The Arizona Department of Water Resources, known as ADWR, was slapped with a lawsuit this week by the Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson-based nonprofit arguing the agency isn’t doing its job to protect groundwater supplies in southern Arizona.
The city of Benson survives on groundwater and has a designation of 100 years assured water supply from ADWR. But, the Center for Biological Diversity wants ADWR to revoke that designation in light of the fact that groundwater levels are low.
The suit is brought by Robin Silver, the co-founder of the nonprofit.
“That aquifer is connected to the river, so by them sucking their aquifer down, it kills the northern part of the conservation area, that's the San Pedro River,” Silver said.
ADWR declined to comment.
Under Arizona state law, ADWR is required to review designations of assured water supply every 15 years, and then has the discretion to revoke that designation if the water supply is no longer adequate.
In Benson’s case — it’s been 17 years since ADWR reviewed the designation, but they’re in the process of doing that now, according to City Manager Greg Volker.
The Center for Biological Diversity’s lawsuit, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, asks ADWR to first conduct their review and then say definitively whether the city’s designation of assured water supply can be revoked. If not, the center then has a pathway to challenge ADWR’s decision.
“There’s not any questions about what the right decision should be, they should just be revoked,” Silver said.
He accused Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs of not wanting to make a decision.
Until recently, Silver said his group was meeting with the governor almost monthly, which he said amounted to a “frustrating waste of time.”
“We have a governor who is very environmentally weak,” he said.
Hobbs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Silver said his group has been in talks with ADWR and Hobbs since she was elected governor in 2022, and he thought they’d agreed to review the basin designation and protect the groundwater, but since being in office, Hobbs has only created one new Active Management Area — in a different groundwater basin.
Central to the lawsuit is the Villages at Vigneto — a proposed development which has been stalled by various issues and environmental concerns for the past 13 years.
In recent rulings, the Maricopa County Superior Court established minimum stream and groundwater levels the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area is entitled to, but the Center for Biological Diversity’s lawsuit claims those rights are already being violated by excessive water withdrawal.
More importantly, Silver argues that because the area’s water is "hydrologically connected” to the city’s aquifer - so increasing the amount of withdrawal from the Benson’s aquifer to support the Villages at Vigneto will invariably affect the conservation area.
Volker said the city aquifers are able to accommodate the development without affecting the basin.
“We use our own aquifers which are much deeper,” he said.
Silver’s concern isn’t that the Villages at Vigneto could find itself without an adequate water supply, but rather that it will damage millions of songbirds relying on the San Pedro Basin as a stop on their migration path. He’s dismayed that Hobbs did not designate the basin area as an Active Management Supply in which groundwater pumping would be restricted.
“I hope you’re hearing the frustration there. I mean my god can you name an area of Arizona that’s more biologically diverse and historically important? If we lose the San Pedro, those are millions of Neotropical songbirds that need that every year in their migration. There’s no other area in Arizona with similar value, and she just doesn’t care,” Silver said.
The lawsuit filed Monday marks the fourth against the Hobbs administration regarding the area’s water supply.
As of now, the Villages at Vigneto development is not being built.
“The company itself is waiting for that foundational funding they need to benign the development and of course lawsuits never help because when a lawsuit occurs and you have to defend your position and that costs money,” Volker said.
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The community of Globe is still fighting for help after FEMA denied its request for disaster aid last month to help rebuild from major flooding in September. -
The state has created a new active management area — the eighth in Arizona. That means there will now be rules on groundwater pumping in this basin, located in La Paz County in western Arizona. -
Multiple water line breaks continue to plague parts of the South Rim at Grand Canyon National Park. -
Arizona is considering pumping water from a desalination plant on the Gulf of California to boost its water supply, but would need buy-in from Mexico. -
Thursday marks the kickoff of the third annual International Atmospheric Water Harvesting Summit, hosted at Arizona State University.
