Fellow republican state Sen. TJ Shope agreed, adding, “I’m not sure how anything she proposes would meld with the Active Management Area.” And as for the people who toil away on the land? “Personally, I don’t know that there’s a silver bullet answer,” Jones said. “A lot of people that aren’t directly involved in agriculture, they just have a misconception about what we do.” The consensus among Anderson, Hartman and Jones is this: Water is precious and to be protected for the sake of everyone’s livelihoods. “We work very hard and diligently to use every drop of water as efficiently as possible and to be as conservative as possible,” Hartman said. “It’s the right thing to do. Any farmer not wise with their water use, will not stay in business.”
That issue leads to fallow fields that won’t produce crops to conserve what water they can to grow alfalfa. Farmers are still taxed on their fallow land. “Water is very expensive, so we have to be very careful with it,” Hartman said. “We don’t let any water run off our farms, everything has to stay contained.” What’s on tap Even with Hobbs’ declaration to protect Arizona’s water resources in her State of the State address, the promises seem to fall short. Amid a staggering $1 billion deficit, the governor’s office recommended cutting more than $27 million from water-related funds in the 2024-25 budget. This comes along with a hazy view as to how the state will act on water conservation in rural districts. Hobbs’ office declined to comment for this story. Maricopa’s legislators seemed to disagree with Hobbs’ plans to conserve water, saying it could damage Pinal County’s $2.3 billion agricultural industry. “Water is a very important issue, and our agricultural water is already regulated by law by the board of directors of our Active Management Area,” said Rep. Teresa Martinez, a republican who represents Maricopa in the state House. “More regulations on top of the very strict regulations we have already would definitely hurt our county.”
WATER WITHDRAWLS FROM IRRIGATION
HOW MUCH IS AN ACRE-FOOT?
16 tennis courts filled with 1 foot of standing water
One football field filled with 8 inches of standing water
WATER IS OUR RELATIVE
came from — Gila River, Salt River, Ak-Chin, Tohono O’odham — you’ll hear different versions, but everything always began with water.” For O’odham, the people who have called this water- starved desert home since time immemorial, water is more than just a resource. Shuudag — the O’odham word for water — is a nurturer, a relative, the source of life. Water is, ultimately, a holy being.
Traditional songs, prayers and stories all heavily feature water in various forms: rivers, rain, the ocean. Those in turn reconnect the people to their origins and remind them of the reciprocal relationship between water and the people, according to Marrietta, who is Akimel O’odham. “We are River People, and we respect water as a close relative by taking into consideration the way we talk about and use water,” he said.
That knowledge of that relationship also can make it difficult to respect those traditions while living in a society that has seen water as a financial resource to be contained and used. “Before the rivers were dammed, they traveled through our communities, they nurtured our crops, they gave us life,” he said. “It can be tough because of our how they were taken from us, and we’ve had to deal with that throughout history.”
The sound of rushing river water pierces through darkness.
“Our stories, everything starts as hearing the swishing sound of river water in a dark place,” said Gila River Indian Community member Napoleon Marrietta. “That sound is in our origin stories and our beginnings. Depending on which community you
February 2024 | InMaricopa.com
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