The Water of Oz

A most unfortunate correction … Industrial strength loopholes … And Arizona’s Tribal water strategy.

In last month’s story on Gail Griffin, I mentioned that Legislative District 19’s Rep. Lupe Diaz and Sen. David Gowan would be swapping places, leaving Griffin, who hits her House term limit next year, with nowhere to sit in Arizona’s political game of musical chairs.

While that was true, I misstated that Diaz was also getting termed out of the House. And after some huddling, the chairs have been rearranged again, now with Diaz remaining in the House and Griffin intending to move to the Senate.

That’s right. We might see the Gatekeeper in the Legislature until 2028 — unless someone successfully campaigns against her.

Well… what can we do, except keep reporting the news?

Today we’ll be looking at a handful of the 40-or-so water-related bills that are still “active” at the Capitol this session (and one that just died). Many of these bills are highly technical in nature and would need detailed explainers to mean much to the average citizen. Others are fluff gestures from lawmakers to their special interests and supporters. Fifty percent are Griffin’s. And very few of them will become law.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn a thing or two by pulling back the curtain and taking a closer look at some of them.

It looks like we may have our work cut out for us over the next four years. Consider supporting the Water Agenda for the long haul with a free or paid subscription.

HCR2046

The cedar conspiracy

Sponsor: Gail Griffin (R)
Status: Partisan support; passed to Senate

In this House Concurrent Resolution, Griffin claimed that human groundwater consumption “is not the problem causing reduction of Colorado River water” — the real problem is salt cedars, an invasive tree species that has established itself along much of the Colorado River. And so long as those trees are out there stealing all our water, “any proactive conservation efforts or investments that state or private organizations make will be in vain.”

On Tuesday, Griffin scrubbed those claims with an amendment, which was probably wise since she passed another amendment requiring the Arizona Secretary of State to send a copy of the resolution to the President of the United States. That would’ve made for fun headlines.

While I can’t tell you whether Griffin actually believed the salt cedar claim to begin with, I can give you a sense of how it ended up in a legislative resolution.

Can-kicking is a fine art among those who don’t like to talk or think about the reality of limited water resources. They keep an arsenal of hand-wavey theories and arguments in their back pocket, ranging from “we’re only short on water because of the drought” to “there’s an unlimited supply of water from the earth’s core if you drill deep enough”. If you shoot down one argument, they’ll whip out another. And putting one of those tools of distraction in an official state document makes it even more convincing…to some people.

HB2568

The Pinocchio of loopholes

Sponsor: Gail Griffin
Status: Partisan support; passed to Senate

Some water policy loopholes dream of becoming real laws one day, and Griffin is ready to wave her magic wand for one of Arizona’s biggest such loopholes.

Superficially, Griffin claims this bill is a “start” toward addressing the lack of regulations on industrial water use, by requiring ADWR to create mandatory conservation programs for industrial water users in the Phoenix and Pinal AMAs.

The problem? AMAs already require ongoing mandatory conservation programs for all industrial users. Historically, these programs implemented by ADWR are milquetoast, and Griffin’s bill does nothing to strengthen them.

But behind this smokescreen, a clause in the bill cements into place one of the biggest known problems with industrial water use — that there’s no upper limit to how much it can grow, no matter how bad groundwater conditions are:

...a management plan, the department, any political subdivision of this state, or any modifications to a management plan may not require a person who uses water for an industrial use to do any of the following:

1. Obtain a certificate of assured water supply.

2. Develop within the service area of a municipal provider designated as having an assured water supply.

3. Enroll as member land in a multi-county water conservation district or otherwise meet a replenishment obligation.

Because why try to fix a regulatory leak when you can just turn it into a faucet.

HB2274

Hi, I’d like to sell you the water under your property

Sponsor: Gail Griffin
Status: Partisan support; passed to Senate

In 2021, after the Douglas and Willcox AMA campaigns started being taken seriously, an attempt was made to create a massive water district covering much of the Willcox and Douglas basins, led by the Minnesota megadairy Riverview. The idea is that this short-term “fix” would quell demands for a regulatory solution to groundwater declines.

