If you don’t know what a 100-year Assured Water Supply is, you should be paying more attention. No new subdivisions can be approved in Coolidge without first proving that water can be provided to those homes for 100 years. Since 1995, when rules were adopted to implement the details of this program, more than 1,200 new subdivisions dependent on groundwater were approved and 20 water providers were designated as having an Assured Water Supply in both the Phoenix and Pinal Active Management Areas (AMAs). 

AMAs are big groundwater basins located in the Phoenix metropolitan area and in central Pinal County. Five years ago, the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) told us that based on their fancy groundwater models, we will run out of groundwater to meet all the demands in the Pinal AMA within 100-years. Because of that, ADWR told us no new Certificates of Assured Water Supply using groundwater could be approved.  The last one of these Certificates were issued in Coolidge at the end of 2010, more than 14 years ago.

Coolidge is located inside the Pinal AMA and 50 of those 1,200 subdivisions call Coolidge home. Those 50 subdivisions include more than 15,000 lots and around 11,000 acre-feet of water. An acre-foot can serve around four houses a year in Coolidge. We estimate that roughly 3,200 of those lots have been built pretty much since 2019, and Coolidge’s population has been growing at a rate of roughly 6% each year. We expect to double our population between now and 2035. 

Eight of those 50 subdivisions have been built-out. Eight are building out right now and the remaining subdivisions have not been built. Some of them may never build given changes since 2010 regarding where developers need to build new subdivisions to meet demands of new homebuyers. It will not be long before our inventory of potential lots with 100-year Certificates of Assured Water Supply will be gone.

This will be bad for Coolidge. We need more housing, and we need flexibility. While I’m not a fan of regulations, I am in support of a change in the 100-year Assured Water Supply rules that will hopefully give the water companies inside our city a chance to get an Assured Water Supply for their service areas. Based on how things have been going, this is our best shot at moving things forward. I think you should support this change too. We all want to see the city of Coolidge prosper, but the current 100-year Assured Water Supply is broken, and we have to fix it. Let’s level the playing field and play by the same rules as the Phoenix AMA.

Here’s what you can do to help. There will be a meeting at the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council on November 22. This is the group responsible for overseeing all the changes to this program and recommending a path forward. The meeting is virtual (meaning you can attend online) so you can attend this meeting and speak in support of the new rules by visiting https://grrc.az.gov. You can also provide written comments, which can be easily be submitted to the Council via email at grrccomments@azdoa.gov. To make sure the GRRC sees your comments, email them no later than 5 p.m. on Nov. 21. Please join me in letting them know a 100-Year Assured Water Supply is important to Coolidge and it’s important to you.

Jon Thompson is the mayor of Coolidge.