CGS sent a letter to the Governor and ADWR on April 24. The letter asks the Governor to actively support passage of the LGSA Legislation and asks the ADWR Director to initiate the process to designate the Willcox Basin as an INA/AMA. Nearly 130 Willcox Basin residents signed on to the letter. Read the letter here:
Willcox Basin Letter to Governor and ADWR Director
We have written a letter to Governor Hobbs and Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) DirectorTom Buschatzke to urge them to take actions to help protect the Willcox Basin groundwater and we need as many Willcox Basin residents to “sign on” to this letter as possible. Here is what we are asking for in our letter:
- We are asking the Governor to help get the Local Groundwater Stewardship Area (LGSA) bill (HB2731/SB1306) passed during this legislative session. Some of us here have been working with leaders from rural areas across the state to craft legislation that is tailored to help protect groundwater in rural Arizona. The LGSA legislation was introduced earlier this year and despite significant bipartisan support has been denied a hearing by Rep. Gail Griffin. We now want the Governor to help revive this legislation during the budget negotiation process with the legislature in a few months. This legislation addresses some of the major objections raised by opponents of the AMA – namely, local control, more flexibility in transferring irrigation from on parcel to another, and a way to terminate the LGSA if it is no longer needed.
- We are also asking the ADWR Director to begin the process to designate the Willcox Basin either an INA or an AMA –this is something the Director has the legal authority to do once a public input process has been completed and recent hydrologic data has been reviewed to confirm that a groundwater basin meets the criteria established by law. Under the last three Governors politics tied the hands of the ADWR Director to take such action but that all changed after the current Governor was elected when the ADWR Director designated the Hualapai Basin near Kingman an INA in December 2022. We are hopeful the Director may do the same for the Willcox Basin. This process takes approximately six months to complete. It is clear that the Willcox Basin currently meets the legal criteria to be designated an INA or AMA and has for at least the past 15 years.
- We also want the ADWR Director to know that if the LGSA bill passes in this legislative session, we would prefer that he designate the Willcox Basin an LGSA as that would be a more appropriate solution for our rural area and would likely be acceptable to many of the residents who voted against the AMA last year. Fortunately, there are provisions in the LGSA bill that gives the ADWR Director the authority to do just that.