By Melissa St. Aude | Casa Grande Dispatch
A group of Pinal County farmers is preparing to take legal action against the Arizona Department of Water Resources if a plan to zero out agricultural groundwater credits is implemented.
Farmers Against State Takings (FAST) held its first official meeting Wednesday, attracting a roomful of farmers, growers, residents and area lawmakers.
Jordan Rose, an attorney with Rose Law Group who has been retained by the farmers, said the farmers group hopes to have the ADWR plan repealed before Jan. 1 or at least delay its implementation.
Should that not work, she said, the group is prepared to take the issue to court.
Several area legislators, including Reps. Steve Smith and Adam Kwasman and Sen. Al Melvin of District 11 as well as Rep. T.J. Shope of District 8, attended the meeting, pledging their support to help resolve the issue legislatively.
“This is un-American, unconstitutional and furthermore, just unArizonan,” Smith told the group. “It’s also a direct violation of the ‘five C’s’ on our state emblem,” referring to “cotton.”
“We will not rest until this issue is corrected,” Smith said.
At issue is an ADWR rule modification set to go into effect next year that would gradually eliminate extinguishment credits held by farmers. Extinguishment credits,
also known as groundwater credits, may be sold in full or in part when
farmland is retired and used by buyers, usually developers, within the same management area.
Under ADWR’s extinguishment credit rule modification, although growers may continue farming and do not lose their right to pump groundwater, their credit allocation factors start a gradual decline next year when they drop from 100 to 94 percent. The reduction continues a 6 percent annual decline until 2054, when they hit zero and farmland is stripped of extinguishment credits.
The rule aims to improve the long-term viability of area groundwater supplies and protect the natural aquifer from over-pumping.
“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,” according to an ADWR fact sheet about the rule.
But critics of the plan say extinguishment credits have a value and with each incremental drop, the value of farmland declines.
By the time credits reach zero, farmland will be valued at the same price as undeveloped, bare desert land, according to critics.
To avoid losing value of their land, some believe many farmers will feel pressured to sell quickly, affecting the area’s agricultural economy and creating a speculative bubble.
“We’re getting calls at the law group now of farmers asking ‘should I sell my farm?’” Rose told attendees.
She said the issue is no different than if the Arizona Department of Real Estate suddenly announced it would own all homes and that homeowners could continue to live in those homes, if they were to sell, a percentage of the sale price, would go to that department.
“How can this happen without just compensation?” she asked.
Dick Powell, a Casa Grande City Council member and businessman, has been an outspoken critic of the rule.
“It’s onerous, it’s a taking and it’s un-American,” Powell said at the meeting.
The group hopes the issue can be resolved without a lawsuit.
“We’d prefer to get it done politically,” Powell said.
While area legislators have pledged their support, he said the group also will look to area municipalities and the county Board of Supervisors, hoping for resolutions demonstrating a desire to see the rule repealed.
The group is hopeful locals show support by donating funds or signing a petition available on the FAST website, www.pinal- water.com.
Representatives from the Arizona Department of Water Resources were not at Wednesday’s meeting.
“ADWR has not been invited,” said Jeff Tannler, ADWR area director of statewide active management areas.
Representatives from the water agency in June attended a town hall meeting in Casa Grande with farmers to explain the rule modification. Also last month, Tannler was among several ADWR representatives to attend a meeting of the Pinal Area Groundwater Users Advisory Committee, a water panel that serves as a liaison between the agency and local water users.
At the July meeting, the advisory committee recommended forming a committee to further examine the rule and determine if it is equitable to farmers.
“We have taken the GUAC’s recommendation under consideration,” Tannler told the Casa Grande Dispatch. But he added that the water agency would like to have a quick resolution to the issue and is open to suggestions.
“The department is willing to look at recommendations by parties that still meet the statutory goal of the AMA,” he said.
If the rule is not repealed or delayed, it takes effect Jan. 1.
