Voters on Tuesday approved a plan to regulate groundwater use in southeastern Arizona, using the referendum initiative for the first time to create an active management area in the Douglas Basin.
But voters rejected a second step to create a similar controlled area in the adjacent Wilcox Basin. There, groundwater withdrawal will continue to remain unregulated. Willcox’s initiative failed by a margin of two to one.
Cochise County residents voted YES on Proposition 422 to establish an AMA in the Douglas Basin, according to unofficial results of Tuesday’s election. Residents there participate in the remaining 82% of Arizona whose groundwater is managed by the AMA, a mechanism established by the Groundwater Management Act of 1980.
Kathleen Ferris, a Senior Research Fellow at Arizona State University’s Kyle Center for Water Policy, served as Executive Director of the Arizona Groundwater Management Research Commission and helped draft the Groundwater Management Act of 1980.
“This is a big win for the people in that basin who depend on groundwater for their daily lives. It’s also a big win for grassroots efforts where government inaction has failed,” she said. “Arizona Water Defenders should celebrate the creation of her first-ever citizen-led AMA.”
Arizona Water Defenders is a grassroots organization made up of residents of two watersheds. After numerous failed attempts by legislators and other groups to introduce groundwater management in Cochise County, the group collected signatures to put Propositions 420 and 422 on a ballot.
Sherrill Knott coordinated signing at Douglas Basin.
“Douglas Basin voters understand the need to conserve groundwater for the future,” Knott said. “When I was distributing the petition, some said they didn’t want to be like Wilcox, where the water table is dropping so quickly because of agricultural overpumping.”
Decreasing Wells:Cochise Voters Consider New Groundwater Protection
Depletion of residential wells
The Douglas Basin is covered by irrigation non-expansion areas, where land irrigated prior to 1980 will continue to be irrigated and wells may be added and dug deeper, but new acres of land entering cultivation may become irrigated. Frozen.
A freeze on current irrigation expansion will be implemented in both basins in August 2022, pending election results. In the Wilcox Basin, bans may be lifted and irrigation expanded as voters rejected his AMA. Regulations remain in force in the Douglas Basin.
Outside of the established AMAs, there are few restrictions on groundwater, with many saying the state’s two most southeastern basins have run out of groundwater.
Residential wells have dried up in recent years, leaving residents with the choice of paying large sums to deepen them or abandoning their property altogether.
Miles of cracks in the earth are appearing due to land subsidence caused by overpumping. Parts of the basin have subsided dramatically over the past few decades, according to the Arizona Geological Survey. Studies show that in the area north of Wilcox, the land has sunk 11 feet since 1969.
Proponents of the Douglas AMA hope to halt or slow some of the impacts caused by decades of unregulated groundwater pumping.
The AMA allows water users to pump groundwater from wells that pump 35 gallons per minute or more (non-exempt wells), but only if the user holds the right or permit to pump groundwater.
Generally, within an AMA, water users may, without rights or permits, pump groundwater for non-irrigation purposes from wells with volumes not exceeding 35 gallons per minute (exempt wells). There are some restrictions on the use of these exempt wells within the AMA.
Different rules for each basin
Douglas Basin residents believe the new AMA is a big win. They say the expansion of out-of-state megafarms in the basin is a major contributor to the rapid depletion of groundwater.
However, there is no way to know how much water these agricultural activities used, as groundwater withdrawals have not been required to be reported in the past.
Minnesota-based dairy giant Riverview LLP recently purchased land in Cochise County, splitting the property between two watersheds and pumping 110,000 acre feet of water annually to meet demand. He told news outlet Circle of Blue that he did. On the premises he has over 150,000 cows.
Riverview isn’t the only company expanding wells and acquiring land in the area. Well-drilling records show that large farms in the basin own more than 700 wells, drilling batches of more than 200 wells over 1,000 feet deep.
In the Douglas Basin, these megafarms are now required to report their water use to the state.
But because Wilcox Watershed voters blocked the AMA, Riverview and other businesses can continue to operate without reporting to the state the water use of their facilities in the watershed.
Farms can also continue to add new wells to extend irrigation throughout the area. Without rivers in the area, groundwater replenishment would come only through precipitation, and experts fear the area will eventually dry up.
Opposition parties are funded by outside interests
Proponents of the measure say the impact of agriculture in the region cannot be underestimated. It was the county’s main economic driver, and farms outside the basin were spending large sums of cash to fund opposition groups opposing the AMA.
“The Wilcox Basin lacks leadership to develop a more diversified economy, so the region has a single dominant industry, agriculture, with large out-of-state agribusinesses and the Phoenix The vintners who moved from there are tremendous influence,” Knot said.
Rural Water Assurance is the political action committee that led the opposition to the AMA measures. Her Heather Floyd, Chair of RWA, is President of the Benson Chamber of Commerce and a board member of the Arizona Center for Rural Leadership. Both groups have close ties to the Arizona Farm Bureau.
“A new Political Action Committee formed a few months ago has raised thousands of dollars from interests outside the region to oppose groundwater regulations,” Knott said. “Wilcox voters who rejected the AMA seem to want the immediate benefits for the industry over the long-term resilience of us all.”
More than half of RWA’s campaign donations have come from outside the basin, including more than $36,000 from donors in California’s Maricopa and Pima counties since July, according to the Office of the Secretary of State.
“Obviously, we are disappointed with the Wilcox Basin results. “But the Wilcox AMA supporters were paid for by big corporate donors who opposed the AMA.”
RWA endorses the AMA and believes there are better ways to conserve groundwater. In a statement posted on the group’s website, “We all agree that water is essential to our community, but creating Active Management Areas is not the way to go.”
The group believes the AMA will slow or stop the expansion of farms, ranches and vineyards in the county and is concerned about the negative economic impact it will have.
The Arizona Department of Water Resources is given 30 days to set management goals and timelines for the new Douglas Basin AMA.
The goal of four of the other five AMAs is to achieve a “safe yield” in which the amount of water removed from the aquifer roughly matches the amount replenished.
A governor-appointed board of directors and a five-member Groundwater Users Advisory Committee will conduct public hearings on the proposed goals and management plan. Residents within the watershed will have a voice during the process to set goals for the needs of the watershed.
Jake Frederico is responsible for environmental affairs for the Republic of Arizona and As Central.Submit a tip or question jake.frederico@arizonarepublic.com.
Environmental coverage at azcentral.com and in the Republic of Arizona was supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Follow the Republic Environmental Reporting Team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment. Facebook, twitter and Instagram.
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