By Melissa St. Aude | Casa Grande Dispatch
While work gets underway to form a committee tasked with finding an alternative to a controversial Arizona Department of Water Resources rule, one farmers’ advocacy group still hopes for an outright repeal of the measure.
“There’s still a cloud hanging over our property values,” said Tiffany Shedd, spokeswoman for Farmers Against State Takings (FAST), an advocacy group that formed to challenge the rule.
ADWR’s plan calls for a gradual phase-out of agricultural extinguishment credits.
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 would have started a gradual decline next year and by 2053, they would be eliminated.
Although the credit phase-out plan is aimed at protecting the aquifer after years of over-pumping, those opposed believe it zaps the value out of farmland throughout the county.
The rule change caught the attention of area growers in May, and throughout the summer, the issue heated up as FAST formed and began urging area lawmakers to take action against the rule.
Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents FAST.
