Rural groundwater conservation plans failed this year in the GOP-controlled Arizona Legislature

At the beginning of the year, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs introduced a plan to conserve shrinking rural groundwater supplies. But that, and similar efforts, died in the GOP-controlled Legislature.

In rural areas of the state, many communities rely on dwindling groundwater supplies where there are no restrictions on water pumping.

Rural Republicans stood with Hobbs in January when she announced her plan to address the problem by creating rural management areas around endangered groundwater basins where pumping would be restricted. But it didn’t get consideration by legislative Republicans.

Hobbs said Tuesday that she hasn’t given up.

“We made progress and we’ve clearly shown the support for this kind of legislation exists across the state and that rural Arizonans want something done and we’ll continue to find a way to get that done,” she said.

Sen. Tim Dunn (R-Yuma) also introduced his own rural groundwater protection plan, but it too died.

Dunn said he plans to have more meetings on rural groundwater between now and the start of next year’s legislative session. He said he and Hobbs’ office couldn’t reach agreement on how much water basins should have to conserve.

“We are still negotiating and some of the proposed areas have different opinions amongst their elected officials,” he said in a text.

Rural communities may face higher water costs soon if lawmakers don’t come to a bipartisan solution.

Mohave County Supervisor Travis Lingenfelter said dwindling water supplies will force rural communities to build new wells and water treatment infrastructure which will raise water prices.

“If that starts to happen in rural areas we’re going to see some public health crises with people that aren’t able to afford their water. It's not going to be affordable to them so we’re trying to stave that off for as long as we can,” Lingenfelter said.

He said it’s hard not to be frustrated by legislative inaction on rural groundwater.

“If you don't have any tools to regulate then you really can’t offer your citizens any sort of certainty when it comes to their long term water planning. It's going to affect down the road economic development and quality of life and a bunch of other things,” he said.

Lingenfelter had hoped that Hobbs would use the popular “ag-to-urban” legislation as a bargaining chip to protect urban groundwater to get lawmakers to pass rural groundwater.

Ag-to-urban was widely supported by the urban community, and Lingenfelter saw it as a chance to leverage something for rural Arizona too. That bill passed and Hobbs signed it into law.

But Hobbs wouldn’t say whether she tried to leverage ag-to-urban.

to Lingenfelter, most of the blame goes to Rep. Gail Griffin (R-Hereford). She’s the chair of the House Natural Resources Committee which considers all water-related legislation, and Lingenfelter says she’s the roadblock.

Griffin doesn’t respond to requests for comment.

Lingenfelter said rural stakeholders have tried to talk to Griffin, but said she’s “beholden” to the Arizona Farm Bureau, which protects the interests of farms.

“If a chair of a committee doesn’t want your bill to advance or to move forward or to go to the entire legislature the entire House or Senate then it’s not going anywhere because they’ll kill your bill they just wont give it a hearing and that’s exactly what’s happened session after session after session with Gail Griffin,” he said.

Lingenfelter accused the Arizona Farm Bureau of representing out-of-state mega-farming operations over the interests of smaller ranching families.

“They don't want any regulations because it is going to affect them. Even if it hurts our multigenerational small businesses and our residences it’s not real in their business plan to look out for those folks right and that’s kind of the scary part,” he said.

Lingenfelter said he supports putting the issue of rural groundwater protection to voters by way of a ballot measure rather than continuing to lobby for help at the state Capitol as he has for nearly a decade.