Most of metro Phoenix has a designation of Assured Water Supply.
It recognizes that a water provider has secured the water it needs to serve existing users, plus a certain amount of additional ones, for 100 years.
Buckeye, Queen Creek and a handful of other water providers lack this designation because they largely rely on groundwater. They’ve been working for years to wean their reliance on this finite water supply.
But securing the water necessary to earn a designation — and continue homebuilding in these fast-growing communities — has proven much harder said than done.
Buckeye, Queen Creek and other parts of the West Valley and Pinal County have grown largely via certificates of Assured Water Supply.
For decades, subdivisions with these certificates were allowed to grow on groundwater if they later joined a district that acquired supplies to replenish some of their pumping.
But this practice ended in Pinal years ago and across metro Phoenix last summer, after updated models found unmet demand for groundwater over the long term.
That means any new subdivision must either now acquire their own renewable supplies, such as treated effluent or leased river water, or a designated provider must agree to serve them, before they can plat and sell lots.
Which has effectively ground planning for single-family, for-sale homes in undesignated communities to a halt.
Designation could solve a multitude of problems.
It could keep developers out of the market to buy water, for example, so they don’t jack up the cost for everyone else.
It also could help level the playing field for development in these fast-growing communities, because all users would then be required to prove they have enough water to sustain themselves for the long haul, before they build.
That’s not necessarily the case now, as state law allows factories, stores, apartments and for-rent single-family homes to continue to build on groundwater in these undesignated areas, without any requirements to replenish what they pump.
Moving more uses to renewable sources would give these communities more latitude to responsibly grow. And it should leave the aquifer in better shape, long term, than if we continued with the status quo.
The problem is that to earn a designation these days, a water provider must not only have renewable supplies in hand, from Day 1, but also the infrastructure in place to put that water to use.
And not just for new growth that could materialize, but for users that are already pumping finite groundwater, including those that are not currently paying to replenish what they pump.
That’s a tall order to do all at once.
Which explains why, despite their best efforts, metro Phoenix’s newer communities remain undesignated.
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The state Department of Water Resources is floating a proposal that would allow these areas to use more groundwater now than a regular designation might allow, if they were required to decrease that reliance over time.
This alternative designation pathway could be wildly consequential — not only for the future shape of our aquifer, but for how metro Phoenix continues to grow.
That is, if it works.
Providers would be allowed to temporarily grow on groundwater again, but only if they paid back that pumping with extra replenishment.
Which may still be a tall order for some to pull off, even if they were given extra time to do so.
Because keep in mind: This is simply a regulatory framework.
It won’t help fund the necessary improvements — which many providers will likely need help doing, especially if they are to meet the extra replenishment requirements in this deal.
Arizona has set aside hundreds of millions of dollars to import water from a still-nebulous, future out-of-state source.
But think of the benefit if we spent at least some of that money now on projects that can help acquire the water and build the infrastructure to put some of our fastest-growing communities on a more sustainable path.
Reach Allhands at joanna.allhands@arizonarepublic.com. On X, formerly Twitter: @joannaallhands.
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