By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services
Gov. Katie Hobbs on Wednesday vetoed five bills changing water laws in Arizona, concluding they would cause more harm than good.
The governor rejected an extensive measure that would have allowed the construction of new subdivisions in certain areas of the state which are dependent on groundwater.
Proponents have argued that these developments would take place where there have been farms that already have been irrigated with groundwater. The net result, they contend, is that there would be no net increase in the amount pumped.
“The concept at the core of this bill – conversion of agricultural lands to lower water use development – is a policy that has broad potential benefits,” the governor said in her veto message. And Hobbs said she supports the goal.
But Hobbs, in her veto message, questioned whether there really would be any savings. And she was hesitant to start crafting exceptions to the state’s 1980 Groundwater Act, which became the first real effort to recognize that there is not an infinite supply of water.
