Just a few months after voters in Cochise County approved the Douglas Basin Actively Managed Area (AMA), the issue is being turned on them again.
A group in Cochise County collected enough valid signatures to put on the ballot a question asking voters to decide whether the Douglas AMA should be retained this November.
According to Cochise County Recorder David Stevens, 1,310 signatures are needed to successfully conduct another election that will decide the fate of the Douglas AMA. Only voters living in the Douglas Basin can vote on this question.
“We take a random sample, in this case 106 (signatures), verify them and derive a rejection rate out of that,” Stevens told AZPM Thursday morning. “Then we multiplied the total amount brought in, and if the number from that formula was higher than 1,310, we passed… 21.7% of the 106 failed.” “83 signatures. Received and 23 rejected, which translates to 459 signatures, subtracting that from (total) 2,117 gives a whopping 1,658 signatures and 1,310 needed was.”
Stevens said most of the 21.7% of rejected signatures were signed by people who were not registered to vote or who were illegible. Ballot questions are answered yes/no.
“If there is widespread support, the AMA will go back to what it used to be, the INA (No Irrigation Extension Area), which was much smaller than the AMA,” Stevens said. “And if it fails, the AMA will stay put.”
The recall effort was led by McNeil resident Ann Waters. AZPM reached out to Waters for comment, but he declined to answer questions about why he decided to file a petition to return the Douglas AMA to the ballot.
The Douglas AMA is the only AMA established by popular vote in Arizona, according to a spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR). In the 2022 general election, 52.52% of his voters voted “yes” for the Douglas AMA, while 44.14% voted “against.”
No other AMA in Arizona has ever been asked to be fired.
Four other AMAs, located in Prescott, Phoenix, Pinal County, and Tucson, were established in 1980 by the Arizona Groundwater Management Act passed by the Arizona Legislature. The fifth AMA, the Santa Cruz AMA, was established in 1994 by the US government. Some legislatures in areas once covered by the Tucson AMA, according to the Arizona Senate Matters Brief.according to Arizona lawthe region includes the upper Santa Cruz Valley subbasins.
So far, the Douglas AMA management goal for ADWR is to reduce the rate of aquifer decline by 2035 and “every decade thereafter,” according to ADWR’s presentation at the June 28 hearing. is to try to reduce
However, the goal has drawn criticism from Cochise County residents and politicians at the local and state levels.
Arizona Attorney General Chris Mays criticized ADWR’s administrative goals. “This goal lacks specificity, brakes, benchmarks and accountability,” Mays said at an ADWR hearing on June 28. “The use of the word ‘attempt’ is not ambitious…
“The very fact that voters here have solved their own problems and created the AMA is a sign of the state’s failure to help local communities manage their groundwater supplies,” Mays continued. “ADWR’s purpose is that the young people of our counties (Cochise, La Paz, Yavapai counties) should be able to stay in Cochise County for the rest of their lives, and for the lives of their children, if they so desire. It should be possible.” Desire. “
Ash Dahlke, a Cochise County resident within the Douglas Basin and chairman of the political action committee AZ Water Defenders, who put the Douglas and Wilcox AMAs on the ballot, also criticized ADWR’s management goals.
“The word ‘attempt’ in the current target completely undermines the purpose of active management, renders the target unmeasurable, and should be removed from the target entirely,” said Dahlke on June 27. In a public comment emailed to the ADWR dossier, “At ADWR’s first Douglas AMA meeting in January, ADWR said targets needed to be measurable, but the proposed targets does not include indicators to make it measurable: the existing AMA management objectives include the word “attempt”. These goals provide a clear picture of what the basin residents want for groundwater conservation. “
State Rep. Gail Griffin also expressed concern about the ADWR’s management objectives, stating in public comment that “the Douglas Basin is a bilateral basin shared with Mexico, which complicates the management objectives of the region, and this fact should be taken into consideration.” should be done,” he said. Historically, the region has been primarily engaged in the exploitation of natural resources through agriculture and ranching. These agricultural uses should be addressed in the region’s goals, as has been done in the Pinal County AMA. “
Douglas Mayor Donald Hewish also said in an email to ADWR seeking public comment that the department’s management goals include distinguishing between the two watersheds of Mexico, the Douglas AMA, or referring to Douglas’ existing agricultural and livestock sectors. Said it wasn’t included. area.
“I would strongly recommend ADWR to open a satellite office in Douglas when it is ready to implement DAMA,” Huesch said in an email on June 28.
A decision on whether to adopt the Douglas AMA management objectives will be made in late July.
Click to view a recording of ADWR’s June 28 meeting. here.
