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ARIZONA / COCHISE COUNTY

Sunsites

Ran dry
No photograph available
Population (2020)
790
Water cut
April 2015
Cause
groundwater
Where
31.94°N, 109.84°W

What happened, and when

Every dated water event the register holds for Sunsites, newest first, each with the sources that document it.

  1. Ran dryon the card

    Ran dry: what happened

    Sunsites and adjoining Pearce, in the unregulated Willcox groundwater basin, rely entirely on private domestic wells. By April 2015 the local chamber of commerce reported at least a dozen domestic wells in the area had gone dry in the preceding year as deep agricultural pumping lowered the aquifer, and households whose wells failed have depended on hauled water since. The state's hydrologist told a 2024 hearing that 71 of its index wells in the basin had gone dry, 29 of them in the past decade; the state designated the basin an Active Management Area in December 2024, which limits new pumping but brings no replacement supply.

    • KJZZ: Rural Arizona community reckons with loss of groundwater (April 30, 2015)
    • Arizona Daily Star: As wells go dry, Willcox-area residents want to limit water pumping (March 28, 2022)
    • KGUN 9: State initiates procedures to create groundwater restrictions for Willcox Basin (October 24, 2024)
    • Arizona House of Representatives: HB 2031, grandfathered right, Willcox AMA, extension (House bill summary) (April 14, 2026)