A series of town halls were held to discuss the proposal with locals, and with Riverview on the proposed board of directors for the district, local backlash was loud. In the end, a formal petition for the district was never filed, and the conversation shifted to a water-hauling district. Griffin’s bill, in conjunction with others she introduced this year, would give Cochise County supervisors an opportunity to hold a public election for a water district without the formal petition process.

The concern? Only 51% of the residents within the proposed district boundaries get to decide for everyone else whether they’ll now be part of a special taxing district and have to pay the costs to create a water system they might not ever use.

SB1523

We live in the desert

Sponsor: Tim Dunn (R)
Status: Partisan support; passed Senate

This bill prohibits certain municipal requirements for plants, trees, and ground cover in new housing developments within Active Management Areas. This is significant because 50% to 75% of potable residential water is used for landscaping in Arizona. So it can be argued that landscaping requirements increase water demands, which makes it harder and more costly to build new homes.

A counterargument would be that trees help reduce urban heat island effects, keeping people safer, and reducing energy demands by keeping homes cooler — and trees can be irrigated with stormwater runoff.

But the thing to keep in mind is that municipalities never want their hands tied, and many of them don’t really care about affordable housing. If they can have fewer homes with higher property values, that means less people to take care of, less crime, less stress on their tax budgets. So they will always want the option to regulate developments away from low-income home buyers and toward affluent buyers.

Given the pushback from cities on this bill, and its lack of bipartisan support, it will likely be vetoed by Hobbs. Though, that could change with some thoughtful amendments.

HB2299

The Maricopa coup

Sponsor: Gail Griffin
Status: Bipartisan opposition; awaiting reconsideration

Last month, we took a deep dive into the “housing freeze” in the Phoenix AMA after Hobbs had the ADWR release a new groundwater model which former Gov. Doug Ducey had kept under wraps.

This bill is a hall pass for all those developers who had pending groundwater permit applications in the two years leading up to that freeze, requiring ADWR to process their applications based on the earlier groundwater models which didn’t show “unmet demand.”

There would seem to be some fairness in that argument. Those developers were playing by the rules, and then the rug got pulled and they’re out millions in up-front investments. Meanwhile, we desperately need more homes in Arizona.

The Teravalis development in Buckeye

On the other hand, there’s no way that such huge investments were made without awareness of Arizona’s groundwater problems and the housing freeze that had just happened in the Pinal AMA. You could say these developers took a gamble on trying to get easy water permits before the door slammed shut — but lost that bet.

Despite a likely veto from Hobbs, a group of Republican lawmakers made sure it didn’t even get to her desk. Freedom Caucus Reps. Neal Carter, Joseph Chaplik, Lisa Fink, Laurin Hendrix, Alexander Kolodin, Khyl Powell, and Rachel Keshel, six of whom represent districts in the Phoenix AMA, voted against the bill on the floor. It got scheduled for a revote this week and was shot down again.

Why the resistance from fellow Republicans? Growing water demands within the AMA means higher water prices for their constituents. And if Hobbs had actually signed this bill, it’d be harder to pin the housing crisis on her — a favorite pastime of Republican lawmakers.

SB1467

A bicycle built for 9 am cocktails

Sponsor: T.J. Shope (R)
Status: Bipartisan support; passed to House

Ok, this is only loosely related to water resources, but deserved an honorable mention for bringing the Left and Right together on something we can all agree on: more lake parties. Robert Mayer, president of the Arizona Party Bike company, requested this bill so that he can bring people out on group paddle boats and serve them liquor while they resist the temptation to drunkenly dive into Tempe Town Lake. The bill does away with a requirement to serve food with liquor on boats and expands the allowed service hours to 9 am to 11 pm instead of from 5 pm to 11 pm.

Arizona’s Capitol — where money commingles with water, the laws of physics (and ethics) are merely suggestions, politicians pull levers they barely understand, and that famous copper dome sits like a penny atop a slot machine.

The Water Agenda is here to pull back the curtain and help you figure out how this mousetrap works.

More water winners

We can’t guarantee all seven of these humble water bills will make it to Hobbs’ desk and get the stamp of approval, but they have strong bipartisan support and stand a fair chance.

