It defies belief that this law has been sitting there unused for 42 years as Arizonaโs groundwater levels dropped and legislators looked the other way.
But there it is in the Arizona Revised Statutes โ ARS 45-415.
โA groundwater basin which is not included within an initial active management area may be designated an active management area upon petition by 10% of the registered voters residing within the boundaries of the proposed active management area.โ
That may sound like mumbo jumbo to people unfamiliar with Arizonaโs 1980 groundwater law. What it means is that the voters in a given area outside Arizonaโs biggest cities can vote for increased regulation of groundwater pumping and an end to new irrigation.
In other words, regular people can try to stop the wealthiest agribusinesses from pumping so much groundwater that it becomes cost-prohibitive to reach for most people.
For the first time, people are putting that law to use. A group of volunteers calling themselves Arizona Water Defenders gathered enough valid signatures to ask voters whether to establish an active management area in the the Willcox basin, Cochise Countyโs elections director confirmed Friday.
This group is pursuing the same for the Douglas basin, which is just south of the Willcox basin in the Sulphur Springs Valley.
The effort will test not just this unused law but also the power of agribusinesses that have created jobs in areas that need them but at the cost of declining water tables.
Kathleen Ferris, who led the effort to write and pass the 1980 law, told me Tuesday she was surprised that part of the law had gone unused. But active management areas have gotten a bad reputation in rural Arizona, where some people fear the regulation.
It turns out they needed to fear the lack of regulation.
โI think it signals that landowners and residents in the Willcox area are tired of the state not doing anything to protect the groundwater supply,โ Ferris said Tuesday. โI think itโs a huge signal that they are willing to take this on. Itโs very impressive.โ
โActive management areaโ is the name the 1980 law applied to the stateโs most populous metro areas and three other areas. The Phoenix metro, the Tucson metro, the Prescott area, the Nogales-Rio Rico area and greater Pinal County all are regulated as separate AMAs.
And theyโve been the only ones for decades, even as the stateโs population grew from 2.7 million in 1980 to well over 7 million now.
But the water situation has become dire in some parts of Cochise County and elsewhere in Arizona, as big businesses seeking unregulated water have flocked to Arizona at the same time long-term drought has gripped the state and population has grown.
In the Sulphur Springs Valley, fissures have appeared in the ground, blocking the main highway through the valley U.S. 191. And some rural residents have had to start trucking in water, as my colleague Tony Davis has reported.
โThereโs a lot of information that makes us think this is a crisis situation,โ said Ashley Dahlke, who is chair of the Arizona Water Defenders Political Action Committee. โIndustrial agriculture started in Willcox and is moving to Douglas.โ
The need for residents to do this on their own is an indictment of state officials. Year after year, session after session, legislators have refused to do anything about groundwater pumping.
One of the main opponents has been longtime Cochise County legislator Gail Griffin, now a member of the state House. She has used her position as chair of the natural resources committees in the House and the Senate to block bills that would force measurement of groundwater pumping or other regulations, even those that simply attempted to measure the problem.
Griffin, who represents both the Willcox and Douglas basins, did not return a call seeking her position.
But sheโs not the only one who has had a chance to grapple with the problem but declined. As Ferris pointed out to me, the groundwater law requires the Arizona Department of Water Resources to consider establishing new active management areas. Under law, any of these criteria force the departmentโs director to consider new AMAs:
1. Active management practices are necessary to preserve the existing supply of groundwater for future needs.
2. Land subsidence or fissuring is endangering property or potential groundwater storage capacity.
3. Use of groundwater is resulting in actual or threatened water quality degradation.
The Willcox and Douglas basins meet at least two of these criteria.
Now, to be fair, the department started an effort to consider new regulations for the Willcox basin in 2015, but a long, arduous process eventually led nowhere.
There are plenty of reasons why, but one of the key ones is that people are worried about harming the agriculture industry that is the basis for Willcoxโs existence.
Thatโs certainly worth considering. But the danger of inaction now seems to be surpassing the danger of action.
Thankfully some Cochise County residents are recognizing that and taking steps the state has refused to take.
