Ducey defends AZ record on water
Governor acknowledges state has ‘more to do’
Gov. Doug Ducey is touting Arizona’s record on water while also acknowledging the state has “more to do” in some areas.
Ducey talked about water policies this week in an interview for The Arizona Republic’s podcast The Gaggle.
National political reporters Ronald J. Hansen and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez asked the governor about the findings of an investigation by The Arizona Republic that revealed how unregulated pumping by large corporate farms has been draining groundwater in rural areas, while nearby homeowners have been left with mounting costs as wells run dry.
Ducey said The Republic’s reporting “has been good.” But he took issue with Hansen’s suggestion that he seems to be acting slowly in addressing problems in rural areas where groundwater is being drawn down by large farms, some of which export their crops out of the state or overseas.
“I want to challenge back here,” Ducey said. “To say we’ve procrastinated on water, we passed the Drought Contingency Plan last year. It was the most comprehensive water legislation in 40 years in the state of Arizona.”
Under that three-state agreement, Arizona is starting to take less water from the Colorado River this year to help reduce the risk of Lake Mead falling to critically low levels.
Ducey has previously pointed to Arizona’s progress over the years in using less water even as its population has rapidly grown.
“Nobody is better in the country than Arizona at water. We’re basically the fastest-growing state, number one inbound state in the nation,” Ducey said.
“Maricopa County is for the third year running the fastest-growing county in the nation, in the middle of a desert,” the governor added. “And everybody that’s moving here is building a pool and planting a front lawn. So, we have thought ahead here. Our state is in a good position, but we do have situations in specified areas.”
‘There is enough water in Arizona’
The Republic’s investigation documented the struggles of families in rural areas who have turned to hauling water to their homes after their wells went dry. The six-part series also revealed the growing footprint of out-of-state companies and investment funds that have set up vast farms in Arizona to grow hay, corn, pistachios and other crops.
The investigation involved an analysis of water-level records for more than 33,000 wells across the state. The analysis showed that water levels in nearly a fourth of the wells in Arizona’s monitoring program have dropped more than 100 feet since they were drilled, a loss that experts say is probably irrecoverable. The data revealed major declines in unregulated areas where large corporate farms have been expanding their operations.
As the state Legislature begins its new session, both Republicans and Democrats are proposing reforms that would enable Arizona to start measuring how much groundwater is pumped in unregulated rural areas. At least six bills have been filed or are planned to strengthen groundwater rules and oversight in rural areas where there are no limits on pumping and where water levels have fallen dramatically.
Ducey also mentioned a need for water-related reforms.
“There is enough water in Arizona. There is not always the right amount of water in every location in our state,” he said. “And so, some different reforms are going to need to be passed.”
Ducey didn’t elaborate on what those reforms might include. When he delivered his State of the State speech at the Capitol this week, the Republican governor said: “We will continue to protect Lake Mead, the Colorado River, groundwater, and our ag jobs.”
Ducey was elected governor in 2014 and was reelected in 2018. He has voiced support for agriculture as a key industry for the state. He has promoted discussion about water policies through his Water Augmentation, Innovation and Conservation Council, and has called for Arizona to be a leader in “water innovation.”
In his interview on The Gaggle, Ducey indicated he is interested in continuing to work on long-term water strategies.
“We don’t want to deal with this one generation at a time. It should be focused, strategic and ongoing in terms of water innovation. But nobody could top our water record,” Ducey said.
He took an apparent jab at water policies in Democratic-led California, while also taking issue with what he called “misreporting” about water in the West.
“When you’re saying, ‘Hey, there’s a Western water crisis,’ no there’s not. There is a California water crisis. There is no crisis in Arizona,” Ducey said.
“We do have some things that we need to deal with, and on some of these new things that are twists or curveballs … this is a place where it is the role for government, on how do we protect this most valuable of state assets that actually allows and sustains life here,” he said. “And I think we’ve got a good record on it, and we’ve got more to do this session.”
Reforms proposed as pressures mount
The ancient water in Arizona’s desert aquifers was laid down over thousands of years and represents the only water that many rural communities can count on as the Southwest becomes hotter and drier with climate change. Rising temperatures have also been intensifying dry spells in the Southwest and are contributing to declines in the flow of the Colorado River, which supplies Arizona’s urban areas from Phoenix to Tucson.
