Committee shelves bill on groundwater
State Senate panel hears impassioned arguments
State senators heard impassioned pleas from supporters of proposed legislation that would make it easier for Arizona water regulators to limit welldrilling in farming areas where groundwater levels are falling. But in the end, the bill was set aside, its future uncertain.
The measure would enable the director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources to look at projected future groundwater pumping, instead of only current water use, in deciding whether to form a new “irrigation non-expansion
area,” or INA, barring further growth of irrigated lands.
Representatives of Mohave County and the city of Kingman voiced strong support on Thursday as the Senate Water and Agriculture Committee considered the legislation, Senate Bill 1635, which was introduced by Sen. Lisa Otondo, D-Yuma.
Representatives of the agriculture industry spoke in opposition.
But the committee, which is chaired by Republican Sen. Sine Kerr, held only an informational hearing and didn’t take up the measure for a vote.
That means the bill won’t move forward in the Senate, though supporters say they will continue pushing for the change, which they argue is crucial to begin to address problems of groundwater overpumping and declining aquifers in rural areas.
Otondo said she was disappointed the committee didn’t vote on the measure but thanked Kerr for allowing a discussion.
The crux of the problem, Otondo said, is that the Arizona Department of Water Resources can consider only current pumping rates and doesn’t have the purview to look into the future, even in areas where farmlands are expanding and the stresses on groundwater are growing.
“In areas like Mohave, their groundwater is dropping rapidly, rapidly,” Otondo said. “And yet the tools aren’t available to protect the farmers, the cities and the people who live there. That I find very disturbing.”
Growing calls for changes
The measure is one of 12 bills that legislators have proposed this year to strengthen groundwater rules and oversight in unregulated areas where Arizona doesn’t limit well-drilling or pumping. The bills range from a proposal that would allow county leaders to create new “rural management areas” to legislation that would require owners of large wells across the state to measure and report how much water they’re pumping.
The proposals follow an investigation by The Arizona Republic that revealed how unregulated pumping by expanding farms has been draining groundwater in rural areas, while homeowners and farming towns have been left with mounting costs as wells go dry.
The investigation revealed that large corporate farms and investors have been dramatically expanding their operations in Arizona. The number of newly drilled wells has been accelerating, and the largest declines in groundwater have occurred in farming areas where there are no limits on pumping.
The bills now before the Legislature would be the most significant changes for rural areas since Arizona adopted its Groundwater Management Act in 1980. It’s not clear how many of the measures may be heard or voted on.
Rep. Regina Cobb, R-Kingman, told the Senate committee she supports Otondo’s bill.
Cobb pointed out that Mohave County leaders several years ago asked state regulators to step in and prohibit the expansion of irrigated farmlands in areas where groundwater levels were declining. But state officials rejected the request, citing the limitations in the groundwater law.
Earlier this month, Mohave County supervisors voted again to ask ADWR to form an irrigation non-expansion area, which would bar landowners from irrigating additional land in parts of the county and would require owners of large wells to report how much water they’re pumping. But Cobb said as the law stands, it prevents state officials from addressing the problem proactively.
Aquifers in rapid decline
Mohave County Supervisor Gary Watson said many people in the area fear that their underground water supply — the only source they have — is being swiftly depleted.
Watson cited the findings of a new state-commissioned study that projected some of the desert aquifers in the Kingman area could fall to critical lows within about 60 or 70 years. In one area, he noted that the researchers determined the aquifer could drop to a critical threshold of 1,200 feet underground in as little as 58 years.
“We can’t wait 50 years. We’re going to be running out of water in a short amount of time,” Watson said.
Farms have expanded rapidly near Kingman during the past decade on lands that were previously used for cattle grazing. The farms began growing alfalfa, but in recent years have turned to other crops including pistachios, potatoes, onions and garlic.
Since 2010, well-drilling permits have been issued for 174 new high-capacity wells for farms in the Hualapai Valley groundwater basin in northwestern Arizona, Watson said.
If a new managed area were established in Mohave County, it would be the fourth in the state and the first to be created since 1981. The state would then prohibit the expansion of irrigation to new lands, while allowing groundwater pumping to continue on existing farmlands and lands where a “substantial capital investment” was made to begin farming during the preceding five years.
Watson said such a change would protect the growers who have operating farms.
“But the longer you wait to act, the more groundwater is spent and the less time we have,” Watson said.
‘We’re pumping Ice Age water’
Speaking for the Mohave County Water Authority and conversation groups that belong to the Water for Arizona Coalition, Patrick Cunningham said the proposal is crucial for protecting current farmers in areas where water is being depleted.
“If we allow additional pumping, our own farmers’ water will disappear,” Cunningham said. “The groundwater levels have reached such a level that it causes grave concerns Kingman.”
Cunningham suggested the proposal makes sense after the Legislature last year created two committees to study the groundwater situations in Mohave and La Paz counties.
He cited state figures showing the average water level in the Hualapai Valley groundwater basin dropped 125 feet between 1996 and 2016.
“We’re pumping Ice Age water deposited millennia ago in that basin in Hualapai Valley that cannot be replenished,” Cunningham said. “The aquifer is being pumped to the max.”
In Mohave County and other parts of Arizona, groundwater that has accumulated over thousands of years represents the only water source that communities can count on as the Southwest becomes hotter and drier with climate change.
Farms oppose bill, urge local efforts
for the city of
Patrick Bray of the Arizona Farm and Ranch Group spoke against the bill, saying he supports discussions about protecting groundwater but not in this way.
“The INA is solely a tool that will restrict groundwater water pumping on agriculture. And if a mine wants to open up in Mohave County, if there’s a power facility that wants to build, they can stick a straw in the ground and pump as much as they want,” Bray said.
He said in Cochise County, people have been attending community meetings to discuss the area’s declining water levels.
“They’re not running down here to the Capitol trying to get you all to solve the problem. The problem is local. It needs to be solved on a local basis,” Bray said.
Bray mentioned that his grandfather came to Arizona from Spain in 1951 to work in sheepherding, and said he understood Otondo’s farming family shares a similar background in her Basque immigrant ancestors.
“They were from out of the country, out of state. And so I think that we shouldn’t look at it that way,” Bray said. “Let’s focus on what the real issue is … do we have a problem facing those people in that community — not who’s pumping it, where they came from.”
Otondo replied: “With all due respect, our families do come from Spain and from humble beginnings, and comparing them to a megafarm from Saudi Arabia who has left its neighbors’ wells