Phoenix Lawmakers Mull Ag-to-Urban Water Bill

Developers in Pinal and Maricopa counties could get the green light to build new housing using water rights from retired farmland.

On June 19, the Arizona state Senate passed S.B. 1611, a so-called “ag-to-urban” proposal that would purportedly allow urban expansion while creating water savings and maintaining water security, The Arizona Republic reported. The bipartisan bill passed with a 26-4 vote and was sent to the House.

Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a previous version of the proposal last year fearing long-term groundwater depletion in Pinal County. Amendments to the bill now limit the distance from which water from retired agricultural land can be used, preventing any new development in desert land with no water. The new version of the law also requires that pumped groundwater be replenished with other sources — a responsibility of the Central Arizona Project’s new Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District.

Under the new law, farmland owners in groundwater-regulated areas of Pinal and Maricopa counties can give up their groundwater rights in exchange for credits they can sell.

It would be a boon to developers, as they’ve been banned since 2023 from building in the Phoenix or Pinal Active Management Areas if they’re tapping these shrinking aquifers. The requirement to prove access to 100 years’ worth of sustained water supply prompted a lawsuit against Hobbs from the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona earlier this year.

Farmland owners would also stand to benefit from the changes, allowing them to bring in money on their land even after they retire. The proposal would make hundreds of thousands of acres across the 2 acres eligible for ag-to-urban conversion.

The conversion of agricultural land to urban use will actually lower water use because residential development usually uses less water than farms. Farms that volunteer for the new program will use 1- to 1.5acre-feet of water from the ground instead of 4 to 6.

The latest legislation also earned a thumbs-up from the Gila River Indian Community after being excluded from early negotiations last year.

“This year’s bill, though not perfect, is dramatically better than the one that Gov. Hobbs correctly vetoed last year,” Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis said in a statement to the Republic. “This bill sends a strong message that Arizona can and should work together on major water policy issues in a bipartisan manner that benefits us all.”

— Chris Malone Méndez