Arizona Laws 45-557. Requirements for transporting groundwater to an initial active management area; exception
A. Except as provided in subsections B and C of this section:
Terms Used In Arizona Laws 45-557
- Active management area: means a geographical area that has been designated pursuant to article 2 of this chapter as requiring active management of groundwater or, in the case of the Santa Cruz active management area, active management of any water, other than stored water, withdrawn from a well. See Arizona Laws 45-402
- Director: means the director of water resources, who is also the director of the department. See Arizona Laws 45-101
- Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
- Groundwater: means water under the surface of the earth regardless of the geologic structure in which it is standing or moving. See Arizona Laws 45-101
- Groundwater basin: means an area that, as nearly as known facts allow as determined by the director pursuant to this chapter, may be designated so as to enclose a relatively hydrologically distinct body or related bodies of groundwater, which shall be described horizontally by surface description. See Arizona Laws 45-402
- including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
- Initial active management area: means the Phoenix, Prescott or Pinal active management area established by section 45-411, the Tucson active management area established by section 45-411 and modified by Section 45-411. See Arizona Laws 45-402
- Private water company: means :
(a) With respect to areas outside an active management area and with respect to an active management area other than the Santa Cruz active management area, any entity that distributes or sells groundwater, except a political subdivision or an entity that is established pursuant to title 48 and that is not regulated as a public service corporation by the Arizona corporation commission under a certificate of public convenience and necessity. See Arizona Laws 45-402
- town: means a city or town incorporated or chartered under the constitution and laws of this state. See Arizona Laws 45-402
1. The director shall not consider groundwater that is being or will be withdrawn in a groundwater basin or sub-basin pursuant to this article or the Pinal active management area and transported to an initial active management area for purposes of determining or providing an assured water supply pursuant to section 45-576 if the groundwater is being or will be used by a city, town or private water company that was offered but did not sign a central Arizona project water delivery subcontract.
2. A city, town or private water company that has signed a central Arizona project water delivery subcontract may not use groundwater withdrawn in a groundwater basin or sub-basin pursuant to this article or the Pinal active management area and transported to an initial active management area until it has both:
(a) Demonstrated that it has the physical capacity, including the water treatment plant and delivery system, to accept delivery of ninety-five per cent of its central Arizona project water entitlement under its central Arizona project water delivery subcontract.
(b) Accepted delivery of or exchanged eighty per cent or more of the central Arizona project water available to it under its central Arizona project water delivery subcontract in at least one of the three years immediately preceding the year it intends to begin using groundwater transported away from a groundwater basin or sub-basin pursuant to this article or the Pinal active management area.
B. Subsection A of this section does not apply to groundwater withdrawn in the Big Chino sub-basin of the Verde river groundwater basin and transported to an adjoining initial active management area pursuant to section 45-555.
C. Groundwater transported to an adjoining initial active management area pursuant to section 45-555, subsections E and F shall be deemed to be legally available under the rules adopted pursuant to section 45-576.