Advocacy

The State of Arizona was given primacy by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a state superfund program for study and remediation of groundwater contamination at sites not involving Federal lands or facilities. The Water Quality Assurance Revolving Fund (WQARF) program was created in State Statute to seek funding from responsible parties for the remediation activities needed to remove contaminants from impacted groundwater sites.

It is our desire to continue dedicated funding from the state budget for the WQARF program. Several of the sites in the state that are currently being remediated utilize dispersed fee-based funds to maintain the remediation systems operations. From year to year these funds can rise or fall based on other Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) priorities. As new constituents are detected in these contaminant plumes, the costs for treatment will most likely rise and require stable funding streams to remediate groundwater.

To achieve the balance of our aquifers, Southern Arizona relies on renewable water transported and delivered through the Central Arizona Project (CAP). This supply pumped from the Colorado River has offset and in large areas reversed the impacts of past over pumping of groundwater. Currently, the federal government is in an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process in which they hope to promulgate a preferred alternative in 2025. Twenty-four years of drought have put the Colorado River System in danger of not supplying the water that has been allocated by the 1922 Compact.

Southern Arizona and the CAP system are the junior rights on the Colorado River. For a sustainable future, groundwater pumping cannot replace our present priority position for access to renewable supplies through the CAP canal. To provide reliable supplies of water to customers and have a sustainable economy, the future distribution of the Colorado River should protect current municipal and Indian priorities in Arizona.

As the potential for substantial cuts in water deliveries to the Lower Basins States on the Colorado River increases, it is important to maintain the current priority of Municipal and Industrial (M&I) Subcontractors in the CAP canal system. Any reductions that impact water deliveries to the CAP canal should be equitably and proportionally applied to allocations that currently exist.

The Arizona plumbing code fixture requirements under A.R.S. § 45-312 list fixtures and their respective water conservation limits based on the 1996 Uniform Mechanic Code (UMC) national plumbing code. The most up to date plumbing code utilizes the WaterSense designation of fixtures. The WaterSense designation reduces the allowable flow limits of household fixtures (ex. Toilet 1.28 gallons per flush or less) to further promote water conservation in households.

Because the State of California and Texas have adopted these standards, it is difficult to find older flow rate fixtures at local home improvement stores. However, products remain available by order or on shelves that are not WaterSense fixtures. Home builders can still order large numbers of fixtures for a subdivision that reflect the older 1996 plumbing code legally in Arizona. Most fixture rebate programs offered by local water providers all require the

Several groundwater basins in rural Arizona are experiencing depletion of water supplies because of little to no regulation regarding groundwater pumping. Supporting new regulation by these rural areas to create protections is recommended.

The Arizona Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) has been a mechanism to help fund critical Arizona Water initiatives that range from safe drinking water to augmentation efforts, to conservation.

For example, regulation has been established by the EPA that impacts providers with any detectable concentration of Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). This impacts a large group of water providers that have detectable concentrations of PFAS in their drinking water systems. It is important to have Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) funding available for water providers to address these regulatory changes.

Furthermore, SAWUA members have achieved local, state, national and international recognition for their conservation efforts and believe continued investment on this front is crucial to continue to meet the community’s present and future needs. For municipal providers, solutions include programs and partnerships that address water loss control, public engagement and rebate programs, smart metering for customer empowerment, and developer engagement, to name a few. SAWUA supports continued investment into the WIFA conservation fund to facilitate water providers’ adoption of proven technologies and bold new initiatives will ensure a successful future for water conservation and quality of life in our desert environment and communities.

As surface water and groundwater supplies become more scarce, we support the adoption and implementation of Advanced Water Purification (AWP) guidelines that will offer an additional needed source of supply for our community’s water resource portfolios.

In the past, irrigation technology was costly and difficult to install for use on large scale agricultural lands. Modern technologies have proven both efficient and economically viable ways of utilizing water resources. Agriculture accounts for about approximately 70% of Arizona’s total water use. Any reductions in water use could yield large savings of water that can be used to support Southern Arizona’s water resources.

The Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District (CAGRD) provides replenishment of aquifers to offset member service area and member lands groundwater pumping. Often the location of use is distant from where replenishment is currently possible. There is sufficient recharge capacity at the constructed recharge facilities that are used by the CAGRD. However, as demonstrated by groundwater modeling, several areas in the Tucson Active Management Area (TAMA) are showing groundwater level declines where current and expected groundwater is not locally replenished. Future developments should consider construction of new recharge facilities proximal to the area of groundwater pumping to mitigate the expansion of current and future groundwater supply and demand imbalances.

The overdraft of our Arizona aquifers was generally addressed in the Groundwater Management Act of 1980 and nuanced changes have continued to occur. Agriculture, by its nature, uses a large amount of the state’s water. Total agricultural water use in 2019 was estimated to be approximately 70% by the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR). Currently, ADWR is undertaking a stakeholder process to create an Ag to Urban conversion program for the Phoenix and Pinal active management area (AMA). There are approximately 33,967 acres of agricultural land in TAMA that could be converted This new conversion program has the potential to save a significant volume of groundwater, and TAMA should also be a part of this program.