Update on bills that impact water & environment at AZ Legislature

How close should hunting be allowed by your property?

The Arizona Senate came back for one day this week and passed a few bills, plus defeated SB1053 with a vote of 14-14-2. SB1053 wildlife; firearms discharge; structures; distance (Rogers: Gillette) would have allowed shotguns and archery equipment -- bows and such -- to be discharged for hunting wildlife within one-fourth mile, but outside one-eighth mile, of a residence without permission of the property owner. Limiting the use of these weapons and requiring permission is a private property rights issue, a public safety issue, and is also important for protecting domestic animals. There was no motion for reconsideration, but they could still do that. The Senate also confirmed Robyn Sahid as State Land Commissioner, one of the few agency heads to be confirmed this year. The Governor signed HB2753 groundwater replenishment; Pinal AMA (Martinez: Lopez). While it was improved in the Senate, it is still a bill that is built upon the house of cards that is the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District -- there is no excess Colorado River water for replenishment. This bill specifically applies to the Pinal Active Management Area, allowing a municipal provider to assume replenishment obligations for any member lands when they apply for an assured water supply designation. Replenishment with what exactly? This is more smoke and mirrors when it comes to assured water supply.  The Arizona House will be back on June 4th. The Senate will be back with a 48-hour notice, maybe on June 4th as well. They seem to have finally started speaking about the budget.

SB1150 NOW: wind farms; construction; policies; procedures  (Gowan) includes numerous new mandates for wind energy generation facilities that will erect significant roadblocks to siting wind projects. The mandates include requiring financial surety and prohibitions on the construction of wind projects within six miles of a property zoned residential, yet you can plop down a large gas plant – something that emits harmful pollutants – right next to a residential neighborhood. Thoughtful siting criteria are fine, but this bill is not about that. It is about stopping wind farms. It still awaits a final passage vote in the Senate. There are still a few bad water bills out there, including SB1520 Now: Rural Water (Dunn) establishes an extremely weak system for groundwater "management" in a limited number of areas in rural Arizona. It is not what is needed to stabilize aquifers to limit land subsidence, earth fissures, and the continued decline of water levels, which are drying up wells in some areas. Discussions have broken down on this bill, so the outlook is grim for rural water, but legislators still may send it up for a veto. SB1611 physical availability exemption credit; groundwater (Shope: Petersen) is a bill  to accommodate development where water is no longer physically available, according to ADWR modeling. The provision allows a landowner who has an irrigation grandfathered right in an active management area to retire the land from irrigation, but retain a physical availability credit to non-irrigation use of the land. This specifically gets around assured water supply requirements for subdivisions in active management areas (AMA) and allows continued groundwater mining. Talks are continuing on this and it is likely some version of it will advance. To see the bills the Sierra Club is tracking, please go here.