We conserve groundwater like it’s 1999

Groundwater use in Arizona’s rural areas gets a lot of attention — and for good reason. Heavy pumping with almost no restrictions is creating a recipe for disaster in those areas.

Less talked about is how woefully behind groundwater management planning is in metro Phoenix.

We have until 2025 to reach the goal of safe yield — which generally means we replenish as much groundwater as we pump out. It’s a critical goal, because groundwater is a limited resource, and we are facing an even drier future.

Yet the Phoenix area isn’t getting any closer to reaching safe yield. Nor have we updated the water conservation requirements that were supposed to help get us there.

The Arizona Department of Water Resources — which is tasked with developing these plans each decade — was slashed heavily during the Great Recession. Negotiating the Drought Contingency Plan heavily taxed the staff that was left.

So, while the fourth round of management plans were put in place for Tucson and Prescott, those for the Phoenix, Pinal and Santa Cruz active management areas were left on the back burner.

Now that the department has more resources to rebuild its staff, it is picking up where we left off in 1999. (Yes, metro Phoenix is still operating off its third plan, which was passed in 1999. Let that sink in.)

We can’t make up for that lost time. But the goal is to quickly (well, quickly in water-industry time) pass the remaining fourth management plans — which were supposed to start in 2010 — and move on to the fifth management plans, which were supposed to start in 2020.

Phoenix’s fourth management plan will be unveiled July 11 and should get its final approvals next year, barring any major protests. A larger fight may occur next year over Pinal’s fourth management plan, where groundwater issues are even more acute, followed by a comparably tame Santa Cruz plan in 2021.

In the meantime, separate committees are forming to talk about what should be in the fifth management plans, and what happens to all of this after 2025.

Phoenix’s fourth plan doesn’t drastically ratchet up conservation requirements, but it does contain some controversial measures — not necessarily for what they’ll do to farmers and cities now, but for the precedent they may set later.

Already, some users see red flags in how the plan aims to cut groundwater allotments for the highest water-using farmers and limit turf size for schools, parks and homeowners’ associations. Expect much more debate on these provisions in coming months.

More fundamental issues will play out as the fifth management plans take shape. That includes a deeper dive into how exactly “safe yield” should be calculated, and whether we can bring any sort of clarity to Pinal’s nebulous management goal, which instead of reaching safe yield is to preserve agriculture for as long as feasible while saving water for other uses.

How does that work when Pinal farmers lose their Colorado River water and once again rely solely on groundwater? There are a lot more residents now depending on that same water. Something’s got to give.

This may seem like a daunting and grim task — particularly because we have such little time to complete it. It’s troubling that not even the experts can say with certainty where we are on groundwater use.

We need much more detailed data to figure out how much more we should ask of users, and how quickly we thrust these changes on them.

What gives me hope is we’ve learned to hold regular public meetings where various users can hold each other accountable. People with diverse viewpoints are at the table, and they’re interested in having difficult conversations.

It’s telling that the idea to study Pinal’s management goal came from water users, knowing full well how thorny this issue will be for them.

If we can sustain that attitude, Arizona will have plenty to show for the effort.