Kearny AZ Water Restrictions 2026

Current water restrictions in Kearny, Arizona

Update (June 2026): Kearny's allotment was revised upward from 60 to 77 acre-feet (from an original 600), pushing the projected shortfall to approximately August 1. A $1.2 million USDA grant is funding rehabilitation of north-side wells, with the first well expected operational soon, and town leaders are in discussions with ASARCO about additional supply. The emergency declaration now runs through December 31, 2026, and Coolidge Dam storage has fallen to just 19,700 acre-feet against a 910,000 acre-foot capacity.

Kearny is not under a watering schedule. Kearny is under Water Conservation Level 5WE — the highest classification in the town's emergency tier — and at the current rate of consumption, the town of approximately 2,000 residents will run out of running water on or around approximately August 1, 2026.

This page does not look like the other city pages on this site. There is no two-day-per-week schedule to follow, no allowed-hours window, no list of HOA-friendly drought-tolerant grasses. There is, instead, a single-page emergency: an 80 percent cut to Kearny's annual Gila River allotment, an emergency decree, a public warning from the mayor, and a countdown.

The numbers are stark. Kearny's usual annual Gila River allotment is roughly 600 acre-feet — the volume the town has always treated and distributed for residential, commercial, and municipal use. For 2026, the Gila River Water Commissioner cut that allotment to 60 acre-feet. Severe upstream drought, depleted reservoirs along the upper Gila system, and competing senior agricultural rights left the Commissioner with almost nothing to allocate to a small municipal user. Kearny has no backup source. There are no municipal groundwater wells, no Colorado River allocation through the Central Arizona Project (CAP) canal, no SRP reservoir share, no neighboring utility interconnect that could deliver bulk water at any meaningful volume. When the 60 acre-feet of allotted water runs out, there is no second source to draw from until a new allotment is issued.

The Town of Kearny declared a Stage 5WE Water Emergency in January 2026. The emergency decree banned all non-essential outdoor water use immediately. Despite the decree, citywide water use went up in the weeks that followed, leading Mayor Stacy to issue a public warning that brought the town's situation to national attention — coverage by FOX 10 Phoenix, CNN, 12 News, and outlets across the country. Residents are now asked to use water for sanitation and the support of life only.

If you live in or near Kearny, treat this page as a survival-rationing notice, not a watering-schedule reference. The next sections describe what is banned, what penalties apply, where the town's water comes from, and what residents are actually doing to conserve.

What is banned under Level 5WE

Level 5WE is not a "you can water two days per week" rule. It is a "you cannot water at all" rule, with the prohibitions extending well beyond landscape irrigation.

The following uses are completely prohibited:

• All outdoor landscape watering. Sprinkler irrigation, drip irrigation, soaker hoses, hand watering, and bucket watering of lawns, trees, shrubs, flowers, vegetable gardens, and any other planted area.
• Vehicle washing at home. No washing cars, trucks, RVs, boats, motorcycles, or trailers with a hose or any other water source on residential property.
• Pool filling. No filling, refilling, or topping off of swimming pools, hot tubs, kiddie pools, or splash pools.
• Sidewalk, porch, driveway, and patio washing. No hosing down hard surfaces for any reason.
• Decorative water features. Fountains, ornamental ponds, and waterfall features must be drained or shut off.
• New landscape installation. No new sod, no new plants, no new trees that require watering to establish.
• Construction water. Dust suppression on private projects, concrete mixing for residential pours, and other discretionary construction-water uses are not permitted.

The following essential uses remain permitted:

• Drinking and cooking water for residents and pets.
• Personal hygiene — bathing, dishwashing, laundry — though residents are asked to wash clothes 2 to 3 wears apart, take short showers (not baths), and run dishwashers and washing machines only with full loads.
• Toilet flushing, with conservation: every flush counts.
• Fire suppression through the municipal water system in a fire emergency.
• Medical needs for residents with documented requirements.

The Town has asked residents to think of water through a single test: "Is this use necessary to support life or preserve sanitation?" If the answer is no, do not use water for it.

Emergency-decree violations and penalties

Kearny's Level 5WE prohibitions are enforced under the town's declared emergency decree, not the standard year-round water-conservation ordinance that applies in normal times. Enforcement framework:

• First documented violation: formal notice from the Town of Kearny that the household or business is in violation of the emergency decree, with explanation of the prohibited use and a directive to stop immediately.
• Continued or repeat violation: escalating monetary penalties under the emergency decree. The decree authorizes the Town Manager and the Town Council to set penalty amounts proportional to the severity of the violation and the town's remaining water supply.
• Persistent or willful violation: the Town has authority under the decree to terminate water service to the property until conditions improve and the Council determines service can be safely restored.

