Will Stone/KJZZ

Land in Cochise County.

The way groundwater is regulated in parts of rural Arizona could soon change.

As the water table around Willcox continues to drop, the people there who depend on that resource are looking to the Legislature for help. 

Over the past year, residential wells in the Willcox area have been going dry, prompting residents and farmers to take a hard look at how to preserve the aquifer, while also maintaining the agricultural base of the economy there.

Like most of rural Arizona, that region has no limit on how much groundwater agricultural wells can pump. Now a local group is hoping to create a new kind of regulation — one that’s not as stringent as the form of management in central Arizona, known as an Active Management Area (AMA).

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State Rep. David Stevens, a Republican, represents the Willcox area. He is acting as a "facilitator" as his constituents and the state department of water resources try to come up with this new regulatory structure. They are still in the first stages of developing the legislation, but if passed, Stevens said it could have broader implications.

“If this goes into play, it could be used elsewhere in the state," said Stevens, "This could be a game changer.”

Among other things, the proposal seeks to place a "freeze" on large irrigation, but to still allow low-water users, like the burgeoning wine industry, to expand.