The Citizens Water Advocacy Group, a nonprofit advocating for water conservation, held its 20th annual online forum for the Arizona Legislative District 1 candidates on Saturday, Oct. 5. 

“CWAG is nonpartisan, but all water issues are political,” CWAG board member and forum moderator Gary Beverly said. “There’s a difference between political and nonpartisan. CWAG does not endorse candidates. The forum’s purpose is to insert water issues into the political and electoral dialog and to educate voters and candidates about water issues.” 

The forum’s participants were Democratic State Senate candidate Mike Fogel and three State House candidates, Republican incumbent Selina Bliss and Democrats Jay Ruby and Marcia Smith. Republican State Senate candidate Mark Finchem planned to attend but withdrew due to a conflict the day before the forum, while Bliss noted that Republican incumbent Rep. Quang Nguyen was unable to attend due to a board meeting of the Arizona State Rifle and Pistol Association. 

Nguyen also announced on Monday, Oct. 7, that he was stepping down as president of that association. 

Finchem defeated incumbent Ken Bennett in the Republican primary by 26,449 votes to 18,217. 

Water Deficit 

“The theme of the forum is how [the] LD-1 senator and representatives can help address our growing groundwater deficit and a declining Verde River,” Beverly said. “The Verde River is in trouble right now, folks, although there’s no immediate crisis to municipal water supplies. Some county residents are now struggling with failing wells. However, there is a real long-term threat to our water supply, the Verde River, wildlife and recreation [which] are important components of our quality of life.” 

A CWAG informational packet stated that increasing water demands in the Prescott Active Management Area are of concern to CWAG because the region is moving further from a balance between groundwater recharge and withdrawal. In 2019, the annual overdraft exceeded 21,000 acre-feet, and cumulative overdrafts now surpass 600,000 acre feet, all of which is water not entering the Verde River. 

“But also [I] want to point out that the baseflow is now down to 13 cubic feet per second,” Beverly said in a previous presentation. “In 1978 it was 20, now it’s 13. This is a matter of deep concern.” 

One of the forum’s discussions explored candidates’ positions on the Big Chino Pipeline project proposed by the town of Prescott Valley and the city of Prescott to move up to 3.9 billion gallons of water, or 18,000 acre-feet, per year from the Verde River watershed and Big Chino Aquifer to the Prescott area. The base flow of the upper Verde is about 10,000 acre-feet per year. 

“The legislature has authorized more than enough groundwater to dry up the river and they did not consider the extraordinary value of the Verde River,“ Beverly asked the candidates. “What are your concerns about further degrading or drying the Upper Verde?” 

“Over-pumping groundwater exists as a potential existential threat to the Verde River,” Ruby said. “We need to maintain, and, if possible, increase the base flow of the Verde River. We need to regard the Big Chino Aquifer as part of the subflow of the river, so that the source point can be safeguarded. We should not forget that climate change adds to this threat as it is a driving factor in our area, receiving less snowpack in the winter. Sadly, our current representatives, Bliss and Nguyen, voted to prohibit Arizona from collecting data and information related to limiting the increase of the average global temperature, or producing or adopting a climate action plan to reduce global temperatures.” 

Smith thanked Bliss for her support of the Wild and Scenic River designation for the Verde River and stated that she was optimistic that the designation “will come with additional protections” for the river. 

“Unmitigated groundwater exports from the Big Chino Valley will degrade, even dry up, the Upper Verde,” Fogel said. “After all, over 80% of the Verde river’s flow comes from the Big Chino Aquifer. Drawing down the aquifer for municipal purposes at the rate of 18,000 acre-feet per year will eventually dry up the Upper Verde. Generally, the law … disallows exporting water into [active management areas]. Now an exception was made by the legislature, allowing exported water into the Prescott AMA. And then there was a handshake promise to offset the effects of the pipeline pumping by both Prescott and Prescott Valley. The problem is, to date no plan has been made to mitigate the taking.” 

Bliss said that CWAG having introduced her to the documentary film “Viva la Verde” by filmmaker Hugh Denno was “some of what called me to run for office as a state legislator.” 

Verde River Concerns 

Beverly subsequently asked the candidates how they would address their concerns for the Verde River. 

“We know that the Verde is being put at risk due to groundwater pumping, particularly from the Big Chino Aquifer, which provides 80% of its base flow,” Smith said. “We also know that landowners have the right to pump out the water below their property without limit outside an AMA, as long as it is for a beneficial use of irrigation. So I just don’t see how we can protect the Verde River unless we address the unlimited pumping of groundwater in rural areas.” 

The Democratic candidates made monitoring groundwater usage a component of their platforms. 

“At present the [Arizona Department of Water Resources] lacks data on groundwater pumping in 87% of the state,” Beverly said to the candidates. “A huge gap in critical waterdemand information. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. For the last several legislative sessions, a worthy bill would have required wells outside of AMAs to report pumping over 10 acre-feet per year. The bill was denied committee hearings by two rural committee chairs, Gail Griffin [RDistrict 14] and Sine Kerr [R-District 13], who were apparently responding to the objections of farmers who fear a ‘slippery slope’ to regulation.” 

“I’m hearing there’s not currently an appetite for supporting additional metering on the large wells,” Bliss said. “Our local farmers and ranchers have made it clear they would not support this. And as to domestic wells … we brought this up in past [CWAG] forums. They’re already limited at 35 gallons per minute, and we can’t force the metering of domestic wells if we say we respect private property rights.” 

Instead, Bliss stated, she would instead support an appropriation to construct index wells in the area. 

“Politicians and regulators in Phoenix like to say they just want more data so they can get a better understanding of the aquifer,” Bliss said. “ I’m thinking individual well data is not needed to understand basin hydrology if the goal of getting the data is to monitor overall aquifer health; this can be accomplished through index wells … What is an index well? The definition is to provide a consistent water level history for selected wells.” 

“ADWR is apparently unaware that about 500 family wells on the edges of the Little Chino Aquifer in the PrAMA are now failing, an early symptom of excessive groundwater pumping,” CWAG wrote in an April opinion piece in a Prescott publication.