By Tony Davis | Arizona Daily Star
Arizona’s water director is looking at proposals to allow some development to use groundwater in fast-growing fringes of the Phoenix area — just a month after halting new growth relying on the aquifer there.
At a meeting Tuesday of a new state committee, Arizona Department of Water Resources Director Tom Buschatzke outlined two possible changes in state rules that could allow some growth to go forward on groundwater under certain conditions.
One idea would be for a developer to “comingle” a significant amount of renewable water supplies, that don’t come from the aquifer, with groundwater.
Another would be for a developer or builder to provide assurances that some form of water infrastructure will be built to bring in another water supply that unlike groundwater is renewable.
The department also signaled it might be open to considering changes in the computerized groundwater model for the Phoenix water management area that it released June 1. The model projected the total amount of groundwater available in the Phoenix area over the next 100 years would likely fall about 4% short of expected demand. But it drew a lot of questions and unfavorable comments from water interest groups when it was unveiled.
“Given the response from the development community, it is not surprising that the State is considering ways to allow growth in areas requiring a certificate of assured water supply. Based on these suggestions from ADWR, it appears that ADWR is doing so in a thoughtful way though there are certainly additional proposals (such as farm-to-muni) that can and should be considered.” – David Johnson, water lawyer and chair of Rose Law Group’s water law department
