HB2202

THE CONTEXT: A person who owns land which was irrigated in whole or in part with groundwater at any time during the five years preceding the date of the notice of the initiation of designation procedures or the call for the election for subsequent active management areas, which is capable of being irrigated and which has not been retired from irrigation has the right to use groundwater for the irrigation of such land ( A. R.

WHAT THE BILL DID: The final vetoed version would add that upon the Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources' (ADWR) determination of irrigation grandfathered rights, a person in a subsequent AMA may irrigate land that was not previously irrigated if certain conditions apply, require the eligible land be adjacent to a farm unit or parcel that was previously subject to irrigation, and require the irrigation of the eligible land not cause the person to exceed the volume of groundwater awarded in that person's irrigation grandfathered right.

WHY IT MATTERED: The practical reason for this bill was to give property owners and consumers a clearer rule for subsequent ama. It would add that upon the Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources' (ADWR) determination of irrigation grandfathered rights, a person in a subsequent AMA may irrigate land that was not previously irrigated if certain conditions apply, and would also require the eligible land be adjacent to a farm unit or parcel that was previously subject to irrigation, rather than leave the current rule unchanged.