To report a violation or ask compliance questions, call the Town of Kearny at 520-363-5547. The Town's position is that this is a community-survival situation; reporting is not adversarial, it is preservation of the shared supply that everyone depends on.

Other emergency conservation measures

Beyond the prohibitions, the Town has issued a list of conservation measures that residents are asked to implement immediately:

• Wear clothes 2 to 3 times before washing, when practical. Run washing machines only with full loads, on the shortest cycle that does the job.
• Shorten showers to 5 minutes or less. Avoid baths entirely.
• Run dishwashers only when fully loaded, on the shortest cycle. Avoid hand-washing under running water.
• "If it's yellow, let it mellow" — selective toilet flushing reduces total flush count by 50 percent or more in a typical household.
• Repair leaks immediately. A dripping faucet wastes 5 to 10 gallons per day; a continuously running toilet wastes hundreds.
• Capture cold-tap warm-up water in a pitcher for drinking or cooking rather than letting it run down the drain.
• Use disposable plates, cups, and utensils for the duration of the emergency to reduce dishwashing volume.

The town's schools, public buildings, and businesses are operating under the same restrictions. Local restaurants are using disposable service ware, public-restroom water-saver retrofits have been accelerated, and the town's parks are no longer irrigated — the trees and turf that have been there for decades will have to survive on what nature provides.

Where Kearny's water comes from

Kearny's water situation is unique in Arizona because the town has only one water source and that source has been cut to the bone.

The Gila River, originating in the mountains of southwestern New Mexico and flowing across southern Arizona, has supplied Kearny since the town was incorporated in 1959 to house workers at the nearby Ray copper mine. The town's rights are administered by the Gila River Water Commissioner, a federal officer appointed under the long-running Gila River adjudication who allocates the river's flow each year among senior and junior rights-holders. In a normal year, the Commissioner's allocation gives Kearny approximately 600 acre-feet — about 195 million gallons — enough to meet the town's residential, commercial, and municipal needs with a comfortable margin.

For the 2026 water year, the Commissioner cut Kearny's allotment to 60 acre-feet — a 90 percent reduction from the typical 600. Multiple factors drove the cut: persistent severe drought across the upper Gila watershed, depleted reservoir storage along the upstream system, demand from senior agricultural water rights that under Arizona law take precedence over a junior municipal user, and the cumulative effect of more than two decades of below-average flow on the river. By the time the allocation reached Kearny, only enough water remained to operate the town for a few months.

What Kearny does not have:

• No municipal groundwater wells. The town has historically relied entirely on Gila River surface water and never developed a backup well field. Drilling a usable well takes months at minimum, costs millions of dollars, and is not guaranteed to produce sufficient quality or quantity.
• No CAP allocation. The Central Arizona Project canal — which delivers Colorado River water across central Arizona — does not extend to Kearny. The town is too small and too far off the alignment to be part of CAP's service area.
• No SRP allotment. The Salt River Project serves the Phoenix metro and select areas in the Salt-Verde watershed; Kearny is not in SRP's service area.
• No regional interconnect at scale. Pinal County water utilities are not configured to deliver bulk water to Kearny; the existing infrastructure is sized for the town's normal demand only.

The single-source vulnerability that this creates was always known to the Town. What changed in 2026 is that the long-running drought finally drew down the system to the point where no senior rights-holder would yield enough flow to keep Kearny's small municipal allotment whole.

What happens if the water runs out

If conservation does not slow consumption sufficiently and no new allotment is received, Kearny will exhaust its supply on or around approximately August 1, 2026. The Town has been candid: there is no contingency plan that produces water at the volume the town normally consumes.

The realistic short-term scenarios under active discussion:

• Bottled-water distribution. The Town could coordinate with the State of Arizona, Pinal County, FEMA, and donor organizations to distribute bottled drinking water at central distribution points. This addresses survival drinking and cooking needs but does not provide water for bathing, laundry, sanitation, or fire suppression.
• Hauled bulk water. Tanker trucks could deliver treated water from neighboring utilities to fill Kearny's reservoirs. This is logistically feasible at low volumes but would cost the town and partner utilities millions of dollars and would not match normal demand.
• Emergency interconnect. The State and CAP could explore an emergency pipeline or interconnect to bring CAP water to Kearny. The engineering and permitting timeline for any new interconnect is measured in years, not months — this is a long-term solution, not a July-15 solution.
• Renegotiated allotment. The Gila River Water Commissioner could reissue or augment Kearny's 2026 allotment if upstream conditions change or if senior rights-holders agree to lease water to the town. This is the cleanest legal path but depends on factors largely outside the town's control.
• Population displacement. If no other path produces water in time, residents would have to relocate temporarily — a scenario the Town and Pinal County are working to avoid.

