Arizona, Running Out Of Water, Moving Towards Growth Limits

First it was Florida, where fresh water is drying up.

Now Arizona.

Here are the key paragraphs from that AP story:

"PHOENIX — Arizona lawmakers voted Thursday to expand the state's growth management efforts, approving a bipartisan bill to empower counties and cities to place new restrictions on rural development without adequate water supplies.

The House's 50-1 vote completed legislative action on the bill, which now goes to Gov. Janet Napolitano, a supporter.

The Senate approved the bill on March 8 on a 26-2 vote.

Legislative approval of the measure came a quarter-century after the 1980 enactment of a historic groundwater management law imposing new pumping and irrigation restrictions in "active management areas." Those areas include Phoenix, Tucson and Prescott.

Those urban-oriented restrictions were aimed at curbing groundwater depletion that outpaced natural replacement.