Water transfers in Arizona: Measuring effects on areas of origin

Abstract

Thousands of acres of irrigated farmland in rural Arizona have been purchased recently with the hope of transporting the associated water to cities. Many Arizonans believe that this "water farming" can solve Arizona's water supply problems. Others, however, fear that water transfers will have serious adverse effects on the areas of origin. To evaluate the effects of transfers, their path must be traced through the regional economy and environment. This requires sophisticated modeling and detailed data. It is possible, however, to make interregional comparisons with much less data, contrasting regional sensitivity to particular categories of effects. The most important are economic, fiscal, environmental, and limitations on future development potential. In this research, indices of relative sensitivity to economic and fiscal effects of water farming are constructed based on readily available secondary data. The values for these indices are calculated for four Arizona counties: Paz, Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal.