Arizona Laws 45-568. Management plan for fifth management period; guidelines
A. For the fifth management period, 2020 to 2025, the director shall promulgate a management plan for each initial active management area not later than January 1, 2019 pursuant to the guidelines prescribed in section 45-567, subsections A and B, except that:
Terms Used In Arizona Laws 45-568
- 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or, in the case of the Santa Cruz active management area, active management of any water, other than stored water, withdrawn from a well.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
- Farm: means an area of irrigated land that is under the same ownership, that is served by a water distribution system common to the irrigated land and to which can be applied common conservation, water measurement and water accounting procedures. See Arizona Laws 45-402
- Grandfathered right: means a right to withdraw and use groundwater pursuant to article 5 of this chapter based on the fact of lawful withdrawals and use of groundwater before the date of the designation of an active management area. See Arizona Laws 45-402
- 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
- Intermediate water duty: means an irrigation water duty, as defined in section 45-402, which is established by the director during a management period to apply for a specific number of years during the management period. See Arizona Laws 45-561
- Irrigation grandfathered right: means a grandfathered right determined pursuant to section 45-465. See Arizona Laws 45-402
- Management period: means a period of years prescribed by sections 45-564 through 45-568 during which a prescribed management plan applies. See Arizona Laws 45-561
- Person: means an individual, public or private corporation, company, partnership, firm, association, society, estate or trust, any other private organization or enterprise, the United States, any state, territory or country or a governmental entity, political subdivision or municipal corporation organized under or subject to the constitution and laws of this state. See Arizona Laws 45-402
- replenishment district: means a district that is established pursuant to Title 48, Chapter 27. See Arizona Laws 45-402
- water duty: means the amount of water in acre-feet per acre that is reasonable to apply to irrigated land in a farm unit during the accounting period, as determined by the director pursuant to sections 45-564 through 45-568 or as prescribed in section 45-483. See Arizona Laws 45-402
1. The director shall establish the historic annual net natural recharge for any groundwater replenishment district in the active management area, computed by determining the net natural recharge, as defined by section 48-4401, for the groundwater basin beneath the district during calendar years 1988 through 2017 and dividing the result by thirty.
2. The director may adjust the highest twenty-five per cent of the irrigation water duties established within an area of similar farming conditions pursuant to section 45-567 by reducing each water duty in an amount up to five per cent, except that in making the adjustment, no water duty may be reduced to an amount less than the greater of the following:
(a) The highest water duty within the lowest seventy-five per cent of the water duties computed within the area of similar farming conditions for the fifth management period.
(b) A water duty computed for the farm unit under this paragraph using an irrigation efficiency of eighty per cent.
3. A person who is entitled to use groundwater pursuant to an irrigation grandfathered right may apply to the director at any time during the management period for an exemption from the irrigation water duties established pursuant to this section. The director shall grant the exemption if the person demonstrates to the director’s satisfaction that granting the exemption is consistent with achieving the management goal of the active management area and that one of the following applies:
(a) Withdrawal of groundwater pursuant to the irrigation grandfathered right during the management period will intercept groundwater that would otherwise flow out of and be lost to the active management area in the next fifteen years without entering another active management area.
(b) Withdrawal of groundwater pursuant to the irrigation grandfathered right during the management period will prevent encroachment of a rising depth to groundwater level that will cause waterlogging problems within the next fifteen years.
B. Within thirty days after the management plan for the fifth management period is adopted, the director shall give written notice in the manner and to the persons prescribed in section 45-565, subsection B and shall give written notice of the non-per capita conservation program established pursuant to Section 45-568.01 to all municipal providers. Two years before the compliance date specified in the management plan for any irrigation water duty, intermediate water duty, conservation requirement or intermediate conservation requirement, the director shall give additional written notice by first class mail to the last known addresses of the persons prescribed in section 45-565, subsection B and this subsection.
C. Except for a person who is exempt from irrigation water duties under Section 45-563.02, subsection A, all persons notified pursuant to subsection B of this section shall comply with the applicable irrigation water duty or conservation requirements for the fifth management period not later than January 1, 2025 and shall remain in compliance until the legislature determines otherwise.