Terms Used In Arizona Laws > Title 45 > Chapter 2 > Article 5 - Grandfathered Groundwater Rights in Active Management Areas

• Accounting period: means the calendar year, except such other twelve-month period as may be otherwise agreed on by the director and the owner of a farm or a district on behalf of its landowners. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• 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or, in the case of the Santa Cruz active management area, active management of any water, other than stored water, withdrawn from a well.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
• Animal industry use: means the production, growing and feeding of livestock, range livestock or poultry, as such terms are defined in section 3-1201. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Certificate of exemption: means a certificate which was issued by the state land department or Arizona water commission under prior statutory law for the purpose of describing specific uses and amounts of water which could not be enjoined if found to constitute the transfer or transportation of groundwater. See Arizona Laws 45-461
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Convey: means to transfer the ownership of a grandfathered right from one person to another. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Date of the designation of the active management area: means :

  (a) With respect to an initial active management area, June 12, 1980. See Arizona Laws 45-402

• Department: means the department of water resources. See Arizona Laws 45-101
• Development plan: means a plan for the non-irrigation use of land in connection with which land has been or will be retired from irrigation for the bona fide purpose of conserving or using water for such non-irrigation use which would otherwise be used to irrigate the retired land. See Arizona Laws 45-461
• Director: means the director of water resources, who is also the director of the department. See Arizona Laws 45-101
• Effluent: means water that has been collected in a sanitary sewer for subsequent treatment in a facility that is regulated pursuant to Title 49, Chapter 2. 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.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Expanded animal industry use: means increased water use by an animal industrial enterprise on the land in use by the enterprise on June 12, 1980 or on immediately adjoining land, excluding irrigation uses. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• 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
• Farm unit: 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, one or more farms that are irrigated with groundwater and that are contiguous or in proximity to each other with similar soil conditions, crops and cropping patterns. See Arizona Laws 45-402

• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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
• 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
• Integrated farming operation: means :

  (a) With respect to land within an irrigation non-expansion area, more than ten acres of land that are contiguous or in close proximity, that may be irrigated pursuant to section 45-437, that are not under the same ownership and that are farmed as a single farming operation. See Arizona Laws 45-402

• Irrigate: means to apply water to two or more acres of land to produce plants or parts of plants for sale or human consumption, or for use as feed for livestock, range livestock or poultry, as such terms are defined in section 3-1201. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Irrigation acre: means an acre of land, as determined in section 45-465, subsection B, to which an irrigation grandfathered right is appurtenant. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Irrigation district: means a political subdivision, however designated, established pursuant to Title 48, Chapter 17 or 19. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Irrigation grandfathered right: means a grandfathered right determined pursuant to section 45-465. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Irrigation use: 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, the use of groundwater on two or more acres of land to produce plants or parts of plants for sale or human consumption, or for use as feed for livestock, range livestock or poultry, as such terms are defined in section 3-1201. See Arizona Laws 45-402

• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Non-irrigation grandfathered right: means a grandfathered right determined pursuant to section 45-463, 45-464, 45-469 or 45-472. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Non-irrigation use: 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, a use of groundwater other than an irrigation use. See Arizona Laws 45-402

• Owner: means :

  (a) With respect to an irrigation grandfathered right or a type 1 non-irrigation grandfathered right, the owner of the land to which the right is appurtenant. See Arizona Laws 45-461

• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• 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
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• 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

• Property: includes both real and personal property. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Protected farmland: means land that has been designated by the director as protected farmland pursuant to section 45-483, subsection A and for which the designation has not been revoked by the director pursuant to section 45-483, subsection C. See Arizona Laws 45-461
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• replenishment district: means a district that is established pursuant to Title 48, Chapter 27. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Same ownership: means ownership by the same person or entity or by successor persons or entities as a result of succession to heirs and personal representatives, corporate and partnership reorganizations, mergers, dissolutions, divestitures, partnerships, partitions, joint ventures, foreclosures, receivership or bankruptcy, purchase of capital stock, sale pursuant to United States Code, title 11, or similar succession, but not by outright sale to a bona fide purchaser for value where no portion of or beneficial interest in the successor in interest is retained by the original owner, its shareholders, partners, limited partners or beneficiaries. See Arizona Laws 45-461
• Service area: means :

  (a) With respect to a city or town, the area of land actually being served water, for a non-irrigation use, by the city or town plus:

  (i) Additions to such area that contain an operating distribution system owned by the city or town primarily for the delivery of water for a non-irrigation use. See Arizona Laws 45-402

• Stored water: means water that is stored underground for the purpose of recovery pursuant to a permit issued under chapter 3. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Subbasin: 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 of groundwater within a groundwater basin, which shall be described horizontally by surface description. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Subsequent active management area: means an active management area established after June 12, 1980 pursuant to article 2 of this chapter. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Surface water: means the waters of all sources, flowing in streams, canyons, ravines or other natural channels, or in definite underground channels, whether perennial or intermittent, floodwater, wastewater or surplus water, and of lakes, ponds and springs on the surface. See Arizona Laws 45-101
• town: means a city or town incorporated or chartered under the constitution and laws of this state. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Transportation: means the movement of groundwater from the point of withdrawal to the point of use. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• 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
• Water duty acres: means the acres of land in a farm, as determined pursuant to section 45-465, subsection B, which are used in calculating the maximum amount of groundwater which may be used pursuant to an irrigation grandfathered right. See Arizona Laws 45-461
• Well: means a man-made opening in the earth through which water may be withdrawn or obtained from beneath the surface of the earth except as provided in Section 45-591. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Writing: includes printing. See Arizona Laws 1-215