In a collection of essays and research summaries, eleven members of the Colorado River Research Group, including Kathryn Sorensen, and eight guest contributors, including Sarah Porter, touch on issues as diverse as plummeting reservoir storage, climate change trends, risk management, agricultural water conservation, equity, and governance, all against the backdrop of the need to fashion post-2026 reservoir operating rules. 

Renowned water lawyer Kathleen Ferris sat down on December 2 with about 100 ADWR staff members, both online & present, to discuss the origins of their Department, including the creation of Arizona’s famous Groundwater Management Act of 1980 and the subsequent water laws that provided ADWR with the tools to regulate groundwater use in Active Management Areas for the last 45 years.

Anahi Yerman, a graduate research fellow, led the project’s implementation and sees it as a way to honor both ancient ingenuity and present-day community resilience. “As scientists, we need to communicate with other scientists, and we also have to communicate with the public,” she said. “If we fail in either of those domains, we’re not actually being successful scientists.”

In 2025, Arizona State University rolled out the AZ Water Chatbot, a digital assistant that helps residents understand everything from drought conditions to local conservation programs. 

The proposals come as Arizona and the six other river states remain deadlocked on how to share a shrinking Colorado River. Sarah Porter, director of ASU’s Kyl Center for Water Policy, says the moment is critical.

“One of our most important sources of supply, the Colorado River, is overstressed,” Porter said. “We're at an impasse.”

Chelsea McGuire, the agency's executive director, said that as someone once quipped, "There's no silver bullet for our water supply. There's only silver buckshot," meaning more than one new supply will be needed. The comment, from Kathryn Sorensen, a water researcher at ASU, came at the annual Colorado River Users Association in Las Vegas.

In the small town of Patagonia, Arizona, nestled in the rolling hills south of Tucson, water has long been both a defining feature and a pressing concern. Established as a railroad and mining hub in the late 1800s, Patagonia has transformed over time into a community prized for its unique character, rich ecology and abundant birding opportunities.

However, pressures including mining and drought are reshaping the local landscape, and the area faces new challenges in sustaining its most vital resource. Those challenges, and the opportunities to meet them, were at the heart of a recent rural groundwater resilience workshop organized by Impact Water – Arizona, a pillar of the Arizona Water Innovation Initiative.

Black Canyon Heritage Park (BCHP) is proud to announce the debut of the ASU WaterSIMersive Exhibit, part of Arizona State University’s Arizona Water Innovation Initiative. The exhibit will be hosted at Cañon Elementary School in Black Canyon City from November 15 through November 24, 2025. 

"The hope was that the seven basin states that helped govern the operations of the Colorado River would come up with a plan for how we're going to operate the river after 2026. That didn't happen," said Cynthia Campbell, director of policy innovation for the Arizona Water Innovation Initiative.