Last year's budget cuts forced the Arizona Dept of Water Resources to stop funding for 19 stream gauges and another 33 are at risk of being shut down this year. Steve Ayers, reporter with the Verde Independent, describes efforts among 37 cooperating agencies to fund support to keep the network running.
The USGS maintains a network of 200 stream gauges across Arizona but in the last two decades have increasingly turned to states to pick up more of the costs of maintaining them.
Sigh... This short term measure will only save 500,000 USD [only .02% of the state's 2.6 billion deficit]. I sure hope Arizona doesn't happen to have floods anytime soon and needs those gages....
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