Prescott AMA Mission

Achieving safe-yield through the promotion of conservation and the development and utilization of renewable water sources.

Prescott AMA Goal

The Prescott AMA has a statutory goal of achieving safe-yield by 2025. Safe-yield is a groundwater management goal which attempts to achieve and thereafter maintain a long-term balance between the amount of groundwater withdrawn in an active management area and the annual amount of natural and artificial recharge in the active management area A.R.S. § 45-561(12). The safe-yield goal is a basin-wide balance. Under current groundwater rules, pumping from one location in the AMA can be offset by recharging a volume of water at another location.

Prescott AMA Description

The Prescott AMA covers 485 square miles in central Yavapai County. The AMA lies within the Central Highlands physiographic province and is typified by gently rolling topography with broad sloping alluvial basins and fault block mountains. Elevations range from about 4,400 feet above sea level in the valleys to about 7,800 feet above mean sea level in the Bradshaw Mountains. Native vegetation varies from high desert grassland in the basin areas to coniferous forest in the surrounding mountains. The AMA boundary is defined by the Bradshaw Mountains to the south, Granite Mountain and Sullivan Buttes to the west, and by the Black Hills to the northeast.

The AMA consists of two sub-basins, the Little Chino (LIC) and the Upper Agua Fria (UAF), which are bisected by a surface drainage divide. Granite Creek, Big Draw, and Little Chino Creek drain the LIC sub-basin into the Verde River. Lynx Creek and other smaller ephemeral streams drain the UAF sub-basin into the Agua Fria River. The LIC sub-basin encompasses western and northern portions of the AMA, while the UAF sub-basin spans the southeast portion of the AMA.

Prescott AMA Virtual Tour

Prescott AMA Virtual Tour (7 MB)

Prescott AMA Groundwater Users Advisory Council

The 1980 Groundwater Code established a Groundwater Users Advisory Council (GUAC) (36 KB) in each active management area consisting of five members. Members of the council are appointed by the governor to represent the users of groundwater in the active management area and on the basis of their knowledge of, interest in and experience with problems relating to the development, use and conservation of water.