Tag: water-supply

Arizona Governor Hobbs proposes adding over $60 million to defend State’s water future

On By azwater

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PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                         January 30, 2025

CONTACT: Doug MacEachern

PHONE: 602.771.8507

ARIZONA GOVERNOR HOBBS PROPOSES ADDING OVER $60 MILLION TO DEFEND STATE’S WATER FUTURE

A breakdown of water-related investments included in the recently released Executive Budget proposal from Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs:

  • $14.6M Deposit to WIFA Water Conservation Grant Fund

Governor Hobbs has now allocated $14.6 million to the Water Conservation Grant Fund to enable the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) to continue investing in generational water conservation projects.

Thanks to $200 million awarded by the State in federal funds allocated through the American Rescue Plan Act, WIFA has been able to fund conservation-focused projects across Arizona. To date, WIFA has funded over 150 water conservation projects. The Governor’s 2025 Executive Budget proposal includes investments in current and future water solutions, including WIFA’s funding for rural water supply development and long-term augmentation.

These critical resources will help ensure that rural areas can invest in the infrastructure they need to be water resilient, statewide efforts continue their investment in the infrastructure Arizona needs to find sustainable, renewable water supplies for the future. These investments speak directly to the mission of WIFA, which has been to augment and expand Arizona’s water supplies.

  • $12M Grant for City of Buckeye Renewable Water Infrastructure

By enrolling in the new Alternative Designation of 100-year Assured Water Supply (ADAWS) Program, the City of Buckeye has committed to increasing the sustainability of its water resource portfolio, a major step forward toward creating sustainable growth. This allocation of $12 million will help Buckeye build infrastructure to reuse its effluent supplies and recover them from a hydrologically connected area; facilitating sustainable growth and increased use of renewable water supplies.

  • $7M Statewide Groundwater Monitoring and Data Collection

These allocations will provide ADWR with much needed additional tools to  ensure that Arizona’s groundwater resources are properly managed and protected. Governor Hobbs has invested $7 million to ADWR to install groundwater monitoring index wells throughout rural Arizona to observe declining groundwater levels and inform ongoing groundwater protection efforts. Without these index wells, ADWR hydrologists are less able to accurately assess the health of groundwater supplies in rural areas.

  • $5.5M For ADWR Hydrogeologic Studies in Priority Groundwater Basins

To help rural communities understand and protect their groundwater supplies, ADWR hydrologists create groundwater models that help water managers and community leaders understand the conditions of their aquifers. This $5.5 million investment will allow ADWR hydrogeologists to collect key hydrogeologic information to build these critical models in groundwater basins experiencing severe water declines.

  • $3.45M ADWR Leading Edge Satellite Water Monitoring Systems & Equipment

This investment with ADWR funds the acquisition and use of cutting-edge technologies including absolute gravity survey equipment to monitor aquifer conditions, funding for the Arizona Continuously Operating Reference Stations (AZCORS) Network that provides critical GPS data for scientists, engineers, and surveyors throughout Arizona. It provides funds for satellite monitoring of statewide water demand, and funding for ADWR contractual partnerships with the US Geological Survey (USGS) to collect key water use data.

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Governor’s Executive Budget Proposal Includes Funding for Key ADWR Initiatives

On By azwater

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PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                         January 17, 2025

CONTACT: Doug MacEachern

PHONE: 602.771.8507

GOVERNOR’S EXECUTIVE BUDGET PROPOSAL INCLUDES FUNDING FOR KEY ADWR INITIATIVES

Funding for Arizona’s on-going efforts to protect groundwater resources and to prepare for possible litigation over management of the Colorado River

Phoenix, AZ — Today Governor Hobbs released her FY2026 Executive Budget, which funds critical ADWR programs and efforts, including our expanding efforts to actively manage groundwater resources in previously unregulated areas of rural Arizona and to prepare for the possibility of litigation to defend the State’s Colorado River allocation.

While managing current endeavors, ADWR has taken on the State’s next generation of water challenges.

Those new challenges include:

  • Assisting an increasing number of Arizonans in rural communities who now have groundwater protections for the first time ever.
  • Helping builders to find a new path to build more homes in Arizona’s urban centers while reducing reliance on groundwater.
  • Partnering with Tribes whose efforts to reach agreement on water rights are now bearing fruit as a result of successful negotiations with the State and local parties.

Decades of drought in the Southwest, as well as significant increases in groundwater mining in recent years in rural areas, have prompted the ADWR Director to take action, including designating earlier this year Arizona’s seventh Active Management Area (AMA) in the Willcox Basin region.

The new Willcox AMA, along with the Douglas AMA established in 2022 in southern Arizona, together represent the first-ever expansions of groundwater basins actively managed by the Department since the enactment of Arizona’s landmark Groundwater Management Act of 1980.

As a result, ADWR is preparing to advance its efforts to monitor commercial groundwater extraction, assist local communities in establishing groundwater-protection goals and assure that new-home construction in the new Willcox AMA conforms to the requirements of the Groundwater Management Act, including assuring new-home buyers of at least a 100-year water supply.

To keep up with this work on behalf of Arizonans, ADWR must strengthen its team of highly skilled, technical professionals. The Executive Budget includes an ongoing General Fund appropriation of $741,300 to add 6.0 FTE positions across the agency to meet the demanding water policy challenges facing Arizona.

Governor Hobbs’ budget proposal also includes funding to protect the State’s vital Colorado River supplies in the event negotiations on new operating rules for the river falter, prompting legal action.

The Executive Budget creates a Colorado River Litigation Fund with a $1 million General Fund deposit and a transfer of $2 million from prior non-lapsing special line items for Colorado River legal expenses, for a total investment of $3 million.

“If the collaborative and cooperative partnership we have fostered in these negotiations does not bear fruit, Arizona may need to take legal action to protect its current 2.8 million acre feet of Colorado River entitlement,” said Director Tom Buschatzke.

“Litigation is not a path we wish to go down. It can be a very lengthy and expensive process.”

“Nevertheless, this proposed budget demonstrates a significant commitment by Governor Hobbs to support Arizona’s commitment to protecting its entitlement from the Colorado River,” he said.

The current guidelines for the operation and management of the Colorado River system expire at the end of calendar year 2026. Arizona and the six other Basin States are negotiating the post-2026 guidelines with the federal Bureau of Reclamation in order to develop a framework that more sustainably manages the Colorado River system.

The Director of ADWR serves as Arizona’s lead negotiator and is charged with protecting the State’s 2.8 million acre-feet entitlement of Colorado River water, representing as much as 40 percent of the State’s water supply.

While Arizona is committed to collaboration and cooperation with its Basin States partners, it is possible that new guidelines or the absence of a negotiated outcome could result in litigation among the Basin States.

Arizona continues to pursue good-faith negotiations that hopefully will result in a consensus outcome for more sustainable Colorado River management. At the same time, this appropriation ensures that ADWR has the resources to defend Arizona’s interests and water users who depend on the State’s precious Colorado River entitlement.

Major ADWR initiatives funded in the Governor’s budget proposal include:

  • $741,300 ongoing from the General Fund to add 6.0 FTE positions across the agency.
  • $1 million General Fund deposit and a transfer of $2 million from prior non-lapsing special line items for Colorado River legal expenses, for a total investment of $3 million.

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