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<br />into more than one right, the transfer of an irrigation right means the end of farming on the <br />land in most instances.46 <br /> <br />The act also requires a municipality to demonstrate that there is sufficient water <br />available (assured water supply) to service growth before subdividing land within an active <br />management area (AMA). The new source of supply cannot be mined groundwater- <br />withdrawals in excess of recharge--within the AMA. Municipalities are looking to purchase <br />and transfer water from agricultural land in the absence of significant water <br />conservation.47 <br /> <br />Representatives from rural areas argue that the effect of many water transfers is to <br />substitute mined groundwater from areas outside an AMA for mined groundwater that <br />municipalities are precluded from using within the AMA. A nonrenewable resource is <br />depleted; the only difference is location. In those rural areas without access to alternative <br />surface water supplies, groundwater transfers translate into lost economic development <br />potentia1.48 <br /> <br />The acquisition of agricultural land to obtain the appurtenant groundwater rights-- <br />referred to as "water farming"--that occurred subsequent to the act's passage and through <br />about 1984, did not engender the type of rural oppostion that has been witnessed in recent <br />years. The reasons cited are: <br />(1) the area of origin was relatively near the area of use; <br />(2) the water was in the same hydrologic basin, although in different sub- <br />basins; <br />(3) the land was in the same county, so that most property tax impacts <br />were internalized; and <br /> <br />23 <br />