PHOENIX (CN) - In a bipartisan compromise between state lawmakers and the executive branch, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs approved a program estimated to conserve nearly 10 million acre-feet of water and facilitate thousands of new housing developments across central Arizona. 

State Senator T.J. Shope's Senate Bill 1611 met Hobbs' pen Monday morning, setting in motion what state officials refer to as the "Ag-to-Urban" plan. The legislation, backed by a Senate supermajority and bipartisan coalition in the House, creates a voluntary program for farmers in the Phoenix and Pinal County active management areas to sell portions of their land and the accompanying water rights to developers to build new urban communities with a lower demand than the previous agricultural use. 

"Hard-working Arizonans will be able to pursue their American dream of homeownership as home supply increases in Maricopa and Pinal Counties and prices naturally ease," Shope, a Republican from Coolidge, said in a press release. "Our farmers, who are ready to retire, can reap the benefits of their land while also allowing the state to save water. 

"The Ag-to-Urban plan is the most consequential piece of groundwater conservation legislation since the 1980 Groundwater Management Act," he said.

That bill established Arizona's five initial active management areas, including the Phoenix metro and Pinal County, in which groundwater pumping is regulated and monitored as opposed to virtually unlimited pumping in other parts of the state. In an active management area, developers must receive a designation of assured water supply, typically by proving the existence of a 100-year supply of groundwater beneath the pre-developed land. 

For the last two years, both Republican legislators and the Arizona Department of Water Resources have worked on their own versions of the ag-to-urban solution to allow new communities to be built while still conserving the lifeline that is the state's ever-dwindling water supply. Though vastly different at conception - Hobbs vetoed Shope's first crack at the idea last year - the plans eventually coalesced.

"The Ag-to-Urban Program is based on the significant reduction in groundwater use that would otherwise continue if the grandfathered rights to irrigate farmland were not retired," water department director Tom Buschatzke said in the press release. "The strong bipartisan support for this program is an indication that Arizona can make the hard choices on water needed in an era of limits."

Under the program, farmers in either of the active management areas would voluntarily relinquish groundwater rights on individual acres of land irrigated by groundwater in three of the previous five years. In exchange, a farmer would receive conservation credits based on the number of acres relinquished. 

The farmer would then sell the acres to land developers, who would "pledge" the credits to a water provider that services that land. The water provider would in turn apply the conservation credits to its requirement to prove physical availability, more easily achieving a designation of assured water supply and allowing new commercial and residential developments to proliferate. 

Both the water department and lawmakers made concessions between their two proposals. While the department proposed 100 acre-feet of water credits in exchange for an acre in the Phoenix AMA and 70 acre-feet for an acre in Pinal County, the final bill allows for higher conversion rates: 150 acre-feet in Phoenix and 100 in Pinal County. 

Shope's bill originally included the Tucson active management area, even though the area doesn't have the same unmet demand for housing and water conservation as Phoenix and Pinal County. An amendment on the Senate floor removes Tucson from the bill pending a more in-depth study on the Tucson area's water and development needs. 

The amendment also added additional limits pushed by Senate Democrats to ensure the program doesn't lead to more pumping on land that hadn't been heavily irrigated in the past. 

"This Ag-to-Urban bill, SB1611, represents a bipartisan compromise to allow grandfathered irrigation rights in our active management areas to be converted to housing that uses less groundwater," Senate Democrat Priya Sundareshan said. "Importantly, it contains many key guardrails designed to ensure that groundwater savings will be achieved over the next 100 years as a result of this program."

As Arizona continues to negotiate the future of its share of Colorado River water, lawmakers say the historic conservation step will show the federal government and the six other states reliant on the river that Arizona is willing and able to make necessary cuts. 

"We are putting Arizona in a good position for Colorado River negotiations moving forward with the other basin states," Shope said.

The seven basin states have until October 2026 to negotiate fair water use before the federal government steps in and mandates cuts. In the meantime, the flow of the Colorado continues to shrink, and the surrounding states are left searching for solutions elsewhere. 

Source: Courthouse News Service