![\"Arizona's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1216C1A4F2B2BCFBE10E922EBC590691.jpg\")
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PHOENIX<\/strong> – New research from Arizona State University and NASA<\/strong><\/a> indicates Arizona’s reliance on groundwater is in jeopardy, as underground water storage faces significant depletion.<\/p>\n The findings, however, are met with some disagreement regarding the problem’s extent and its causes.<\/p>\n The research leverages an intriguing scientific method: measuring gravity.<\/p>\n Satellites capable of detecting changes in the Earth’s gravitational field provided data on groundwater levels. Yet, some farmers contend that their on-the-ground measurements do not align with this satellite data.<\/p>\n What they’re saying:<\/p>\n FOX 10 has visited Caywood Farms<\/strong><\/a> for years to observe the drought’s impact firsthand.<\/p>\n “Before we ever put a new crop in, we go in and prepare the field so it’s as level as it can be,” Nancy Caywood said three years ago<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Now, Caywood emphasizes their continued significant investment to ensure their flood irrigation methods do not waste water.<\/p>\n “Our fields are dead level from side to side and there’s a slight slope that runs from the irrigation ditch to the end of the field,” Caywood explained.<\/p>\n Despite these efforts, flood irrigation is cited as a major problem in new research by NASA and Arizona State University.<\/p>\n “It was surprising for us, actually, because we found groundwater is being used up much faster than we are expecting,” said Karem Abdelmohsen, an ASU research scientist<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Abdelmohsen stated that researchers used the GRACE satellite<\/strong><\/a> to track groundwater in the Colorado River Basin for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n “It does a measurement of change in gravity field. This gravity has a change to sensitivity to any change in water in surface or subsurface,” Abdelmohsen said.<\/p>\n By the numbers:<\/p>\n The study found the Colorado River Basin has lost groundwater equivalent to Lake Mead’s storage capacity in the last 20 years, with 74% of that loss occurring in Arizona. The biggest culprit, they say, is the drought.<\/p>\n “It can be solved, but it can’t be solved only natural. We have to do some other management strategy,” Abdelmohsen said.<\/p>\n The other side:<\/p>\n Next on their list of causes: the agriculture industry and flood irrigation.<\/p>\n “A lot of people think we’re wasting water. A lot of people think we’re not recharging, but we are recharging,” Caywood said.<\/p>\n Caywood points to other data from recent years that shows increasing groundwater levels in some parts of Arizona.<\/p>\n “As farmers, we don’t want to waste water. We think farmers are the best stewards of the land,” Caywood said.<\/p>\n What’s next:<\/p>\n The ASU-NASA research team reports the problem is not slowing down. Their data indicates groundwater was lost three times faster in the last decade compared to the prior decade.<\/p>\n What you can do:<\/p>\n You can click here<\/strong><\/a> if you’d like to read more about the research.<\/p>\n Drought<\/a>Arizona State University<\/a>News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX – New research from Arizona State University and NASA indicates Arizona’s reliance on groundwater is in jeopardy,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":104212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,67231,1587,6772,407,746,916,50,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-104211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-asu","11":"tag-az","12":"tag-drought","13":"tag-education","14":"tag-environment","15":"tag-nasa","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-phoenix","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114941000612825698","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"'It](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/C289898167A5567D599FC461A36720DA.jpg\")
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