By Melissa St. Aude | Casa Grande Dispatch
The family of Tiffany Shedd’s husband Rodney has been growing cotton, wheat and barley in Pinal County for three generations. But the Arizona City mother of three said her family’s farming future is bleak if a new Arizona Department of Water Resources rule takes effect.
“Like a lot of other farmers, we’ll be looking at selling our farm while we still can and moving to a farm-friendly state,” she said.
Shedd, along with some other area growers, worries that a controversial ADWR rule modification, which gradually zeros-out extinguishment credits, will so significantly reduce the value of their property that farming no longer will be feasible “If we hang in there too long, our lands lose value,” she said.
Shedd and other area growers, dairies and feedlots, along with supporters of the agricultural community, have joined forces, forming a new group, Farmers Against State Takings, to get the ruling repealed.
The group’s first meeting is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday at The Property Conference Center, 1251 W. Gila Bend Highway in Casa Grande.
Extinguishment credits — also known as groundwater credits — may be sold by farmers in full or in part when farmland is retired and used by buyers, usually developers, within the same water management area.
Under the rule, farmers may continue to pump groundwater as long as they can afford to do so, but their allocation of credits starts to decline next year.
The rule modification, which was adopted by ADWR several years ago at the recommendation of a local water advisory panel, is intended to protect limited groundwater supplies.
“It was recognized that if groundwater use were to continue at rates exceeding natural recharge from rainfall and streambed infiltration, water levels could drop to levels that would make it economically infeasible to continue farming,” an ADWR fact sheet about the rule modification says.
But opponents of the ruling believe that with each incremental drop of extinguishment credits, the value of farmlands begins to decline.
When the rule takes effect in 2014, credit allocations drop from 100 to 94 percent of the original amount.
In 2015, the number drops to 88 percent. Ten years from now, in 2023, the credits would be reduced to 64 percent and by 2054, it would be zero.
“Our crop loans are collateralized by the value of the land,” Shedd said.
A lower value for the land could translate into reduced farm loans.
“With smaller loans, we might need to come up with more money, or some farmers might sell their lands to pay off debt,” Shedd said.
Opponents of the plan believe many growers could be encouraged to sell land quickly, impacting the area’s agricultural economic base. With credits decreased or extinguished, farmland will be valued the same as empty desert lands, critics of the plan say.
“It’s sad because the farm is not just a business, it’s our home,” Shedd said.
Dick Powell, a Casa Grande City Council member and local business owner, has been an outspoken opponent of the ADWR rule. He sees the ruling, should it be implemented, as a potential economic blow to Casa Grande’s agricultural economy as well as an injustice to farmers.
“The state is not allowed to take away something of value without compensating people,” he said.
Thursday, the Pinal Area Groundwater Users Advisory Council, which serves as a liaison between ADWR and community water users, agreed to form a subcommittee to further examine the rule and determine if it is equitable to farmers. Next month, the water panel will set a time line and decide who will serve on the subcommittee.
“We’re talking about ag credits, so I hope at least half of the people on that committee have some skin in the game,” Powell said.
Should the department not repeal the rule, FAST plans to seek resolution either through legal or political channels.
“We’ve got momentum,” Powell said. “When people at the state Legislature heard about this, they were shocked.”
The group has started a new website and has posted two petitions — one for area farmers and another for area residents — to sign to show support for the effort to repeal the rule.
FAST’s new website is www. pinalwater.com. Its Facebook site can be found at www.face- book.com/#!/PinalCountyExtinguishment.
Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents FAST.
