Last August, following a public hearing, the Arizona Department of Water Resources adopted its management goal for the citizen-approved Douglas Active Management Area.I objected to the goal and subsequently filed a “Judicial Review of Administrative Decision” appeal.Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney is expected to issue a ruling soon, and the future of rural Arizona hangs in the balance.Why such a dramatic statement?Douglas AMA plan could set precedentThe case before the judge addresses two important aspects of groundwater management, and by ADWR’s arguments, would set major precedents.I’ll do my best to explain the situation as I see it.As mentioned in a previous op-ed, Arizona’s 1980 groundwater code policy is to address problems caused when “withdrawal of groundwater is greatly in excess of the safe annual yield” and to protect “the welfare of this state and its citizens.”Of Arizona’s five initial Active Management Areas (AMAs), three aimed explicitly for “safe-yield,” meaning a balance of water supply and demand.Of the remaining two, Santa Cruz added a more specific target to “prevent local water tables from experiencing long-term declines,” and the Pinal AMA targeted “the necessity to preserve future water supplies for non-irrigation uses” —which, of course, implies the eventual stabilization of groundwater levels.ADWR broke with this precedent in designing a goal for the Douglas AMA, where the aim is to support “water users in the basin by reducing the rate of aquifer depletion.”Why not try to stabilize water levels?A sunset view in McNeal, one of the communities included in the Douglas Active Management Area.Why no “safe-yield” or “stabilized water tables” for the Douglas Basin, as most residents requested?The agency’s answer was published in its summary of the public hearing: “The proposed goal is tailored to the unique supply and demand conditioning in the Douglas AMA.”Not much of an explanation. But the department’s recent appeal filings gave a more revealing answer.It referred to comments from the Arizona Farm Bureau and Nav Athwal, a California agriculture investor with holdings in the Douglas basin.Athwal requested that “the management goal for the Douglas AMA should allow for long-term depletion of the aquifer” because, …
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