A lot of the water we use everyday in the Valley — for everything from agriculture to taking a shower — comes from groundwater basins.

But the Eloy and Maricopa-Stanfield groundwater basins in Arizona, which encompass most of the corridor between Phoenix and Tucson, is facing a supply and demand problem.

To guard against these conditions, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is launching two new groundwater basin studies: one in New Mexico, the other, here in Arizona.

So what exactly does a groundwater basin study looks at? They’re asking questions like will we have enough water in these basins for the next 50 years, for example. If not, how would something like a drought affect it?   

I spoke with Mary Reece more about this. She’s the manager of the Program Development Division in the Phoenix-area office of the Bureau of Reclamation.