SB 1520
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ARIZONA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Fifty-seventh Legislature
First Regular Session
Senate: NR DPA/SE 4-3-1-0 | 18-10-2-0-0
House: NREW DPA 6-4-0-0
SB 1520: rural groundwater
Sponsor: Senator Dunn, LD 25
Caucus & COW
Overview
Establishes the basin management area (BMA), a groundwater management designation,
and prescribes its formation requirements, groundwater rights, authorized regulations and
operation.
History
Arizona’s Groundwater Code, enacted in 1980, prescribed uses of groundwater "…to conserve,
protect and allocate its use…" and provide a framework for the comprehensive management
and regulation of the withdrawal, transportation, use, conservation and conveyance of rights
to use groundwater in this state (A.R.S. § 45-401).
As part of the management framework, the Code initially designated four Active
Management Areas (AMAs) and two Irrigation Non-Expansion Areas (INAs). Currently
there are seven AMAs: Phoenix, Pinal, Prescott, Tucson, Santa Cruz, Douglas and Willcox
(ADWR) (A.R.S. §§ 45-411,45-411.03).
Provisions
1. Authorizes a BMA designation to be initiated in any of the following groundwater basins:
a) Gila Bend;
b) Hualapai Valley; or
c) Willcox. (Sec. 1)
2. Outlines the BMA designation can occur through either:
a) the designation of the Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources
(Director) and the Director's finding of any provided characteristics; or
b) a petition to the Director that is signed by at least 10% of the registered voters within
the boundaries of the groundwater basin. (Sec. 1)
3. Provides requirements of a petition for BMA designation. (Sec. 1)
4. Outlines requirements of the Director that apply if the Director's determination initiated
the BMA designation. (Sec. 1)
5. Requires the Director to grant a certificate of groundwater rights, within 15 months, to
each water user who applies for a certificate of groundwater rights. (Sec. 1)
6. Prescribes the method of calculation to determine the annual volume of water associated
with a certificate of groundwater rights in a BMA. (Sec. 1)
☐ Prop 105 (45 votes) ☐ Prop 108 (40 votes) ☐ Emergency (40 votes) ☐ Fiscal Note
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7. Mandates ADWR to increase the amount of water entitled to a user via their certificate
of groundwater rights if the user has made substantial capital investment before the
initiation of the designation of a BMA. (Sec. 1)
8. Requires a landowner, of planned residential or mixed-use developments, be granted a
certificate of groundwater rights that is equal to the projected water demand of the
development at build out. (Sec. 1)
9. Prohibits new groundwater pumping after the designation of a BMA and provides an
exemption if certain conditions are met. (Sec. 1)
10. Prohibits the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) from requiring a user of
groundwater to:
a) meter any wells located in a BMA; or
b) report the user's groundwater use beyond an annual report to ADWR estimating the
groundwater used based on pumping or other similarly reliable and accessible
methods. (Sec. 1)
11. Allows a groundwater user to voluntarily acquire and report metering data. (Sec. 1)
12. Stipulates that the annual report a groundwater user submits to ADWR is a public record.
(Sec. 1)
13. Authorizes a groundwater user's report and corresponding data to be presented as
evidence in any court if certain conditions are met and allows the groundwater user to
consent to waive this privilege. (Sec. 1)
14. Outlines the required content of an application for a certificate of groundwater rights.
(Sec. 1)
15. Clarifies what constitutes as substantial capital investment for irrigation and non-
irrigation users. (Sec. 1)
16. Outlines required actions if a user is deemed to have made substantial capital investment
in facilities associated with a non-irrigation use and meets additional criteria. (Sec. 1)
17. Requires ADWR to issue a groundwater user who submits evidence of water conservation
a receipt of their water conserved and to provide the basin management council with all
current and past receipts. (Sec. 1)
18. Allows a groundwater user with a certificate of groundwater right to:
a) use groundwater in excess of the amount allowed by the right in an amount up to 25%
of the annual allocation of water granted with the certificate of groundwater use; and
b) use less than the amount allowed by the right in one accounting period and use the
remaining amount allowed by the right in a succeeding accounting period or periods.
