Arizona Hydrogeology And Water Supply

Arizona hydrogeology and water supply zones are classified into the Basin and Range Lowlands, the Central Highlands, and Plateau Uplands Hydrogeologic Provinces. Average annual precipitation for the state ranges from about five to more than 25 inches; average annual total is about 80 million acre-feet. More than 95 percent of rain and snowfall is lost to evaporation and transpiration. Evaporation potential ranges from about 48 to 86 inches per year and exceeds precipitation at all locations. Most water use is in the agricultural areas and large cities that lie in the Basin and Range Lowlands Province. Groundwater circulation and storage in the Basin and Range Lowlands Province occur chiefly in the extensive alluvial basins. Total groundwater in storage in the basins is more than 1.2 billion acre-feet. Because water use exceeds the rate of replenishment in these basins, groundwater levels have declined, and streamflow from the province is small. The Central Highlands Province provides large amounts of surface-water runoff to the Gila River system where the water is stored in large reservoirs and is used chiefly for agricultural and municipal purposes in the lowlands. Except for large groundwater supplies in fractured rock aquifers at a few locations, groundwater resources in the highlands are small. The Plateau Uplands Province is characterized by extensive flat-lying sandstone and limestone aquifers and by meager surface-water runoff. About 250,000 acre-feet of groundwater are yielded annually from springs that discharge to the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon and to tributaries of the Gila River system along the Mogollon Rim. Largest groundwater yields to wells and to springs occur from abundantly fractured rocks along large faults. The Colorado River flows westward across the northern part of the state and forms the boundary between Arizona and California. Average annual flow in the Colorado River at Lees Ferry is about 12 million acre-feet. The river flow is regulated by reservoirs capable of storing more than 50 million acre-feet. All but about 2.7 million acre-feet per year of the river flow is used in Arizona and California or is lost to evaporation and transpiration.