Legislature focuses on strengthening water rules

State legislators plan to tackle widespread problems of groundwater overpumping in rural Arizona this session, proposing bills that would make it easier to limit well-drilling in farming areas where residents have asked for help from the state to safeguard their dwindling water supplies.

At least four 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. More bills are expected to be introduced in the coming days.

The proposals follow an investigation by The Arizona Republic that revealed how unregulated pumping by expanding megafarms has been draining groundwater in rural areas, while homeowners and farming towns have been left with mounting costs as wells run dry.

The bills have come from both Republicans and Democrats, and the Legislature’s leadership has signaled interest. Republican House Speaker Rusty Bowers said last week that he is concerned about the problem of groundwater overdraft and expects there will be new water legislation this year.

“We’re really facing a groundwater crisis. We’re seeing water tables dropping around the state,” said Rep. Kirsten Engel, a Tucson Democrat who introduced three bills focusing on groundwater in unregulated rural areas.

The four bills announced would:

❚ Require large commercial wells to have meters installed to monitor water use statewide.

❚ Allow rural areas to opt in to metering wells in groundwater basins that counties declare to be threatened.

❚ Expand existing rules to require all developers of subdivisions statewide to be certified as having an adequate 100year water supply, instead of just in urban areas.

❚ Change rules for creating “irrigation non-expansion areas” (INA) to make it easier to limit well drilling.

Tracking the water

so far

Under Engel’s bill regarding INAs, state water regulators would gain the ability to look at projected future water use — not just current water use — in deciding whether to create a new “irrigation non-expansion area,” where the state would prohibit farms from irrigating additional acreage.

Engel wants to see the state require meters on all nonexempt wells statewide, including in areas where pumping isn’t regulated, to track how much water is being used, and by which large corporate farming operations.

“That’s got to be step one to find out … how much water is being used, by what entities and what kind of impact that is having on the aquifer,” Engel said. “If we’re really seeing large drops in the water table in certain areas, then I think we have to consider, do we want to put some restrictions on groundwater pumping in those areas?”

Without changes to the groundwater rules, she said, household well owners and small businesses could eventually face an “economic hit” in rural areas.

“We’re essentially looking at potentially giving over our groundwater to bigger corporate entities who can afford to dig these very deep wells. So, it’s really the economic survival of homeowners and small businesses,” Engel said.

Engel cited The Republic’s reporting for bringing to light the problems some well owners are confronting in areas where groundwater levels are dropping, and for documenting 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.

“Many of us have been talking about those articles. I’ve had constituents write me, talk to me after meetings about those articles,” Engel said. “I think what your reporting has shown is that not having any regulation at all has left us very vulnerable to overuse of our groundwater, and we’re seeing the impacts of that.”

The Republic’s six-part series featured an analysis of water-level records for more than 33,000 wells, including some records going back more than 100 years. 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 series also revealed that the number of newly drilled wells has been accelerating and that the largest drops in groundwater have occurred in farming areas where there are no limits on pumping.

Bills would overhaul 1980 act

Arizona established its system of regulating groundwater under the 1980 Groundwater Management Act, which established managed areas with limits on pumping and well-drilling in Phoenix, Tucson, Prescott and Pinal County. Other areas of the state were left without groundwater regulations.

Kathy Ferris, who helped draft the state’s original groundwater law, said if the bills are approved, they would be the most significant changes for rural areas since the law was adopted in 1980.

“If you are measuring and requiring to report your withdrawals to the department, we will start to get a much better handle on how much groundwater is being pumped and what actions are necessary to protect the groundwater that remains,” said Ferris, a senior research fellow at Arizona State University’s Kyl Center for Water Policy.

Ferris said if the Legislature gives the Department of Water Resources the authority to look at future water demands in creating new irrigation non-expansion areas, “they will be able to stop the prolific expansion of corporate agriculture, industrial agriculture in some of these threatened groundwater basins.”

“That is a huge fix for some of these areas,” Ferris added. “But it has to be done soon because otherwise more land will just come into cultivation.”

Rep. Regina Cobb, R-Kingman, is set to introduce a bill that would allow a county to declare a groundwater basin at risk and create a new “rural management area.” They would then ask the director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources to require meters on wells in that basin and conduct groundwater monitoring studies there.

“Every county has different water needs,” Cobb said. “There’s different things happening in each county. They are just a little bit different.”

Cobb said right now one of the few tools available in rural areas like Mohave County is to form a regulated “active management area” like the urban areas of the state. But residents and farmers don’t want something that restrictive, she said.

The only other remedy is to create an emergency INA, which was denied to Mohave County in 2016. The state ruled that not enough water had been pumped out of the aquifer. ADWR Director Tom Buschatzke said the law only allows him to look at water pumping that occurred in the past and not prospective pumping from large corporate farms.

“This allows us to do something in between,” Cobb said of her bill. “I think we need more tools than this, but this is one of the tools.”

Cobb said that Engel’s bill to meter all the wells in the state is going to face opposition because there are a lot of rural areas that “do not want any metering or monitoring.” Meanwhile, Cobb said her approach will allow rural areas to opt-in.

“If you feel you need it, then do it,” she said. “We’re not forcing everybody to do this.”

Cobb said she supports Engel’s bill to change the INA rules to allow for the director to look at potential future pumping when limiting drilling in an area.

“I’m 100 percent supportive of that,” Cobb said.

Support growing for changes

Bowers said last week that he expects there will be water legislation during this session. The House speaker told

The Associated Press he is troubled about groundwater supplies, especially the depletion of aquifers through overpumping.

“I am very concerned about overdrafting,” Bowers told the AP. But he said he doesn’t have enough facts to propose legislation just yet.

Cobb said she was happy to hear Bowers’ comments. “I know he feels we need to do it. I just didn’t know if he was ready to jump into it right now,” Cobb said. “It was refreshing to hear him say that.”

Gov. Doug Ducey briefly discussed water issues during his State of the State speech on Monday. He touted Arizona’s signing of a three-state deal last year to take less water from the dwindling Colorado River in an effort to boost the level of Lake Mead.

“We will continue to protect Lake Mead, the Colorado River, groundwater, and our ag jobs,” Ducey said. “We need a strategic ongoing effort to turn Arizona into the international capital for water innovation.”

Ducey didn’t elaborate on his thoughts about groundwater and farming in rural areas. He has voiced support for agriculture as a key industry for the state.

During a visit to Yuma last month, Ducey said: “There is enough water for all of our people right now.” He said it “can support the growth that we enjoy.”

“What I want to make certain is that we’re doing the proper planning and policies so that that can continue into the future,” Ducey said.

State water regulators previously proposed some of the same measures that have popped up in the bills this year. In 2017, the Department of Water Resources suggested legislation that would give the agency the ability to project water availability decades into the future when making decisions on limiting irrigation. The package of proposals also called for metering of wells outside managed areas.

But the department couldn’t get any legislators to take up the bills that year.

Ferris said there seems to be a lot more interest in tackling groundwater in the Legislature now.

“I think that that’s being motivated an awful lot by media coverage of areas where we know we have severe problems and where nothing is getting done,” Ferris said. “There’s more awareness on legislators’ parts, and I think there’s some agitation going on by citizens in some of those areas.”