Voters in southeast Arizona may split on a pair of initiatives that would have allowed them to form local boards to manage their groundwater supplies. Propositions 420 and 422 are similar measures for nearby rural districts, but early results suggest 422 could pass while 420 fails.

For much of rural Arizona, groundwater is the only source of water available. Yet most of it remains unregulated outside of the state’s largest metro areas.

Bills to address the problem in the Legislature have stalled without so much as a committee hearing. But a provision in Arizona’s groundwater law allows voters to form groundwater management areas.

So residents in parts of Cochise and Graham Counties got together to write local Propositions 420 and 422.