(Sec. 1)
19. Requires the Director to adopt rules for the maintenance of a flexibility account for each
certificate of ground water right in a BMA. (Sec. 1)
20. Mandates ADWR to register a debit or a credit to a groundwater users flexibility account
if the user meets provided conditions. (Sec. 1)
21. Outlines regulations that apply to a person with a certificate of groundwater right that
uses a combination of water sources. (Sec. 1)
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22. States that if a certificate of groundwater right is conveyed, in whole or in part, that each
acre-foot conveyed carries a proportional share of any debits or credits in the flexibility
account for the right. (Sec. 1)
23. Allows for the sale or conveyance of a credit balance in a flexibility account of an owner
of a certificate of groundwater right in a BMA if provided requirements are met. (Sec. 1)
24. Authorizes an owner of a certificate of groundwater right with a registered credit balance
in their flexibility account the ability to extinguish all or a portion of the credit balance
and notify the Director to register a deduction of the credit amount extinguished from
that owner's flexibility account balance. (Sec. 1)
25. Outlines permitted actions for an owner of:
a) a municipal and industrial certificate of groundwater rights; and
b) an agricultural certificate of groundwater rights. (Sec. 1)
26. Allows for an agricultural certificate of groundwater rights to be converted to a municipal
and industrial use and outlines the requirements, procedures and allocation of water
volume associated with the conversion. (Sec. 1)
27. Permits the sale or conveyance of a groundwater right associated with agricultural
certificates and municipal and industrial certificates in the same groundwater basin if
prescribed requirements are met. (Sec. 1)
28. Allows the owner of an agricultural certificate to convey land described in the
groundwater user's certificate and provides that upon conveyance each acre will carry a
proportional share of the annual allocation of groundwater that is granted with the
certificate. (Sec. 1)
29. Provides requirements for the conveyance of an agricultural certificate of groundwater
rights. (Sec. 1)
30. Prohibits the reduction in groundwater right allocation for the transfer of flexibility
credits between an irrigation user and livestock industrial user that share common
ownership. (Sec. 1)
31. Outlines requirements for an owner of a certificate of groundwater rights that voluntarily
retires all or part of the groundwater rights. (Sec. 1)
32. Prohibits the Director of ADWR or the voters of a BMA to designate a BMA as an AMA
or an INA. (Sec. 1)
33. Stipulates that if a BMA is established in an area that was previously an INA that any
regulations adopted due to the INA designation are terminated and that all basins in the
INA are declared a BMA. (Sec. 1)
34. States this article does not preempt the transportation of groundwater authorized by
existing statute. (Sec. 1)
35. Requires a basin management council to be created in each BMA and outlines the
council's:
a) membership;
b) duties;
c) authority and jurisdiction;
d) meeting requirements; and
e) prohibited actions. (Sec. 1)
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36. Provides goals for the BMA and basin management council. (Sec. 1)
37. Includes basin management council in the definition of eligible entity as it pertains to the
Water Supply Development Revolving Fund. (Sec. 2)
38. Repeals the Willcox AMA and supplants the Willcox BMA. (Sec. 3)
39. Requires the Director of ADWR to file an order designating the Willcox AMA as repealed
and supplanted by the Willcox BMA and outlines further requirements of the order. (Sec.
3)
40. Repeals the section repealing the Willcox AMA on January 1, 2026. (Sec. 3)
Amendments
Committee on Natural Resources, Energy and Water
1. Clarifies that current groundwater withdrawal is the reason for certain events in one of
the Director's findings that can be used to designate a BMA. (Sec. 1)
2. Requires the Director of ADWR, prior to an election for the designation of a BMA, to hold
a series of public meetings with certain criteria. (Sec. 1)
3. Provides specific data required to be presented by the Director at public meetings during
the BMA designation process. (Sec. 1)
4. Alters what is included in substantial capital investment for irrigation users.
5. Alters the authorized regulations that a basin management council can adopt in the BMA
management plan. (Sec. 1)