The State of Arizona, through the Arizona Department of Water Resources, is monitoring the situation closely. Federal involvement could come through FEMA, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, or congressional appropriation if the town's situation reaches the threshold for declared federal emergency.

HOA, lawn, and landscape under Level 5WE

The conventional discussion of HOA rules and brown-lawn protections — Arizona Revised Statutes § 33-1902 (drought-shortage protection) and § 33-1817 (xeriscape and desert-landscaping rights) — is largely beside the point in Kearny right now. There should not be a lawn under irrigation in town. Anyone running an HOA in Kearny who attempts to enforce a green-lawn covenant during Level 5WE is asking residents to violate the emergency decree.

For the record: ARS § 33-1902 prohibits HOAs from enforcing covenants that require landscape irrigation inconsistent with municipal or state water-conservation orders during a declared shortage. ARS § 33-1817 protects homeowner rights to install xeriscape and desert-adapted plants. These statutes apply in Kearny exactly as they do anywhere else in the state. But under Level 5WE, the question is academic: no one should be irrigating any landscape, period.

Mature landscape trees that have been established for many years — older mesquites, ironwoods, and palo verdes — have deep root systems and may survive a single dry summer without supplemental watering. Younger trees and ornamental shrubs may not. The Town has not asked residents to choose, but the math is clear: the town's water has to go to drinking, sanitation, and fire suppression first; everything else, including beloved trees, comes after.

Questions residents are asking

What happens on approximately August 1 if nothing changes?

If consumption continues at current levels and no new Gila River allotment is received, Kearny exhausts its treated-water supply. There is no backup source. The Town would have to coordinate emergency bottled-water distribution and hauled bulk water with state and federal partners. Bathing, laundry, dishwashing, and fire suppression would all be severely impacted. There is no scenario in which the taps continue to flow normally without a new water source.

Can I haul water in from outside Kearny for my own use?

Personal hauling of drinking water in jugs and containers is legal and is something some residents are already doing. Hauling bulk water (tanker-load volumes) for landscape irrigation or pool filling on private property is not a violation of municipal water rights, but it does not address any of the town's problems and is not a meaningful response. The Town's conservation request applies regardless of the source of the water you use on your property — outdoor irrigation is banned regardless of whether the water came from the municipal system.

Is there a boil-water advisory?

No. Kearny's remaining water is treated to drinking-water standards under normal Arizona Department of Environmental Quality protocols. The emergency is about supply quantity, not water quality. If a water-quality issue develops, the Town will issue a separate boil-water advisory through normal public-notification channels.

Will the State of Arizona intervene?

The Arizona Department of Water Resources is monitoring the situation and coordinating with the Town and the Gila River Water Commissioner. The state has limited authority to override the Commissioner's allocation decisions but can provide technical assistance, emergency funding, and logistical support. The Governor's office has authority to declare a state-level emergency, which would unlock additional resources and potentially trigger federal involvement.

If I'm a Kearny resident, what should I be doing right now?

Stop all outdoor water use immediately. Implement the indoor conservation measures listed above — short showers, full-load laundry, selective flushing, full-load dishwashing. Repair every leak, no matter how small. Capture cold-tap warm-up water for reuse. Stay informed through the Town's official channels and the local news. Consider the location of your nearest emergency water-distribution point if one is established. Help neighbors, especially elderly residents, comply with the conservation measures.

What if I'm visiting Kearny — passing through, staying with family, or working in town?

The same prohibitions apply. Do not wash vehicles, do not water any landscape, do not fill pools, do not hose down driveways or patios. If you are renting a property short-term, the property owner is responsible for ensuring guest compliance with the emergency decree.

How do I report a violation or get help?

Call the Town of Kearny at 520-363-5547. The Town has asked residents to report violations not as adversaries but as stewards of a shared and dwindling supply. Help is available for residents who cannot comply for medical or other documented reasons.

What days can I water my lawn in Kearny?

No outdoor watering of any kind Hand watering with a shut-off nozzle is typically allowed any day during permitted hours.

What time can I water in Kearny?

Watering is allowed N/A — outdoor use completely prohibited. Watering outside these hours is a violation even on your assigned day.

What are the fines for watering violations in Kearny?

First offense: Violation of emergency decree. Repeat violations: Escalating penalties, potential service termination. Contact Town of Kearny for the full enforcement schedule.

When will water restrictions end in Kearny?

Current Level 5WE — Water Emergency (Extended Through Dec 31, 2026) restrictions are in effect through December 31, 2026 (unless modified by Town Council). Monitor https://www.townofkearny.com for the latest status.

Can I hand water during Kearny water restrictions?

Yes. Hand watering with a hose fitted with a shut-off nozzle is generally allowed on any day during permitted hours. Drip irrigation and soaker hoses are also typically exempt from the day-of-week schedule. Confirm specifics with Town of Kearny.