The latest interactive tool added to the Arizona Department of Water Resources web site – the Grandfathered Right Web Map system – is now up and running.

The “GFR” system, as it is known, is an interactive map intended for use by owners and lessees of irrigation grandfathered groundwater rights and of “Type 1” non-irrigation GFRs.

The process of providing property owners with detailed information about their groundwater rights has played out almost unchanged for decades. It has been slow. And cumbersome. And inconvenient to people holding a right to use groundwater.

That is now changing. In mid-January, the Arizona Department of Water Resources’ website will feature a new “interactive” search map that – for the first time – will allow the public to conveniently access geographical and other data about their groundwater rights.

It is high season once again for one of ADWR’s most important duties – collecting data on groundwater levels by the department’s Basic Data Unit.

The staff of the “BD Unit,” as it is known, will be fanning out across the State to measure water levels in wells, measure discharge from pumping wells and collect well inventories.

In the foothills regions north of Phoenix, all the ingredients for a recipe of chronic water-woes have been whipping together in recent years.

A University of Arizona study of the golf industry in Arizona has found that golf – with an economic impact of $3.9 billion in 2014 -- has re-established its footing as an important driver of the state’s economy following the tumult of the 2009-10 economic downturn.