Power in water governance: the case of Prescott Active Management Area, Arizona

Abstract

We examine how power is exercised in water governance with respect to governance structure and water sustainability outcomes. This examination is important due to the prevalent assumption that formal governance structures promote water sustainability. Theme codes from the deductive analysis of interview transcripts were triangulated with documents to identify the resources (namely: artefactual, mental, monetary, and natural) in the study area—Prescott Active Management Area (AMA), and ways through which power was exercised given both water sustainability and the area’s safe-yield management goal. We found power exercised by governance actors across state, regional, and local levels mainly through rescaling for government actors and through litigation and the political process for non-government actors. Due to rescaling, the same administrative boundary manages water across Prescott AMA, leading to a mismatch of watershed and management scales. Non-government actors employed litigation in contesting legislated groundwater transport, and exempt wells remain unregulated due to political processes at the local level. Pro-growth, libertarian, and sustainability narratives were the overarching drivers of water governance activities. However, the growth narrative of the most powerful actor in the area (state-level actors) is driving the governance outcome of unattainable safe yield.