PHOENIX (AP) - The House passed a proposal Thursday that would erect a new barrier before rural counties could keep rules requiring new developments to have a 100-year water supply.
It’s the second bill passed by the House in two weeks putting pressure on water-adequacy ordinances in Cochise and Yuma counties.
The bill by Sen. Gail Griffin, R-Hereford, would require supervisors in rural counties that have adopted adequate water supply rules to vote as early as next year and every five years thereafter to keep the rules in place. The measure comes on the heels of a bill passed last week that would allow some cities in Cochise and Yuma counties to opt out of the water-supply rules.
House Democrats called the latest proposal a step in the wrong direction that could affect water policy in those counties as well as the rest of the state.
Republicans said the bill does not eliminate current rules, but it makes them easier to manage for such counties as Cochise and Yuma.
The House passed the proposal on a 31-25 vote Thursday. It now heads to governor’s desk pending final approval in the Senate.
If adopted, the legislation also could help a developer begin construction of nearly 7,000 homes in Sierra Vista, which is in Cochise County, despite a pending lawsuit. The developer, Castle and Cooke Arizona, is owned by David H. Murdock - a billionaire real estate developer and owner of Dole Food Company.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management sued the Arizona Department of Water Resources for signing off on Castle & Cooke Arizona’s water plan to build in Sierra Vista. The federal agency says the developer intends to use groundwater that is linked to a federally protected conservation area along the San Pedro River.
Maricopa County Superior Court ruled against the Department of Water Resources, but the agency has since appealed - leaving the water rights issue hanging.
Rick Coffman, vice president of Castle & Cooke Arizona, agreed the proposals could help the business get around county water-supply rules, but that it would likely wait for the outcome of the lawsuit before beginning construction.
House Republicans and Castle & Cooke Arizona say there is enough groundwater to supply the development and the rest of Sierra Vista for thousands of years. The problem, Coffman said, is that the Bureau of Land Management has unfairly claimed rights of groundwater beneath Sierra Vista.
“They are essentially laying claim to all water everywhere. This is a vast overreach on the part of the federal government,” he said.
Still, others say the Arizona Department of Water Resources didn’t consider the impact of groundwater pumping on the flow of the San Pedro River when they signed off on the Sierra Vista development.
Even if these bills pass, the issue won’t go away, said Kathleen Ferris, a senior fellow for Arizona State University Morrison institute’s Kyle Center for Water Policy. “It ultimately has to be resolved because the federal government has water rights to sustain the San Pedro River,” she said.
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