Description

The Tucson Active Management Area covers 3,866 square miles in southern Arizona. The Tucson AMA is one of five AMAs established pursuant to the 1980 Groundwater Management Act and administered by the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

The Tucson AMA is in the basin and range physiographic province, (700 KB) which is characterized by broad, gently sloping alluvial basins separated by north to northwest trending fault block mountains. There are two groundwater sub-basins in the AMA, the Avra Valley Sub-basin and the Upper Santa Cruz Sub-basin.

The AMA includes portions of Pima, Pinal and Santa Cruz Counties, and five incorporated cities and towns: Tucson, South Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana and Sahuarita. The Pasqua Yaqui tribal lands, part of the Schuk Toak District, and the entire San Xavier District of the Tohono O'odham Nation are within the AMA. The 2000 U.S. Census population was 836,000.

The original boundaries of the Tucson AMA included what is now the Santa Cruz AMA, which was created in 1994.

• Tucson AMA map  (7.8 MB)
• Overview presentation  (8.6 MB)
• Water Use Charts   (160 KB)

Management Goal

The Tucson AMA has a statutory goal of achieving safe-yield by 2025 and maintaining it thereafter. Safe-yield means that the amount of groundwater pumped from the AMA on an average annual basis does not exceed the amount that is naturally or artificially recharged. The safe-yield goal is a basin-wide balance. This means that water level declines in one portion of the AMA can be offset by recharging water in another part of the AMA.

The safe-yield goal was established as part of the 1980 Groundwater Management Act, and is intended to address the long-term implications of groundwater overdraft.

• Third Management Plan, Ch 1, Water Management Approach  (3.4 MB)
• Overview of the Groundwater Management Code (240 KB)
• Water management within AMAs

Water Budget

ADWR's water budgets provide a broad overview of an AMA's water resource situation and they serve as a tool for assessing progress towards achievement of management goals. Budgets include some factors that are directly measured, some that are estimated, and some that are long-term averages. ADWR's planning budgets are also complex because they must account for legal characteristics of water, including artificial groundwater recharge.

• 2005 Draft Water Budget  (45 KB)
• Budget from Governor's Water Management Commission, 2000  (50 KB)
• Presentation on ADWR's planning water budgets  (40 KB)
• Article on water budgeting by Dr. Sharon Megdal
• Third Management Plan
• Ch. 2 Overview of Water Resources  (3.4 MB)
• Ch. 3 Water Use Characteristics  (3.1 MB)
• Ch. 11 Water Budgets and Projections  (4.9 MB)

Tucson AMA Navigation Links