This year, for the first time in decades, Democrats in the Legislature were hopeful that the Republican majority was willing to take Arizona’s water security seriously and strengthen our urban water supplies while addressing the free-for-all that is rural groundwater pumping.
The state of our groundwater needs attention — desperately — as climate change is no longer a future fear but a reality we now live with daily.
Yet, in the waning hours before we ended the 2024 legislative session, the Republican majority pushed through a number of measures that have raised significant alarms.
If signed into law by Gov. Katie Hobbs, these bills would have led to even more unsustainable groundwater pumping and also put our urban water supplies in real jeopardy.
Republicans are pretending to have easy solutions on water, but what they’ve pushed through will only weaken our existing groundwater laws and fail to provide lasting protections for either rural or urban Arizonans.
On Saturday, the Legislature narrowly passed Senate Bill 1172, which contained Republicans’ latest “ag-to-urban” proposal (which had also been discussed in prior weeks in House Bill 2201).
Thankfully, Gov. Hobbs on Wednesday delivered her veto.
In theory, converting agricultural lands to more water-efficient homes could provide overall water savings within Active Management Areas........