In a second series of social media videos first reported on last week, Arizona Democratic Senate Leaders Priya Sundareshan and Rosanna Gabaldón spoke of the urgent need to promote water security in the Grand Canyon State and for legislators and the Governor to act on it.
In this first episode, both Senators Sundareshan and Gabaldón called out Republican legislators for their obstructionism in not giving the Rural Groundwater Act a committee hearing and passing measures that favored corporate interests and profits over water security.
“You might remember. I began the year with a very hopeful event. A bipartisan gathering with legislators and Republican elected officials, All of us together with Governor Hobbs to unveil the bill that we introduced this session to protect groundwater in rural Arizona. Well, here we are. Six months after that hopeful January event. And now, the 2025 legislative session has ended with no progress again on reaching an agreement to protect rural groundwater. Not only that, but Republicans introduced their bill this year that moved farther away from our negotiations and more towards protecting the big business that is already raking it in, cementing the status quo. And recently, the Arizona Republican Party post ted online, claiming that the only bills to protect domestic wells this year were vetoed by the Governor. That’s completely false. The Republicans only advanced bills that would create further exemptions in the water law without addressing the underlying problem. Our bills would have provided those solutions, but they never gave them a chance.”
In her remarks, Senator Gabaldón offered:
“Our bill SB1425, sponsored by Leader Sundareshan, took into account what we thought were good faith negotiations Democrats had with Republicans for more than a year…In District 21. We’ve had some very rural areas with both large farming operations as well as isolated communities. My constituents deserve to know that their wells will not run dry while they are living in their homes and at the same time they want to support farming appropriate for the area that maintains local jobs. As the ranking Democrat on the Senate Natural Resources Committee, I’m completely disappointed that the Republican Committee Chairs never even gave a hearing to those bipartisan bills to protect rural groundwater simply because they were sponsored by Democratic legislators. And the Republican committee chair in the House has even said their residents who move into rural areas should have known what they were getting into. Instead of doing anything to protect her own constituents, It really doesn’t feel like they wanted to get to any agreement at all. Arizona’s residents need their groundwater protected, but Republican legislators would rather protect big business profits than help keep our communities thriving. Time is running out for our state’s rural constituents, and we can’t afford to keep kicking the can down the road on protecting rural groundwater.”
In the second video, the Senators discussed the benefits and potential pitfalls associated with the one major piece of water security legislation passed last session: The Ag to Urban Bill.
In her comments, Senator Gabaldón started with:
“When we passed the 1980 Arizona Groundwater Management Act, we required anyone pumping groundwater in our urban areas to replenish that water from other sources. That’s what recharge projects like the Sweetwater Wetlands here do, But we also grandfathered in existing farming in those urban areas, which didn’t require replenishment. As Arizona’s urban growth has exploded in the almost five decades since then, those all farming spots are a natural location for converting to housing, that can be a lower water use. Farmers are also looking to sell to developers to make a profit, and that’s great!”
Senator Sundareshan continued with:
“The key is that this conversion really has to be a true water savings for this to make sense at all. Fortunately, the AG to Urban bill that passed this year includes a number of key guardrails that we, as Senate Democrats, negotiated to ensure that water for everyone else in our urban areas isn’t undermined in the process. If you don’t put these guardrails in place, then you could actually increase overall pumping and put everyone in the Phoenix, Pinal, and even Tucson areas at risk. Your home value doesn’t look so good when there’s no water to access.”
Senator Gabaldón next spoke of securing the guardrails in the AG to Urban bill, offering:
“It wasn’t easy to make sure those guardrails were added. Last year, Republicans tried to rush through a proposal before any analysis could be done. And when Democrats pushed back until analysis came back, it showed that it would have put the entire Phoenix active management area in real trouble by straining the already overused groundwater resources in the area. That’s why we keep fighting for strong guardrails that will ensure that we have enough water to keep living in Arizona for decades to come.”
Senator Sundareshan followed with:
“So, what are these guardrails in SB1611, the legislation that passed this year? Well, we pushed to make sure that the conversion rate of acre feet per acre was not irresponsibly higher than needed for efficient housing to be built. That the Farmland has to have been using water significantly in order to convert to housing. That the bill was limited to only those active management areas currently experiencing unmet demand. And requiring that this groundwater pumping start replenishing with outside water sources.”
Senator Gabaldón concluded with:
“Now. That said, we do need to keep an eye on the data going forward to ensure that these guardrails hold and that water savings are actually achieved when this program is implemented. For example, we have placed a significant burden on the CAGRD to replenish the groundwater pump from this AG to Urban conversion, But will they be able to meet that obligation? Stay tuned!”
The final video spoke about the need to ensure water security while there is a scarcity issue thanks to drought and massive population and development growth that have strained the water levels of the Colorado River and its two major lake reservoirs, Mead and Powell.
In her opening remarks, Senator Sundareshan said:
Here at the Sweetwater Wetlands, we see treated effluent. That’s water that’s already been used one time being recharged into the aquifer. That’s also what a lot of our Arizona cities do with the water that they receive from the Colorado River. Cities like Tucson have managed to get their groundwater levels rebounding to safer levels thanks to recharge efforts like this, The Sweetwater Wetlands also provides a beautiful oasis for animals and birds to thrive in our desert ecosystem. So, a major water source for Arizona is the mighty Colorado River, but right now, seven Western states are currently fighting over it.
Senator Gabaldón continued, stating:
“Unfortunately, the river is in trouble. The Colorado River Basin has found itself in a mega drought for over two decades, worsening by climate change and chronic overallocation of the rivers flow. The river’ large reservoirs, Lake Mead, and Lake Powell reached record lows recently. Arizona, California, Nevada, Tribal Nations, and Mexico have a negotiating how to share cutbacks to prevent a total collapse of the system. We are under a federally declared Tier, One shortage condition on the Colorado River In 2025. Arizona’s allotment from the river is being reduced by 512,000 acre feet, which represents roughly eight percent of Arizona’s total water use and 18 percent of the Colorado River allotment. Nearly all of these reductions fall on the Central Arizona Projects (CAP,) deliveries, meaning cities and farms in Central Arizona served by CAP bear the brunt of the cuts.”
Senator Sundareshan picked up, relaying:
“So those urban water supplies are at risk with cuts to our Colorado River allocation. One part of the CAP’s role is to recharge groundwater pumped by subdivisions that are built based on groundwater through the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District (GRD,) whose responsibility it is to find water supplies. Much of the GRD’s water supplies already have the lowest priority rights on the Colorado River, The GRD’s just submitted their 2025 plan of operation for approval, and they recently shared that over half of their projected supplies come from low priority Colorado River water that’s subject to reductions in any shortage condition contemplated. Colorado River availability, plus new obligations like the 2025 AG to Urban Bill, will impact whether the GRD plan gets approved, or if it will jeopardize our confidence in securing water for existing residents in our cities.”
Senator Gabaldón asserted:
“So urban supplies could be impacted if the river keeps declining. It’s a wake-up call that even our renewable supplies are finite.”
Senator Sundareshan concluded:
“I attended the Colorado River Water Users Association meeting last December, which is a major space for negotiations over the river. At that time, the states were very divided about how to account for the lower flows in the river. Over the past few months, there’s been some hope that the seven basin states will agree to a new method of sharing the river. We will see and we will participate closely.”
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