Environmentalists and nearly everyone concerned about the future of water in Arizona were holding their breath this week, awaiting Gov. Doug Ducey’s decision on SB1268. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Gail Griffen, a realtor who lives in southern Arizona, would have allowed a California developer to ignore state water law and build a 7,000-unit housing development in Sierra Vista near the Mexican border. The bill easily passed the House and Senate along party lines.
As I’ve written before, one reason Arizona doesn’t face some of the harsher water measures undertaken in California and Nevada is because in 1980 some forward-thinking officials passed the Groundwater Management Act (GMA). The bipartisan measure, which had considerable Republican support, was in response to the very dry state’s tremendous growth post-WWII.
An important provision in the GMA says that developments in urban areas must demonstrate a 100-year supply of water before they’ll be approved. Rural counties were invited to opt into the program, and two counties with large towns did: Cochise County along the border, where Sierra Vista is the largest community, and Yuma County along the Colorado River, where the city of Yuma is.
California developer Castle & Cooke has been trying for years to build its 7,000-home monstrosity in Sierra Vista, a once small town that’s sprawled up around Fort Huachuca Army base. It’s a majestic landscape—lots of mountains and desert but little water. The only way Castle & Cooke could show a 100-year supply of water for their new development was to tap into the nearby San Pedro River, which has the distinction of being the only free-flowing river in the Southwest: no dams, diversions, nothing.
In 1988, about 40 miles of the 200-mile San Pedro River was set aside by Congress as the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. It’s the home of at least 100 species of birds and a stopover for 300 other migrating species. Consequently, the San Pedro is a famous birding area, which contributes substantially to the local economy. It has a good trail system and you can camp throughout.
First the California developer approached the Arizona Department of Water Resources, which ruled that Castle & Cooke could indeed use the San Pedro. The Bureau of Land Management disagreed, arguing that at least 30 percent of the river’s water would be required to meet the 100-year rule—draining the river dry at certain times. The BLM sued and the case is in court.
But Castle & Cooke wasn’t taking any chances: in case the court ruled against them, the homebuilder worked with GOP Sen. Griffin to craft legislation that permitted rural counties to opt out of the GMA regulations—in effect, undermining the most important provision in the 1980 law, allowing developers to drain the San Pedro, and destroying Arizona’s reputation as a smart water steward.
To a person, ecologists and water experts said syphoning enough water from the San Pedro for new housing would ruin the river and surrounding sensitive ecological zones. The homebuilder argued that they could use that much water without harming the environment.
Happily, Gov. Doug Ducey took his groundwater management advice from the experts, not out-of-state developers!
"We're not going to allow bills that get in the way of the 1980 Groundwater Management Act or take away from the work that the people have done before I came into office in protecting Arizona's water," he told reporters while announcing his intention to veto the bills.
Sen. Griffin and her supporters, like House Speaker David Gowan, said the issue is private property rights. Even locals said bull to that, since the huge private housing development would affect existing groundwater wells, not to mention the public riparian area. It’s only private until it meets, uses and abuses public resources.
Four words I rarely write: Thank you, Gov. Ducey!