Groundwater gravelpit
Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
Calling the figure “arbitrary,” Senate President Warren Petersen wants to scrap the centerpiece of state water law: the heart of the 1980 Goundwater Management Act that requires residential developers in urban areas to show they have a 100-year supply of water and replace it with something much looser.
The Gilbert Republican is complaining about the Department of Water Resources announcing earlier this year it would not issue permits for new subdivisions for some areas on the fringes of Phoenix. That came because a modeling analysis of groundwater at the edges of the basin in and around Phoenix shows there simply won’t be enough water to provide the legally required 100-year supply.
All that resulted in headlines from coast to coast that Arizona was running out of water. And Petersen blamed ADWR.
“To send a message to the country that we are out of water was irresponsible,” he said, even if the stories failed to understand this was only for two areas.
