The future of groundwater has — once again — been a big topic of debate this year at the state Capitol. But, again as in past years, there hasn’t been agreement between the GOP-led Legislature and Gov. Katie Hobbs about the best way to handle the issue.
On top of that, Attorney General Kris Mayes has sued a foreign company, accusing it of creating a public nuisance because of the amount of groundwater it’s pumping to grow alfalfa.
Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services joined The Show to talk about what’s to come at the state Capitol.
Full conversation
HOWARD FISCHER: Once again, we've proved that whiskey's for drinking and water’s for fighting.
MARK BRODIE: Seriously. So let's go back into the Wayback machine briefly here to the 1980 Groundwater Management Act, which at the time was a really big deal, but has kind of led us to where we are now, right?
FISCHER: Well, it has. I mean, there was an understanding, you know, in the late ‘70s when they started crafting the Groundwater Act, that the most serious concerns were in the urban areas, and that's why they created five initial active management areas where the desire was to limit the amount of pumping, particularly since some of the areas will have access or did have access to CAP water, and to say to folks, you have to find other ways to, to save.
Now, there was always an understanding that you could create future AMAs and in fact they did do that in Douglas by their own vote. Wilcox had one imposed on them. But the problem has become AMA's are fairly rigid structures and you don't necessarily have as much local input as you'd like to have. In fact, the AMA's are created in most cases by the Department of Water Resources, and folks don't like having the, you know, Tom Buschatzke, who's the director there, saying, here's how you're going to do it.
So they've been trying to figure out, how do they deal with the problem? As you point out, there are certain areas in Arizona where they're overdrafting groundwater. You know, there's ground subsidence in the Wilcox area in La Paz County, you know, they're going ahead and they're, you know, losing water for, wells are drying up. And so the, the trick has been, how do you find something that works in rural areas that rural residents like but still preserves water?
BRODIE: Well, and Howie, this has been a fairly big topic of discussion at the Capitol, and there have been a number of ideas that have been put forward both by Republican legislators, also by Gov. Katie Hobbs and her task force, but they can't really seem the two sides, or maybe more than two sides can't really seem to get on the same page in terms of how best to make sure that there is groundwater going forward and no one entity is pumping too much of it.
FISCHER: Well, exactly, and part of the issue from the governor's perspective is you, you're putting out forest fires. I know it's sort of a mixed metaphor there with little things, you know, you're trying to say, well, we'll let this area form a water improvement district so that they can drill deeper wells and maybe have it go to a standpipe where people can pick up the water and put it into their, you know, their vehicles.
They, there are issues in terms of, you know, modified AMAs where you're going ahead and forming some sort of regulation. And so that what the governor's done is the only thing within her power, which is to form full-blown AMA's like in Gila Bend and in Wilcox.
But it's really hard to come up with something comprehensive that works statewide. And she has vetoed a series of bills this year, where she said, you know, you're just kicking the can down the road. You, you're, you're, you're avoiding the issue.
And sometimes they, even the lawmakers have even proposed exceptions. For example, there was a bill that said we're going to allow grape growers in Willcox to go ahead and continue taking water because, well, that's important to industry.
The governor wants to use a Trump expression, one big grand bill, but it's really hard to put everything behind that because there's so many diverse interests. So all she can do really, besides telling her water director to form AMAs is view with alarm. In fact, she's going later this week to stand just outside the Fondomonte farm in western Arizona near Vicksburg and, and complain about lawmakers.
Now this gets the issue of is there another option, and that's where Kris Mayes comes in.
BRODIE: Right. Well, so let's let's talk about that because she has sued Fondomonte on this, this idea which has not really been used in this way before, that they're creating a public nuisance by the amount of groundwater they're pumping.
FISCHER: Exactly. Even Mayes admits what Fondomonte is doing, what all rural farmers are doing, is legal. Under Arizona law, if you have property, you are pretty much entitled to pump as much groundwater as you can reasonably use.
Now, that ignores the fact that groundwater isn't just beneath your property and, and, and, you know, never mind the neighbors, but the, the, the crafters of the Arizona law have said, well, it doesn't matter if you de-water your neighbor's yard because of the fact that you're using it and you were perhaps using it first, even if you have the biggest well and the longest straw.
So she's using the theory that you are creating a public nuisance by going ahead and drying up your neighbor's wells, by having land subsidence. And as you point out, this is an untested theory. It has never been used in Arizona before in a successful method.
She has, you know, some theories about it, and, you know, she may very well be correct, but her other problem is now you find other farmers in other cities who are saying, wait, If she succeeds in going against an unpopular company, Fondomonte is a Saudi company and they're probably, you know, real easy target from a PR perspective. Do we become next? You know, once she has that precedent, who will she use it against? Will she use it against the city of Holbrook? Will she use it against some farm operation up in northwest Arizona?
And so this is going to be one big major issue. Eventually it's going to wind up with the Arizona Supreme Court. They have to decide what to do because my assumption is we will not come up with a comprehensive water plan in the Arizona Legislature in the near future.
-
A desalination plant on the California coast could help Phoenix and Tucson deal with Colorado River cuts. -
Residents of an Arizona retirement community who are preparing to see their water and sewage costs double are blaming the foreign investors who bought their local utility company – and the well-known Arizona developer who sold it to them. -
A federal proposal for Colorado River management would disproportionately hurt Arizona, according to water officials. -
Scientists in Sonora are searching for clues about what happened to missing whale populations — and what the creatures that do appear are trying to say about the health of their habitat. -
Cities and towns across Arizona would lose the ability to regulate some aspects of home design — both inside and out — under a bill scheduled to come up for debate in the state Senate on Monday.
