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Arizona Democrats champion rural water conservation plan, urge support from GOP lawmakers

Prescott Mayor Phil Goode.
Howard Fischer/Capitol Media Services
Prescott Mayor Phil Goode.

Arizona Democrats and local Republican officials championing a plan to protect rural groundwater are urging GOP lawmakers at the Capitol to join them.

Bills sponsored by Democrats in both chambers of the state Legislature would establish five protected Rural Groundwater Management Areas around basins, where pumping would be subject to conservation rules.

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“Politicians have not taken serious action in rural Arizona since the Groundwater Management Act passed in 1980. Our world is much different today than it was then, and our laws need to reflect the changing environment and needs of rural communities,” Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs said on Thursday.

If the bill is signed into law, it would immediately establish RGMAs in the Gila Bend, Hualapai Valley, Ranegras Plain and San Simon basins.

Democrats and local Republicans from rural parts of the state say they believe the legislation will get bipartisan support, even though previous negotiations over a similar bill introduced last year ended with partisan divisions at the state Capitol.

The RGMAs would be run by five-member councils. Four of the five would have to reside in the area. One would be picked by the governor, and the other four would be selected by the governor from a list of three names put up by the speaker of the House, Senate president and the minority leaders of both chambers of the Legislature.

The council members would be able to adjust their conservation programs every 10 years in response to their progress.

The bill also requires the director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources to review all groundwater basins without protections periodically to see if they meet the requirement to become new RGMAs.

Republican Mohave County Supervisor Travis Lingenfelter.
Howard Fischer/Capitol Media Services
Republican Mohave County Supervisor Travis Lingenfelter.

At a press conference on Thursday, Republican mayors and supervisors from Kingman, Willcox, Coconino County, La Paz County, Yavapai County and Santa Cruz County stood with Democrats.

Prescott Mayor Phil Goode said this should be a bipartisan issue.

“Make no mistake, I am a conservative, active Republican, but this issue is not a partisan issue. Last time I checked, there wasn't Democratic water and Republican water. There’s water for our state,” Goode said.

The bill will have to get Republican support to make it through the state Legislature, because it has to go through the House and Senate natural resources committees - both chaired by Republicans who have blocked similar legislation in the past.

But if the bill doesn’t get past Republicans this year, Hobbs warned that she’s willing to designate those groundwater basins under a different kind of protected status which GOP lawmakers strongly oppose - known as Active Management Areas.

AMAs are not designed for rural areas, which is why lawmakers all agreed they want a rural alternative like the RGMAs in the first place.

The governor says she’s the first to admit that AMA’s aren’t an ideal solution for places like Willcox, but doubled down, saying she’ll make more if it’s the only option she’s left with.

“As governor, I have taken more action to protect our water than has happened in the decades since the Groundwater Management Act, because it is imperative that we do so. And I'm not going to sit by and let out of state corporations exploit our resources and we’re going to take action,” Hobbs said.

The Democrats’ proposal would also transform the recently established Willcox AMA into an RGMA. That’s something Republicans presumably would prefer, since they accused Hobbs of going too far with the Willcox AMA.

“Make no mistake, I am a conservative, active Republican, but this issue is not a partisan issue. Last time I checked, there wasn't Democratic water and Republican water. There’s water for our state."
Prescott Mayor Phil Goode

The threat of Hobbs potentially creating even more AMAs in rural areas could be the thing that budges Rep. Gail Griffin (R-Hereford), the chair of the House natural resources committee.

Republican Mohave County Supervisor Travis Lingenfelter said Griffin has been a problem, but the possibility of reversing the Willcox AMA would be a win for her.

“I don’t think Rep. Griffin wants to see a bunch of new AMAs popping up in rural,” Lingenfelter said.

Hobbs said Thursday that she recently met with Griffin personally.

“I would characterize that meeting as positive,” Hobbs said.

One of the sticking points between Republicans and Democrats on this proposal last year was the idea of conservation caps, which Republicans wanted to implement. Democrats argued the bill wouldn’t do enough to protect groundwater that way.

Republican lawmakers on the natural resources committees in the House and Senate did not respond to requests for comment.

Senate Republican Communications Director Kim Quintero said no one had read the bill yet as of Thursday afternoon, because it was only filed a few hours earlier.

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Camryn Sanchez is a field correspondent at KJZZ covering everything to do with state politics.