Arizona legislators are making a second attempt to pass bills that would protect the state’s dwindling groundwater resources after bipartisan negotiations stalled last year.Senate Bill 1520, sponsored by Republicans and approved by the Senate, passed out of the House Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee on March 25 on a 6-4 vote. It still needs a vote by the full House before moving to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ desk for her signature or veto.Democratic-sponsored bills related to groundwater management that Hobbs promoted did not get a hearing in the Republican-led House and Senate and appear dead.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSponsored by Sen. Tim Dunn, R-Yuma, SB1520 would add to previous efforts at conserving groundwater by allowing “Basin Management Area” designations in three groundwater basins: Gila Bend, Hualapai Valley and the Willcox basin. Hualapai and Willcox basins in Mohave and Cochise counties already have some form of regulation.Dunn’s bill would cap yearly water-use reductions to 1% increments over 10 years, require one of five appointed council members to be residents of the management areas and prohibit the state Department of Water Resources from requiring water metering. No water user would be requested to measure how much they are pumping but would submit annual groundwater use reports based on estimates.A politically diverse group of stakeholders said the proposal doesn’t conserve enough and would leave groundwater at extreme peril.“SB 1520 locks us into a system where groundwater is treated like a permanent entitlement, not a dwindling resource,” said Lisa Glenn, a long-time Willcox resident and a member of the Rural Water Working Group, which held a news conference at the Capitol ahead of the hearing, asking lawmakers to discard the bill and draft a bipartisan proposal.Rhona MacMillan, a rural Arizona resident, calls for bipartisan negotiations for rural groundwater management during a press conference at the Arizona State Capitol Rose Garden in Phoenix on March 25, 2025.“We need much larger cuts,” said Ed Curry, a farmer from Cochise County and member of Hobb’s water policy council.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAbout 80% of Arizona has no regulations to protect its aquifers from excessive use. The 1980 Groundwater Management Act provides two tools, Active Management Areas (AMAs) and Irrigation Non-Expansion Areas (INAs), but stakeholders on both sides of the aisle agree they are not suitable for rural areas because either they were crafted for urban areas with access to surface water, or they freeze agricultural growth but don’t address depletion.A …
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