While the Colorado River deal has earned widespread praise as a historic step toward propping up the river’s reservoirs, Arizona’s plan for implementing the deal also drew criticism from some experts and environmentalists.
Detractors have faulted the plan for relying on a strategy that involves promoting groundwater pumping by providing funding to help drill more agricultural wells in hard-hit Pinal County — even as state officials’ projections show the growing area doesn’t have sufficient groundwater to meet all projected water demands over the next century.
Arizona established its system of regulating groundwater under the 1980 Groundwater Management Act, which created “active management areas” with limits on pumping and well-drilling in Phoenix, Tucson, Prescott and Pinal County. Other areas of the state were left without rules limiting pumping or well-drilling.
In these unregulated areas, where large industrial farms have expanded in recent years, Arizona law doesn’t require well owners to disclose how much water they’re using.
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have suggested changing that through bills that would enable the state to start requiring meters on wells in unregulated rural areas to measure how much water is extracted.
Under one bill introduced by Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, the director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources would be able to require that measuring devices be installed on wells and that well owners submit annual reports on water use. The bill would allow the state to require metering of wells in an area if the ADWR director “determines it necessary for water management purposes.” Small household wells would be exempt.
Growth tests rules in urban areas
Ducey didn’t discuss the new proposals in the Legislature. But he said: “We’re not done. And you know, you’re never done on water.”
“In Arizona, we try to think — it sounds insane — but it’s a hundred years ahead,” Ducey said. “You want to have a hundred-year water supply before you break ground to frame a house. And that’s been excellent policy. That policy won’t change. It’ll only improve under my watch.”
He was referring to the rules inside Arizona’s “active management areas,” or AMAs, where developers of subdivisions are required to show they have a state-certified “assured water supply” for 100 years.
The Republic’s analysis showed average water levels measured in wells across all of the state’s active management areas have risen slightly since 1980, in large part because of water imported from the Colorado River. But not every basin in active management areas has seen gains. In more than half the subbasins in managed areas, average water levels have declined since the 1980s even with additional imported water and restrictions on groundwater pumping.
And even though the 1980 law set a goal of reaching “safe yield” in each AMA by 2025 — a long-term balance between the water that’s pumped out and the amount going back into aquifers — the latest data show that the managed areas are either not on track to achieve this target or struggling to get there.
In a recent report, water researchers at Arizona State University examined the set of water rules that has fueled rapid growth in Arizona’s suburbs and found the system is riddled with weaknesses. They recommended an overhaul to protect homeowners from rising costs and to ensure sufficient water supplies for the future.
Ducey didn’t address those points but noted that in 2016 he vetoed two bills that would have weakened a measure under which counties in unregulated areas have passed their own ordinances requiring developers to get state certification of an adequate 100-year water supply.
“I would never let that policy morph so that we could just have faster growth for growth’s sake,” Ducey said. “That would be irresponsible. That would be a sugar high.”
‘This is Arizona’s water’
When he was asked what kind of legislation he would support to regulate well-drilling in areas where groundwater levels have been dropping, Ducey emphasized a need for dialogue.
“Whenever you’re talking about these water situations, and even when it’s in our out counties, you do need to bring all the people to the table,” he said.
The governor said the Colorado River deal was an example. Representatives of tribes, the homebuilding industry and the agriculture industry deserve credit, he said, for reaching a deal that was “a little bit difficult for everyone.”
“It’s going to be the same way on solving some of these other situations,” Ducey said.
He then turned his focus back to the first question, about how some corporate farms are pumping Arizona’s groundwater and exporting their crops.
“When you’re talking about some of the farms where there’s exporting, I’m somebody who believes in the free market,” Ducey said. “But you can’t take something that sustains life in Arizona and take that out of the state. I mean, this is Arizona’s water and I want to keep it in the state of Arizona.”
Have a tip to share? Reach reporter Ian James at ian.james@arizona republic.com or 602-444-8246. Follow him on Twitter: @ByIanJames.
Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Follow The Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.