Active Management Areas: Five areas of the state (Prescott, Phoenix, Pinal, Tucson, and Santa Cruz) where groundwater is carefully managed to prevent groundwater depletion.

Area of hydrologic impact: Lateral extent around a recharge project where recharged water has accumulated and can be directly recovered.

Arizona Department of Water Resources: The state agency responsible for enforcing the Groundwater Management Act and issuing recharge and well permits.

Direct recharge: Process in which water is applied to the ground or injected through a well to store water underground.

Groundwater: Water under the surface of the ground.

Groundwater savings facility: Usually an irrigation district permitted to receive a surface water supply in lieu of pumping groundwater, thus saving groundwater.

Indirect recharge: Another term for the recharge at a groundwater savings facility.

Irrigation district: A political subdivision of the state, created to provide water and drainage services to a group of farmers.

Long-term storage account: A regulatory account created by the Arizona Department of Water Resources to track long-term storage credits.

Long-term storage credit: Created through recharge, the credits entitle the holder to recover stored water from a well.

Non-potable: Unsuitable for drinking water.

Potable: Suitable for drinking water.

Recharge: A means of storing excess water supplies underground so they may be used in the future.

Reclaimed water: Treated wastewater.

Recovery: Pumping long-term storage credits from a well.

Safe yield: A condition where groundwater pumping is equal to or less than natural and artificial recharge of the aquifer.

Surface water: Water on the ground’s surface, such as a stream, river, or lake.

Underground storage facility: A permitted facility for direct recharge, usually specially constructed infiltration basins or injection wells.