maricopa County and portions of Mohave, Graham and Greenlee Counties. The basin and range lowlands consist of isolated, northwest trending, uplifted fault block mountain ranges jutting from alluvial sediments that form the broad desert basins. The 24 Draft of 10/06/04 ARIZONA’S HYDROLOGY, POPULATION AND BORDER WITH MEXICO valley floors range in altitude from about 100 feet at Yuma to 4,600 feet near Sierra Vista. The interspersed mountain ranges vary from 1,000 to 6,000 feet above the valleys and reach eleva- tions as great as 10,700 feet above sea level in the Pinaleno Mountains. Annual precipitation in the region generally averages less than ten inches, but ranges from four inches near Yuma to 30 inches along the peaks of the Santa Catalina and Chiricahua Mountains. The basin and range lowlands generate very little runoff over most of their area. Streams in the region are characterized by extreme seasonal variation in flow levels. Ephemeral streams (those which flow only in response to precipitation events in their watersheds) in the low moun- tain ranges and alluvial valleys experience maximum flows in the summer in response to mon- soon storms. Streams in the higher mountain ranges have maximum seasonal runoff in late winter and early spring as accumulated snowpacks melt off. Channel losses have a great effect on alluvial valley streams. Low groundwater tables and sandy, usually dry channels encourage the rapid infiltration of surface flows into the streambed. Channel losses in combination with the region’s high evaporation rates result in streams that have relatively short stretches of surface flow. Only runoff from major storms is usually carried to the lower reaches of the main stream channels, many of which are controlled with dams. While the basin and range has the preponder- ance of surface water use in Arizona (Figure 3.3), the source of that water primarily is outside the physiographical region.1 Even as the basin and range lacks indigenous surface water, it is both the locale of the state’s most easily mined groundwater and the region with the most highly developed groundwa- ter resources, with over 100,000 registered groundwater wells. Figure 3.4 shows in quite general terms areas of Arizona where groundwater wells are likely to be capable of high flow rates, based 1 Figures 3.3 and 3.5 represent intensity as the volume of water used (in acre-inches) in the basin, divided by the area of the basin (in acres). The resulting units are simply inches, which can be thought of as the depth of water that would result if all the water used in the basin were spread uniformly over the entire basin. While such units seem odd at first, they are, of course, used for precipitation. The figures clearly illustrate the spatial variability of usage as well as the fact that groundwater resources are more widely used and available. 25 Draft of 10/06/04 ARIZONA’S HYDROLOGY, POPULATION AND BORDER WITH MEXICO on aquifer characteristics and well records. The figure illustrates the spatial variability of ground- water, providing a useful contrast between the alluvial aquifers of the basin and range and the less productive hardrock areas of the plateau. The intensity of groundwater use is correspondingly high (Figure 3.5). Some of the most distinctive features in the basin and range are artificial, notably irrigated agriculture and urban areas. The dams and diversion structures that regulate and direct the Colo- rado River have transformed the hyper-arid river corridor into a fertile and highly productive agricultural area. There are several large irrigation districts in the Yuma area, along with the 26 Draft of 10/06/04 ARIZONA’S HYDROLOGY, POPULATION AND BORDER WITH MEXICO Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation District stretching to the east. Further north, the Colorado River In- dian Community has large-scale agricultural operations, as does the Fort Mohave Indian Reser- vation near Bullhead City. Likewise, in the central part of the state, the “plumbing” of the Salt River Project (SRP), the growing use of the Central Arizona Project and productive alluvial aquifers have given rise to large-scale irrigated agriculture in Maricopa, Pinal and Pima Counties. Add to that the fields in the Sulphur Springs and San Simon Valleys of southeastern Arizona, and the basin and range region accounts for 89 percent of the approximately 1.3 million agricultural acres in Arizona. 27 Draft of 10/06/04 ARIZONA’S HYDROLOGY, POPULATION AND BORDER WITH MEXICO Central Highlands The central highlands contain 15 percent of the state’s land area and five percent of its population. The highlands are composed of parts of Mohave, Maricopa, Graham, Greenlee, Navajo and Apache Counties, as well as most of Yavapai County and all of Gila County. The highlands were formed by differential movements along complex fault systems resulting in sharp, rugged mountains of extruded volcanic rock. The basins in the central highlands are generally small, shallow and isolated from one another. Sharp, steep elevational differences characterize this region, with altitudes ranging from 1,400 feet at Fort McDowell to 11,500 feet at Mount Baldy. The region’s most salient feature is the 200 mile long Mogollon Rim which forms the boundary between the central highlands and the plateau uplands. This northwesterly trending escarpment ranges in height from 200 feet to over 2,000 feet. Annual precipitation in this region ranges from ten inches near Fort McDowell to 40 inches on top of Mount Baldy. The central highlands are the source for about half of the stream flow originating in Ari- zona. All of the major reservoirs in the state, except for the San Carlos Reservoir on the Gila River and the various Colorado River lakes, receive the bulk of their water supply from streams originating in the central highlands. Most of the areal extent of the Salt and Verde River water- sheds fall within the central highlands.