Local Sprawl - Disaster - Destroyed Ecosystem - Fissures - Flooding

Ground water overdraft is the removal of subsurface water at a rate faster than its natural recharge rate.

...golf courses or humans - Who's going to get the water? SINKING ARIZONA

1992 - Fissures Change Arizona's Landscape

Oct. 1998 - "Tatlow said the Department of Water Resources will begin a subsidence monitoring program in the Phoenix area by the end of the year. ... the aquifer below will never be able to hold as much water as it used to, because the sediments have been permanently compacted.... Sun City is dropping 2.8 centimeters per year, and the area around Luke Air Force Base is subsiding 2 to 3 centimeters a year."
2.54 centimeters equal one inch.

Feb. 1999 - "Cracks Developing in Camelot Canyon"

May 1999 - "Large fissures, caused by the settling of land and pumping of underground water, crisscross the area. It is dangerous for a person to climb into a cracked area to remove debris...."

Oct. 1999 - "More fissures open near Queen Creek"

Feb. 2006 - Debate Will Begin On More Disclosure About Land Fissures

June 2007 - Arizona Geological Survey - Earth Fissure Planning Maps PR

July 2007 - Horse dies in fissure after storm - "people didn't tell us"

July 2007 - Gap in Queen Creek road spurs study of threat to streets

Aug. 2007 - Earth fissure near Queen Creek is filled in

Oct. 2007 - East Valley builders on shaky ground

Jan. 2008 - 25-foot sinkhole ties up Gilbert intersection

Feb. 2008 - Residents of sinking community seeking answers

Mar. 2008 - Groundwater pumping causes more land cracks than thought

Apr. 2008 - Detailed fissures map released - www.azmap.org/fissures

May 2008 - A.J. community filing suit over sinking homes

June 2008 - Val Vista Drive in south Gilbert closed again

July 2008 - Property assessment shows effects of fissures

May 2010 - Budget cuts put Arizona water goals in jeopardy

Jan. 2011 - Flood district weighs need to brace dams

Mar. 2013 - Growing Arizona fissures give geologists a sinking feeling

Aug. 2015 - ASU study - ADWR Map - AZ Geological Survey - RaTLab

Feb. 2016 - Sinkhole affecting Greenfield Road traffic in Gilbert

Feb. 2016 - Earth Fissure Map of the Chandler Heights Study Area

Jan. 2017 - Arizona Geological Survey finds new fissure

Feb. 2017 - Update at tucson.com

Apr. 2018 - ... lawmakers push to cut groundwater rules = an excellent article by Dustin Gardiner @azcentral.com

Recharge in Arizona - Info about Central Arizona Project groundwater recharge projects

What hidden dangers lurk under land you're buying?

Oct. 8, 2005

Regarding "Fissures generating anxiety" (Republic, Oct. 1):

While a map from 1996 may be out of date concerning locations of earth fissures and land subsidence in the southeast Valley, this issue should be of no surprise.

Geologists from the U.S. Geological Survey (including my father) have consistently studied, written reports and produced maps of this area documenting the existence of fissures and subsidence since the 1960s. Local, county and state officials are aware of this issue.

As a teenager in the mid-1970s, I can remember going out in the field with my dad to see a fissure near the San Tans. Even back then, it had been filled in with rubble and debris by a bulldozer, as if to conceal it.

Officials need to do more to help inform future homeowners just what might be hiding under the land they may be buying. - Jan Laney, Phoenix
e pluribus unum

photos taken - June 1997
at the NW corner of the Meridian and Baseline
intersection near the Central Arizona Project (CAP)

Episode 4 of 'Cadillac Desert' as seen on PBS tv
"... struggling to provide water for its growing population, is sinking -- in some sections up to 12 inches a year -- due to overdrawn aquifers."
BOOKS
 Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised Edition (Paperback)
Cadillac Desert - Water and the Transformation of Nature: Boxed Set (Includes Chinatown 1974 Feature Film) (1997)