SB1558
Sponsor: T.J. Shope
Status: Passed to House
Establishes the Water Technology Study Committee to research and make recommendations on the application of water conservation technology in Arizona. The Committee must submit its findings and recommendations to the Legislature by December 31, 2026, before disbanding.

SB1579
Sponsor: Theresa Hatathlie (D)
Status: Awaiting Senate floor vote
Appropriates $340,000 from the state general fund in FY2025-26 to the Arizona Department of Administration to pipe water to an additional 150 households in the Navajo Nation via the Ganado waterline pipeline project.

“We finally broke partisanship in this committee,” Natural Resources Committee Chair T.J. Shope commented after the bill’s unanimous committee approval.

HB2019
Sponsor: Matt Gress (R)
Status: Passed to Senate
The Department of Education would create a webpage with water safety and swimming instruction information, and school districts must provide that information to parents.

HB2232
Sponsor: Laurin Hendrix (R)
Status: Passed to Senate
Requires the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to create a permitting system for wastewater treatment systems for residential developments. These systems use technology common throughout the U.S. but are new to Arizona.

HB2691
Sponsor: Gail Griffin
Status: Passed to Senate
A minor technical amendment that had to be made because — whoops — our AMAs haven’t met their 2025 “safe yield” deadline.

HB2727
Sponsor: Leo Biasiucci (R)
Status: Passed to Senate
Last year, lawmakers passed a bill that gave La Paz County an opportunity to use or lease unused grandfathered water rights in the Harquahala Basin, and this follow-up bill allows them to create a water authority so they can actually do that.

HB2737
Sponsor: John Gillette (R)
Status: Awaiting Senate floor vote
Allows grants from the state’s Water Infrastructure Finance Authority to go toward EPA-approved remediation projects such as contaminated soil cleanup around old mining sites.

Have you ever wondered why Arizona loves Tribal water rights settlements? If you think it’s just from the goodness of lawmakers’ and bureaucrats' hearts — that’s very sweet. In fact, Tribal water rights are strongly protected under U.S. Supreme Court case law, while our state water rights under the Colorado Compact are more vulnerable to reductions. So the state supports settlements that allow tribes to lease some of their water to thirsty Central Arizona. Keep that in mind when you read about how…

A bipartisan, bicameral coalition of congressmen from Arizona introduced the Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Agreement to secure and deliver water to three tribes in Northeast Arizona. The settlement was first proffered late last year but didn’t get buy-in from Colorado. Our neighbors in the Upper Basin will likely express caution this time around as well.

The Bureau of Reclamation recently received a 1-star review from Arizona, California, and Nevada regarding River issues. The lower basin states want to see action taken to address an incoming emergency at the Glen Canyon Dam. If water levels get too low, the existing emergency water outlets won’t be able to handle the load — and even though it’ll cost billions to fix, they’d really like that to happen. Also, they want Reclamation to take a stance on the basin states’ River negotiations — but the feds know any stance they take will be highly controversial and used as leverage in ongoing legal battles.

And the $4 billion federal funding freeze on Colorado River projects shows signs of thawing, according to ADWR boss Tom Buschatzke.

“I think our current intel is that the money has been unfrozen and it's going to the projects that it was intended to go to,” Buschatzke told 12NEWS.

The Gila River Indian Community quietly strong-armed the Trump administration to release some of that funding last month, a promised $105 million for canal repairs that were underway. How’d they do it? They relocated 10,000 acrefeet of their Colorado River water rights from Lake Mead to off-river storage — a move that, if copied by other entities, could drastically reduce the dam’s water levels and threaten its ability to generate electricity.

“We have given the Department [of Interior] every opportunity to avoid what would be a calamitous break in our longstanding partnership, with terrible consequences for the entire Basin,” GRIC Governor Stephen Roe Lewis warned DOI Director Burgum ahead of the successful power play.

Another town goes dry. Another lawsuit gets filed. Another federal funding freeze fiasco.

This newsletter is already a long one and my editors would prefer to cut it off here — but there’s more water news to report, darn it. So as a personal gift to our paying subscribers, here’s the rest of this week’s water news, along with a personal story of how the federal funding freeze has tragically impacted some of my own volunteer conservation efforts down here in Cochise County.