Lawsuits only further complicate Arizona’s water challenges

There are now two lawsuits against the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR). The first challenges ADWR’s efforts and authority to uphold the 100-year Assured Water Supply Program, the foundation of Arizona’s thriving economy. The second would prevent homebuilding from restarting, where it has been halted due to groundwater concerns. In the end, both lawsuits pose threats to Arizona’s water and housing future.

Many are frustrated that these lawsuits will only further complicate Arizona’s water challenges, including uncertainty about how the federal government will reduce our Colorado River water after 2026. The lawsuits will divert time, money, and energy away from finding real solutions, including developing and investing in new water supplies.

Both lawsuits include the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona as a plaintiff, which wants to recover the investments made by its members to develop subdivisions that were halted two years ago. They blame the shortage of available homes to ADWR’s enforcement of the 100-year Assured Water Supply Program. Ironically, the second lawsuit against ADWR is because the state created a new program that will enable new homebuilding while still protecting existing homeowners’ and communities’ 100-year assured water supply from drying up because of new developments.  

AMWUA and other stakeholders recognize that our thriving economy will be at risk if our water security is compromised. This would jeopardize the billions of dollars invested by the ten AMWUA cities over the last 40 years to ensure water certainty, which has created robust communities and businesses generating more than $398 billion in GDP—76 % of Arizona’s GDP.  

Let’s rewind and explain the connection between ADWR, water security, and homebuilding. Two years ago, ADWR’s groundwater model for the metropolitan Phoenix region projected that the demand for groundwater over the next 100 years would exceed what is available in the aquifer.  This triggered, per the State’s 100-year Assured Water Supply Program, that new subdivisions cannot be built in the far reaches of this Valley, where the only available water source is groundwater. Instead, other water supplies must be obtained and used to serve new homes. While this has significantly impacted developers who had wagered millions to build houses on desert lands on the Valley’s edges, it upheld Arizona’s commitment to protecting groundwater supplies and the homeowners who already utilize them. 

To provide a solution to this challenge, ADWR collaborated with stakeholders to develop a policy that enables growth in many of these areas while remaining consistent with the 100-year Assured Water Supply Program. After an open and transparent process, the state adopted the Alternative Pathway to Designation (ADAWS) rules last November. At its core, ADAWS allows growth to continue today, despite the projected groundwater deficit in the Phoenix area aquifer, on the promise that participating water providers will reduce their groundwater pumping over time. Without these future reductions in groundwater use, the program would make no sense. 

Specifically, ADAWS requires a water provider to be responsible for all groundwater pumping within its service area and acquire new water supplies to decrease groundwater withdrawal. Thus, ADAWS demands difficult decisions and substantial investments from communities seeking to grow, similar to the tradeoffs and investments made by the ten AMWUA cities to provide water security to more than 3.7 million Arizonans. 

As water providers participating in ADAWS bring on new renewable supplies, they must decrease groundwater use by 25% of that supply’s volume. This is not a tax, as claimed in the lawsuit. It is like taking a loan from your retirement savings and paying yourself back once you have obtained new funds. In other words, the 25% groundwater offset makes sure the aquifer is protected, and a provider’s use of groundwater is reduced over the next 100 years – demand that is entirely driven by growth that would not exist without ADAWS. 

With ADAWS in place, water providers lacking a 100-year Assured Water Supply Designation can obtain that status so their communities can grow. The water providers that could benefit from this new pathway include Buckeye, Queen Creek, EPCOR, and Arizona Water Company, allowing subdivisions and businesses to be built in their service areas while providing long-term water security for new residents and commercial customers.  

It is very confusing that the very mechanism that would get new subdivisions built is being challenged in court by the Home Builders Association. The lawsuit claims that ADAWS is an overreach, imposes a burden on developers, and serves as a barrier to affordable housing. However, the ADAWS rules clearly state that the water provider, not the developer, is responsible for obtaining new supplies and the groundwater offset. This means the water provider must determine the water portfolio needed to support the community’s future, not the bottom line for developers and homebuilders. 

Neither lawsuit is about fairness or affordability. Instead, they endanger Arizona’s water security, which has been funded by current residents and businesses. Allowing subdivisions on the outskirts of the Valley without a 100-year Assured Water Supply would take Arizona back to the scandals of the 1960s and 1970s when consumers were not protected from land fraud. It would also erode the trust of existing families who made this Valley their home because of the consumer protection that Arizona has provided for over four decades. Without the foundation of water security, our economy will be unstable.  

This state cannot afford lawsuits that would allow increased pumping of our finite groundwater amid significant uncertainty regarding impending cuts to our Colorado River water supply as early as 2027. Arizona thrives when water management and growth go hand in hand. ADAWS is a pro-growth, pro-business policy that ensures Arizona remains attractive to companies, developers, and homebuyers without jeopardizing long-term water security. Without it, we are gambling with Arizona’s economy, undermining property values, and exposing businesses and homebuyers to future uncertainty.

Instead of trying to undermine the decades of investments that have made us economically strong, state, municipal, and business leaders must work together to preserve our long-term water security. We need to prioritize developing and investing in new water supplies to support current and future residents and ensure our communities can thrive for generations.

Read more about the first lawsuit in a previous blog HERE .

For 55 years, the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association has helped protect our member cities' ability to provide their communities with assured, safe, and sustainable water supplies. For more information, visit www.amwua.org .