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<br />exchange or deliver water, except groundwater within the district. . . (and] acquire, hold, <br />retire or dispose of water rights located outside the district. . . ....g0 <br /> <br />The replenishment district concept has received support in principle from rural <br />interests who feel that it might shift the emphasis in water supplies away from water <br />farms.81 Conditions limiting water transfers outside of AMAs, however, would have to be <br />attached. Rodney Smith, an economist whose book Trading Water: An Economic and <br />Legal Framework for Water Marketing focused on Arizona water law and market activity, <br />has suggested that Phoenix may be willing to accept transfer conditions as a tradeoff for a <br />solution that replaces mandatory conservation with water augmentation to achieve safe <br />yield.82 <br /> <br />Water augmentation legislation initially was considered in Arizona's 1991 session as <br />an amendment to Senate Bill 1055, a water transfer measure similar in concept--but not in <br />specific provisions--to legislation that failed to pass at the end of the 1989 session (HB <br />2666). As originally introduced, SB 1055 would establish three "reserved basins" from <br />which water could be transferred, and limit to 40 percent the amount of groundwater that <br />could be exported. The bill would set specific criteria to be evaluated by the director of the <br />Department of Water Resources in reviewing a transfer application, and establish an ad <br />hoc committee that would include urban and rural members to advise the director in each <br /> <br />transfer case. Financial compensation on a per-acre of land and per-acre-foot of water <br />basis would be provided to offset potential impacts in the county of origin. 83 The water <br />augmentation amendment has been stricken from SB 1055 in the House and reintroduced <br />as House Bill 2499. (At the beginning of April, the transfer and replenishment district <br />concepts were being considered on separate tracks.)84 <br /> <br />40 <br />