Governor Napolitano has said water will be one of her administration’s priorities next year, but she is waiting to reveal the details.

A revised plan from the governor’s Drought Task Force is scheduled to be on her desk Oct. 6, and her staff and state water officials also are studying a separate report from the “Arizona Policy Forum,” a think tank that has submitted recommendations on dealing with rural water supplies.

“…I’m waiting …to see what comes to me by way of plans,” she told reporters Sept. 29, several hours before her Drought Task Force said it will expand its earlier plan to add recommendations for mandatory water-use reduction if drought conditions warrant.

Under the plan, which the task force hopes to complete by the week of Oct. 4, a new state agency, the Office of Water Conservation, would monitor conditions. If it declared there was a “moderate” drought as determined by a state monitoring system, state agencies and universities would be required to reduce their water use by 5 per cent and cities would be asked to enact water-saving ordinances and adopt conservation programs such as asking restaurants not to provide drinking water unless customers request it.

Drought Emergencies

Under “severe” drought conditions, the governor could declare an emergency, and state agencies and universities would be required to reduce water consumption by 15 per cent and cities would be asked to ration water for “large turf users” and impose watering schedules. Individuals would be asked to further reduce indoor use by recycling water and using only commercial car washes.

Under “extreme” conditions, the plan states, the state would eliminate all “non-essential” outdoor watering and cities and individuals would be asked to stop outdoor watering altogether, among other conservation measures.

The plan requires cities and water utilities to complete long-term drought plans, and it asks citizens to practice everyday conservation. Under abnormally dry conditions, homeowners would be asked to check for water leaks and consider putting in low water landscaping.

Representatives of The League of Arizona Cities and Towns and the Municipal Waters Users Association said on Sept. 30 they had not had time to study the drought plan to comment on it.

Ms. Napolitano signed an executive order establishing the Arizona Drought Task Force in March of 2003. It directs the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) to develop both short-term and long-term drought plans. Task force members include leaders from state agencies and elected officials. House Speaker Jake Flake R-5, Rep. Tom O’Halleran. R-1, and Sen. Linda Binder, R-3, are on the task force.

O’Halleran Plans Bills

Rural legislators have expressed concern about water shortages that urban areas have not experienced. Drought and water management in rural Arizona will be addressed, in part, in the final drought plan, but also will require legislation, said Mr. O’Halleran, R-1.

“In most of rural Arizona, we make decisions on what water we hope will be there, not what we know will be there,” he said.

Mr. O’Halleran said the task force calls for cities and local utilities to create drought plans. Local plans would be submitted to the state Department of Water Resources for comment, but the agency would not have the authority to approve or reject them.

Mr. O’Halleran said he plans to introduce a group of bills next year that will deal with regional water planning and private water companies and provide a role for the Arizona Corporation Commission in drought management.

Mr. O’Halleran also said the Governor’s Office and the Legislature need to know soon how much it will cost to establish the water conservation office and drought monitoring system outlined in the task force plan. The plan also calls for additional staff at ADWR.

Herb Guenther, ADWR director, said he is satisfied with the plan but expects it will change over the years as the state grows.

Policy Forum Also Releases Water Report

Mr. Guenther said the Arizona Policy Forum report recommending changes to state groundwater law is apt to meet with resistance. This report, warns of “a potential water crisis” if the state fails to revise the 1980 Ground Water Management Act (GMA) to address rural Arizona water needs, especially groundwater basins in southeastern and northern areas of the state.

Among the committee’s recommendations is a proposed requirement that a new well to serve a new rural residential development may only be drilled if there is a 100-year water supply for the proposed use. The advisory committee also suggests a state program of impact fees on new residential development to provide matching funds for water planning, acquisition and infrastructure, with emphasis on rural areas.

“Some will feel it is government intervening in areas of regulation and oversight where it shouldn’t be,” Mr. Guenther said of the report. His spokesman, Jack Lavelle, said ADWR attorneys are reviewing the report, which includes proposed amendments to the Groundwater Management Act (GMA).

The Arizona Policy Forum’s legislative proposal would give local governments and the director of ADWR authority to decide whether to impose the requirement for a developer to prove a 100-year water supply before proceeding with a development.

“The act has assured an adequate water supply exists in urban areas,” the forum’s water policy committee says. “The same cannot be said for many parts of rural Arizona that were excluded from the GMA provisions. Many of these areas are growing at extraordinary rates, placing substantial demands on limited water supplies.”

The report concludes: “Failure to ensure that new growth takes place only when a long-term water supply is available will lead to increasing conflicts among water users, negative financial consequences and, ultimately, water shortages. It is time to act.”

Cattlemen Say Drought In 2002 Cost Them $300 Million

The latest drought hit Arizona and other states in 1995, officials say, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency reported last month that Arizona and six other states were designated for drought disaster relief in 2003 and more than $95 million in federal emergency loans has been provided to agricultural producers in those states.

Specific figures for Arizona’s drought losses were unavailable, but the state’s cattlemen estimated their losses in 2002 at $300 million.

Alan Stephens, a member of the task force and Ms. Napolitano’s chief of staff for operations, says the drought has not reached “crisis” status, but precautions are needed to conserve water resources.

“There are two Arizonas,” he said, the sections that are served by the Central Arizona Project and the rest of the state. “It’s not a crisis now. The Colorado River basin is a large bathtub. It takes a long time to drain that bathtub.”

But, he said, “It also takes a long time to fill it up again. The governor feels very strongly the public wants to see some action. They get it — we’re in a drought.”

The governor, who has said she is planning a “listening tour” of the state on water matters before making any policy decisions, was non-committal about whether she would submit water legislation to the next Legislature.

“I don’t want to say yes or no right now,” Ms. Napolitano said. “Those plans for what we actually put in the Legislature are not fortified in any area right now.”

The Governor’s office has indicated to reporters that Ms. Napolitano’s take on the future of Arizona’s water probably will
come in a speech to the Arizona Town Hall on Nov. 1 —