AZ blocks Kingman-area farm expansion to save Hualapai Basin water

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AZ blocks Kingman-area farm expansion to save Hualapai Basin water

January 14, 2023

Arizona will block the expansion of large-scale irrigated agriculture in Mojave County, and state water managers this week announced the latest steps to protect the state’s largely unregulated aquifer groundwater supply. Announced in motion.

Local leaders and a statewide coalition of water conservation advocates have been calling for such a remedy for several years. Kingman area Pumping water to new pistachio fields escalated, eventually convincing the Arizona Department of Water Resources to take action when the Arizona Legislature did not. Farmers and landowners claimed the Hualapai Basin would provide a slice of northwestern Arizona for centuries, but state officials have determined pumping has become unsustainable.

Director of Water Resources Tom Buschatzke announced that the Hualapai Basin will be Non-Irrigated Area, or INAThe state’s Groundwater Management Act of 1980 provides for such a designation when an aquifer is being depleted by pumping. This means that large farms can only irrigate acres that have had a significant investment in irrigation or cultivation in the last five years. It does not change current uses or limit the amount of water an irrigator can pump.

“This doesn’t solve all the problems,” says Mojave County Superintendent Travis Lingenfelter. “It keeps it from getting worse. It buys the area some time.”

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Urban centers in Arizona from Prescott to Phoenix, Pinal County, Tucson and Santa Cruz Counties are governed under the Groundwater Act as follows: Active management areaLong-term sustainability of pumped water is needed in these areas and developers must demonstrate that projects will not deplete aquifers. However, most of rural Arizona is unregulated.

The state’s extensive rural aquifers have attracted commercial-scale agriculture from outside the state, including hay export operations in western Arizona, dairy farms in Cochise County, and nut farms in Mojave County. A petition put groundwater management in her two areas of Cochise County (Wilcox and Douglas) on a ballot last month, but only Douglas voters approved state regulation of the aquifer.

In Mojave County, the state estimated annual groundwater recharge for the Hualapai Basin at 10,000 acre feet and annual utilization for the City of Kingman at 8,800. One acre foot (the amount that covers a football field to a depth of about one foot) contains approximately 326,000 gallons.

Agriculture has exploded in recent years with thousands of acres of nut tree plantations cutting 25,800 acre feet a year. According to Buschatke’s ordersAt this rate, one-twentieth of the region’s wells will dry up within 100 years. Kingman and the surrounding area rely solely on groundwater.

State previously established irrigation limits It is located in the Hulkuahala Valley west of Douglas, Joseph City in Navajo County, and Phoenix.

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“We are disappointed,” said Kathy Tucket-Hicks, a Kingman-based consultant who works with some of the affected farmers. She said the state signed an affidavit that it uses less water per acre than it assumed when assessing aquifer depletion rates.

Some farmers are investing heavily in uncultivated land, Tackett-Hicks said. She isn’t sure if they will appeal the department’s decision to a judge, but expects to discuss it over the next few weeks.

Peacock Nut Co. is one of the leading companies in developing arboretums using groundwater in the county. CEO Jeff Duarte did not respond to a request for comment. in a public meeting In a survey conducted by the Ministry of Water Resources this fall, he urged Buschatke not to stop new farming and water pumping to support it.

Duarte argued that models predicting the problem were only 1,200 feet deep if more water could be accessed by drilling deeper wells. He and some of his employees said they carefully managed irrigation for efficiency and installed large pits to capture rainwater and replenish the aquifer.

“Water is very precious,” he said. “We recognize it. We want it to be here for hundreds of years.”

Duarte said the state shouldn’t be rushing to cut back on agriculture, which has resulted in so much investment in Mojave County.He estimated those investments at $300 million.

“We want to be an important part of the Kingman area,” he said. “We look forward to a bright agricultural future in the region.”

But Kingman and the county have other economic visions based on manufacturing, tourism and housing development. These sectors need a stable water supply, according to Lingenfelter.

“Personally, I don’t think the Hualapai Basin (and that part of it) in northwest Arizona was ever intended for large-scale industrial farming,” he said. “I have never identified agriculture as something I would like to pursue because it is not sustainable.”

Mojave County and Kingman will continue to work on groundwater protection and will likely seek state funding for aquifer enhancement projects such as injection wells to conserve rainwater that could otherwise evaporate. They will also continue to support statewide legislation that would allow counties to petition states to allow groundwater management, he said.

Under the no-expansion order, new irrigation is only permitted in fields of 2 acres or less. Owners of existing large wells are required to install measuring equipment and report their water use to the state annually, but their use is not restricted. Wells producing less than 35 gallons per minute are exempt from reporting requirements.

of Water for the Arizona Union, It advocates for environmental and business groups and also seeks legislation. Hayley Paul, who works for the Audubon Society and is co-chair of the coalition, said the state’s action in Mojave County is welcome because it slows the decline of groundwater, but it doesn’t solve the problem.

“Currently, no local government is regulating water withdrawals or taking action to meet local groundwater management goals,” she said in an email. I think we should have more options to manage.”