PHOENIX — Major reforms to Arizona’s groundwater management are likely now that Democrats have won control of the Legislature.
Senate President-Elect Priya Sundareshan proposed a massive overhaul of Arizona’s rules on groundwater management in January 2025, but the legislation died without even getting a committee hearing.
The Rural Groundwater Management Act would have allowed rural communities to create their own water management programs and set conservation goals – shutting down what Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office described as a “free-for-all in rural Arizona on unprotected, vulnerable groundwater aquifers.”
Sundareshan and state Rep. Chris Mathis worked with local leaders in rural Arizona on the legislation.
Now, with a second term for Hobbs and Democratic majorities in both chambers starting in January, Sundareshan will have another chance.
“At the state legislative level, we can and must secure our groundwater and put more groundwater protections into place,” she told reporters Tuesday.
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Her 2025 bill will be the starting point, she said, adding that lawmakers need to see if any updates are needed.
Earlier this year, Hobbs’ administration designated the state's eighth Active Management Area in the Ranegras Plain in La Paz and Yuma counties, restricting groundwater use.
"I think we'll need to look at how well those have been going and should we tweak our previous proposals to accommodate the new information,” Sundareshan said.
Hobbs in 2023 instituted a homebuilding moratorium in some of the fastest-growing parts of metro Phoenix after an Arizona Department of Water Resources study showed groundwater would be short of demand over the next 100 years. A judge earlier this year ruled sided with developers in a lawsuit challenging the building freeze.
Her administration also created a program in which developers affected by 100-year water supply restrictions could provide additional water to offset their groundwater usage in order to build. The Legislature sued over the program, and Sundareshan said she plans to drop the legal action.
“It rankled within me that the state Legislature was suing the state over water issues and water management. So that is absolutely one area of litigation that we will be not pursuing,” she said.
Homebuilders have also won a court victory in their lawsuit challenging the Alternative Path to Designation of Assured Water Supply program.
“Republicans have had their heads in the sand on the water crisis for far too long, and it is evident when you talk to rural mayors who are worried about their water supply, when you talk to rural farmers who are tired of corporations sucking up the limited water supply,” state Sen. Analise Ortiz told ABC15.
Ortiz said the state has to get serious about groundwater management.
"Water should have never been partisan, but unfortunately, the Republican majority made it that way,” she said. “Times are going to change.”
The next legislative session starts in January.
