7913

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7913
• Author: Freshwater Society.
• Title: Water Management in Transition, 1985.
• USFW Year: 1985.
• USFW - Doc Type: Navarre, MN.
• Copyright Material: YES

By the year 2025,
groundwater withdrawals
may not exceed recharge.

Considerable opportunities
for conservation exist in
Arizona.

40

A "Formidable Mandate"

In 1977, the Arizona Legislature established the Groundwater Management Study
Commission to recommend a comprehensive groundwater management code.
Unlike previous study commissions, this commission was composed of
legislators and representatives of the major water users. Many of the
representatives were powerful lobbyists who, seeking to right inequities, had
no intention of sitting on a commission which either failed to carry out its
responsibility or developed recommendations which were politically
unacceptable.

Even so, the Commission's mandate was formidable, given the Commission's
size, its diverse make-up and the complexity orits task. Consequently, for the
first year of its existence, the Commission held a series of workshops designed
to educate both commissioners and the general public. It then spent an
additional six months developing and agreeing upon a decision-making process.

Because of the diverse make-up of the Commission, it was necessary to develop
a process in which each competing water -using interest felt its views were being
fairly considered, while working toward consensus on one set of policies. It
was recognized by many that if anyone interest brought its own draft of legislation
to the "bargaining table," this would cause a chain reaction of partisan drafts
which could polarize the Commission and make it difficult to mesh the drafts
into a "Commission bill." It should be noted that throughout the many months
of serious wrestling with issues and disagreement between interest groups on
the Commission, this occurrence, which might have seriously set back the
decision-making process, was successfully avoided.

After trial and error, the Commission agreed upon a decision-making document,
which set forth several alternatives to various elements of a comprehensive
groundwater management code, incorporating the different positions of the
members of the Commission.

In May 1979, the Commission convened at a secluded conference center to begin
decision-making in earnest. The decisions agreed upon formed the basis of the
Commission's DraftReportofTentativeRecommendations, publish in July 1979. Two
members of the Commission appointed by the governor to represent agriculture
bitterly denounced the Commission's decisions and filed a minority report.

The Commission then held public hearings on the draft report in eight cities.
At each hearing, agricultural users turned out in full force to express their
opposition. After the hearing:;, several Commission members expressed their
desire to develop final recommendations that all major water users could
support.

An added and very significant impetus for achieving a consensus was a warning
from then-Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus, who informed state leaders that the
Central Arizona Project, now a municipal, industrial and agricultural project,
would be in jeopardy if the state did not enact meaningful groundwater reforms
by the summer of 1980.

Fearing that only a bill which had the combined support of municipal, mining
and agricultural interests could be enacted by the summer, representatives of
these interests began informal negotiations aimed at reconciling their
differences, Under the personal chairmanship of Governor Bruce Babbitt, the
negotiations continued for six months and resulted in a draft groundwater code.
The proposed legislation was then approved by the Commission. In a one-day
special session, the Arizona Legislature adopted the bill recommended by the
Commission without amendment, and the Groundwater Management Act of 1980
was signed into law by Governor Babbitt the following day.