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It’s taken four decades, Saudi cows munching on alfalfa grown with Arizona water and national headlines about whether Arizona is finally drying up.
But state lawmakers appear to finally be ready to update the 1980 Groundwater Act to plug the holes it left, even as Gov. Katie Hobbs considers a recommendation from her Water Policy Council to approve what could be a new exception.
And resolving some of the issues of requirements for adequate water supply could in turn help alleviate the state’s other pressing problem of affordable housing.
It all comes down to the requirement in that law that new homes built in “active management areas” have a 100-year assured water supply. The idea was to wean development away from groundwater.
However, state law designated just five of those: Prescott, Phoenix, Pinal, Tucson and Santa Cruz.
There is an option for area residents to create their own through a petition and election, as occurred in the Douglas area. But a similar election was defeated in the Willcox basin.
And there a …
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