REGULATORY DEVELOPMENTS

August 2007

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New Rules Regarding Groundwater Replenishment Set to Go into Effect for Pinal Active Management Area in Arizona

On October 1, 2007, subdivision developers who seek to build new subdivisions in the exploding Pinal Active Management Area in Arizona will be required to abide by new, more stringent assured water supply rules in an effort to avoid groundwater overdraft. The critical changes are being made to the Pinal assured water supply (AWS) rules in order to tighten the groundwater allowance, the volume of water that is consistent with the water management goal of the AMA. The Pinal Active Management Area (Pinal AMA) is an area of Arizona that is rapidly changing from farmland into a suburb of both Tucson and Phoenix. The AMA, which consists of 5600 square miles, 7 sub-basins, 287,000 acres of farmland and has 2 million acre-feet of water use each year, is not yet in overdraft. However, if the assured water supply rules are not changed, hydrologists estimate that the Pinal AMA will experience groundwater overdraft within two to three years.