Government regulation is often viewed as intrusive and against the pioneering grain of the independent and sulf-sufficient settler, at least as this figure is understood in popular culture.
With a number of farmers drawing great quantities of water from a common source, a different strategy was needed than what prevailed during frontier days when settlers regulated and managed their water supplies. A successful conservation program at this larger scale called for an enlarged regulatory and water management role. Government took up the challenge and intervened, and politics of water conservation emerged.
Government regulation can be tricky business in Arizona. It is often viewed as intrusive and against the pioneering grain of the independent and self-sufficient settler, at least as this figure is understood in popular culture. For example, legislative hearings in 1947 regarding proposed groundwater legislation elicited the following remark from a farmer: "Who is going to tell me what to do and how to do it? If my land is destroyed through lack of water I want to destroy it myself; I don't want you to do it." This defiant statement expresses an attitude to contend with back then and to be considered even now, especially when regulation of natural resources is an issue.