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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Seventh Legislature, Second Regular Session
supply and demand; assessment; groundwater.
Purpose
Requires the Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources (Director) to include outlined data in each five-year supply and demand assessment for each groundwater basin.
Background
The Director must exercise and perform all powers and duties vested in or imposed on the Arizona Department of Water Resources and adopt and issue necessary rules, administer all laws relating to groundwater, maintain a public depository for existing and future records of stream flow, groundwater levels and water quality and other data relating to surface water and groundwater and carry out other statutorily outlined responsibilities.
By December 1 of each year, the Director must prepare and issue a water supply and demand assessment for at least 6 of the 51 groundwater basins. A supply and demand assessment must be completed for all groundwater basins and initial active management areas at least once every five years. The Director may contract with outside entities to perform some or all of the assessments and identify those outside entities in the assessment (A.R.S. § 45-105).
A groundwater basin is an underground area from which groundwater drains. The basins could be separated by geologic or hydrologic boundaries. The Director establishes the boundaries of each groundwater basin and sub-basin through a statutory process. Arizona’s active management areas are each individual groundwater basins (ADWR).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Requires the Director to include in each five-year supply and demand assessment for each groundwater basin:
a) the average depth-to-static level across the groundwater basin at the end of the assessment period, measured in feet;
b) the average net increase or decrease in the average depth-to-static level across the groundwater basin over each of the five years preceding the end of the assessment period, measured in feet;
c) the maximum depth of bedrock at the deepest point in the groundwater basin, measured in feet;
d) the average depth-to-bedrock level across the groundwater basin, measured in feet;
e) the total number of active index wells in the groundwater basin, measured in whole numbers;
f) the average distance between each active index well in the groundwater basin, measured in miles;
g) the average geographic distribution or density of active wells in the groundwater basin, measured in number of active index wells per section of land;
h) the total estimated volume of groundwater in storage in the groundwater basin to a depth of 1,200 feet at the at the end of the assessment period, measured in acre-feet;
i) the total estimated number of years' worth of groundwater available in the groundwater basin to a depth of 1,200 feet at the current annual average rate of change in the groundwater basin, measured in years;
j) the total number of active and passive stormwater and groundwater recharge projects in the groundwater basin, measured in whole numbers; and
k) the total volume of increased groundwater recharged in the groundwater basin due to active and passive stormwater and groundwater recharge projects in the groundwater basin in each of the five years preceding the end of the assessment period, measured in acre-feet.
2. Makes technical changes.
3. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
House Action
NREW 2/10/26 DP 6-4-0-0
3rd Read 2/23/26 33-24-3
Prepared by Senate Research
March 5, 2026
SB/SF/hk