Arizona committee advances measures to relax groundwater restrictions
Joe Duhownik
PHOENIX (CN) — As Arizona continues to over pump groundwater across the state, lawmakers advanced four measures Tuesday that would ease pumping regulations in active groundwater management areas.
Two of the bills approved by the Senate Natural Resources Committee Tuesday would allow farmers to irrigate land not already included in an active management area irrigation right if the land meets certain criteria.
The Groundwater Management Act of 1980 established five initial active management areas in Arizona — the cities of Phoenix, Prescott and Tucson, as well as Santa Cruz and Pinal counties — in which groundwater pumping is recorded and regulated, as opposed to pumping being entirely unregulated in other parts of the state.
In the last two years, the Department of Water Resources established two subsequent active management areas in southeastern Arizona in response to dramatic land subsidence and fissures caused by over pumping in and around the towns of Douglas and Wilcox.
In active management areas, land can only be irrigated if it was irrigated in any of the five years leading up to the establishment of the active management area.
House Bill 2202, sponsored by state Representative Gail Griffin, a Republican from Tucson, would allow a farmer to irrigate land that wasn’t previously irrigated if the land is adjacent to a parcel that had been irrigated, assuming the farmer doesn’t irrigate beyond the total volume of water granted to them by the rules of the active management area.
House Bill 2572, also sponsored by Griffin, allows a farmer who has a right to irrigate in an active management area to add additional acres of land to that irrigation right, so long as the additional acres are within the active management area and that the farmer doesn’t exceed the amount of water granted to them.
Sandy Bahr, director of Arizona’s chapter of the Sierra Club, generally denounced the bills in a committee hearing Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re opposed to almost all these water bills going through the process,” Bahr said. “What they need is reduced groundwater pumping. Not more loopholes.”
The committee voted 4-3 to approve those measures.
“This bill would allow more land to be irrigated where water is already running low,” state Senator Rosanna Gabaldón, a Democrat from Sahuarita, said of HB 2202. “It increases groundwater pumping. Adding new lands for irrigation means pulling more water from underground, even in areas already struggling with water shortages.”
The committee also approved Griffin’s House Bill 2088 and House Bill 2089, which would allow the director of Arizona’s Department of Water Resources or the citizens of an active management area, respectively, to eliminate the active management area if its goals are achieved.
Ben Alteneder, the legislative liaison to the Water Resources Department, said it’s unlikely that any active management area will return to normal water conditions.
“As the name suggests, active management is required, so a provision to remove these would be concerning,” he told the committee.
The committee approved the two bills in a 4-3 vote.
State Senator Priya Sundareshan voted against each of the four active management area bills, pleading with the Legislature to find new solutions for rural groundwater management.
“This bill along with plenty of the others we just heard are tinkering with subsequent AMAs,” she said of HB 2572. “We know that AMAs are not great for our rural areas. But rather than just tinkering with these subsequent AMAs and providing additional flexibility or loopholes, we must get together, negotiate, and come up with that comprehensive rural groundwater management solution that I know we want to find.”
As the once mighty Colorado River continues to dwindle through the driest period in its recorded history, Griffin sponsored a bill to ensure Arizona has a place at the bargaining table for future water reallocations. House Bill 2103 would allocate $1 million to litigation to defend Arizona’s rights to Colorado River water from both upper basin states and the federal government.
“It’s important that Arizonans stand united to defend the Colorado River entitlements,” Alteneder said. “We hope to not use this appropriation, but believe we can attain peace on the river through strength.”
The committee voted unanimously to send the bill to the Senate floor.
Finally, the committee voted four to three to pass House Concurrent Resolution 2046, declaring the Legislature’s support for improved forest management and the eradication of invasive salt cedars along the Colorado with the goal of increasing river flow.
“The Colorado River has been declining due to a number of factors including, significantly, climate change,” Sundareshan said. “This resolution denies all of those other causes in favor of simply salt cedars, and I vote no.”
The bills will soon be heard on the Senate floor and, if approved, sent to the governor's desk.