Water is a big issue across Arizona, but in some rural communities of northern Arizona, the impending lack of water that we worry about here in metro Phoenix is already happening.
Pine is a small community north of Payson that’s packed full of Valley weekenders in the summer. But, it relies entirely on groundwater, and resident Chris Ray says it's running out.
Ray is a retired nurse from the Valley who moved to Pine to retire. As she outlined in a recent op-ed in the Payson Roundup, well after well is drying up in her rural community.
She came to the Arizona Legislature last session to meet with lawmakers and ask for action. She was pushing a proposal at the Arizona Capitol to establish local groundwater stewardship areas that stalled.
Ray told The Show that residents there have signs up in their yards that say things like, "The water shortage is real," and avoid doing their laundry on weekends when Airbnb guests crowd the area.
