Governor's water council submits management proposals, already faces lawmaker opposition

A state water policy council on Wednesday recommended legislation intended to prevent “wildcat” subdivisions from springing up without providing home purchasers an assured water supply.

The measure is intended to prevent a repeat of Rio Verde Foothills, a desert community neighboring Scottsdale that garnered national media attention when the city stopped allowing residents to collect water from a pipe tapping its municipal supply.

Most developments in the Phoenix area are covered by the state’s Groundwater Management Act, which requires a certificate of 100-year supply availability before construction. When landowners split property into five or fewer contiguous lots, however, they are exempt and can sell those lots without an assured supply.

The Governor’s Water Policy Council sent Gov. Katie Hobbs a recommendation to clamp down on who qualifies for such an exemption, largely by redefining “contiguous” to include lots that are situated across roads or in the same or adjacent 1-square-mile sections. It also would increase the fine for subdividing more than five contiguous lots without a water supply certificate, from $2,000 total to $2,000 per lot.

It's one of several recommendations that council members forwarded with an aim of preserving both rural and urban groundwater, while enabling continued growth and stopping a spate of publicity questioning the state’s sustainability.

“One bad headline affects all of Arizona,” said Haley Paul, a council member who works as a policy director for the National Audubon Society and co-chairs the Water for Arizona Coalition.

Suburban growth: Arizona says developers lack groundwater for big growth dreams in the desert west of Phoenix

Why rural management plan could be in trouble

The governor’s council includes dozens of water users, lawmakers, tribes, department heads and experts. Members broadly agreed on the wildcat provision but acknowledged more work lies ahead in hashing out details, such as whether a square mile is too large an area to restrict owners from developing more than five lots. Ultimately, the Arizona Legislature will decide.

Another closely watched recommendation went forward with less than total backing, though. The council generally supported a plan to bring a version of the urban groundwater code to rural Arizona, where industrial dairies, nut farms and hay exporters have attracted their own national headlines.

Outside of the urban centers, most of Arizona’s groundwater is largely unregulated, allowing anyone who owns or leases land to drill wells and pump without restriction.

The state can create what is known as an irrigation nonexpansion area, as it did in Mohave County to halt the unregulated growth of nut farming that had worried Kingman-area officials. And Douglas-area voters last year approved the extension of the state’s groundwater management authority to arrest the drawdown of their aquifer.

The council now suggests legislation that would enable the Department of Water Resources to create the new category of Rural Groundwater Management Area, where a local council would identify an area’s unique challenges and craft a plan to address them.

The council advanced that proposal, but a spokesperson for Rep. Gail Griffin, R-Hereford, read comments from her suggesting that she would oppose it at the Legislature. Griffin chairs the House Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee, and has blocked previous efforts to regulate rural water.

The council recommendation includes language saying that after the creation of a rural management area the Department of Water Resources would “identify and acknowledge existing groundwater users and uses in the basin from which the area goals’ and management plan’s progress can be monitored and measured.”

Griffin said she would not support any mandatory monitoring, metering or limitation on new wells.

'It's over': Arizona Corporation Commission approves long-term water fix for Rio Verde Foothills

Ideas 'don't go far enough' for some

The council also advanced a proposal that would fund and enable the department to offer rebates to groundwater users outside of management areas if they agree to report their use annually. The aim is to help the state track the use and condition of aquifers, according to department staffers.

While Griffin suggested that the recommendations go too far, others on the council said they would grudgingly accept them as first steps.

Kathleen Ferris, an Arizona State University water researcher and one of the architects of the groundwater law that applies in urban Arizona, noted that a Willcox-area resident had contacted her on Wednesday with an update of the latest threats to their stressed aquifer, including more nut farms moving in from California and a lithium mining company from Canada.

“We need to take care of the people who are living in these areas,” said Ferris, a former Department of Water Resources director.

Sandra Fabritz, another former Water Resources Department director, now working for Freeport-McMoRan mining, said legislators will eventually need to impose monitoring of groundwater use everywhere.

“I don’t believe this goes far enough,” she said.

Several tribes voiced support for all of the proposals and said protection of rural groundwater — with tribal participation — is long overdue.

“This is a monumental step to have tribes at the table,” Colorado River Indian Tribes Chairwoman Amelia Flores said.

Previously, the council recommended that the Water Resources Department enact a rule to streamline developers’ ability to build homes in parts of the Phoenix area currently restricted because of projected groundwater shortfalls. The rule would apply if the builders contribute new sources, such as recycled wastewater, to offset part of new residential demand.

That change won’t require legislative action, but the rulemaking process will take months. In a letter to the governor, Department of Water Resources Director Tom Buschatzke said this process will create “a pathway for water providers historically reliant on groundwater to grow incrementally on alternative supplies while reducing groundwater mining.”

Subscribe to AZ Climate: The Republic's environment and climate newsletter brings you more news like this in your mailbox every Tuesday.

'Major steps forward'

The council also recommended legislation that would close a loophole in the urban groundwater law that allows developers to build homes for rent, as opposed to for sale, without needing an assured water supply.

Hobbs responded with a written statement praising the council for compromising on "common sense solutions to our most pressing water policy challenges."

"Over the coming months, I’m confident that we will come together and continue in Arizona’s long tradition of responsible water management that has allowed our state to thrive," Hobbs said.

Seeking solutions: How much water can $200M help save? State agency sifts through dozens of project ideas

As the council finished its business on Wednesday, Buschatzke congratulated them while acknowledging the state’s water will need still more work.

“Addressing everything at once isn’t practical or possible,” he said. “Collectively, these are major steps forward.”

Brandon Loomis covers environmental and climate issues for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Reach him at brandon.loomis@arizonarepublic.com or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @brandonloomis.

Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Sign up for AZ Climate, our weekly environment newsletter, and follow The Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

You can support environmental journalism in Arizona by subscribing to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Proposals to plug leaks in Arizona water management head to governor