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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Seventh Legislature, Second Regular Session
CAP water; state land; allocation
Purpose
Requires the Arizona State Land Department (ASLD), within 120 days of the general effective date, to initiate a public stakeholder process to adopt a procedure for allocating outlined Central Arizona Project (CAP) water that is currently allocated to the ASLD to parcels of state trust land that may be sold or leased.
Background
The CAP, authorized by the Colorado River Basin Project Act in 1968, is a
336-mile canal system that delivers Colorado River water to central and
southern Arizona. In a Record of Decision published in 1983, the U.S. Secretary
of the Interior allocated CAP water for non-Indian municipal and industrial
uses, subject to certain conditions. After various amendments to the ASLD's CAP
subcontract from 1997 to 2023, ASLD's current annual entitlement to CAP water
is 28,176
acre-feet (CAP: History
of CAP and Subcontracting
Status Report; USBR).
All or any part of the rights to water acquired by the ASLD under contract may be sold, assigned and transferred to any lessee or purchaser of any of the state lands on which such water has been or is to be used or to any provider of permanent municipal water service to those lands. Before the transfer, the transferee of any rights to water must have or obtain a contract with either or both the United States or a multi-county water conservation district for service of CAP water for municipal and industrial use (A.R.S. § 37-106.01).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Requires the ASLD, within 120 days of the general effective date, to initiate a public stakeholder process to adopt a procedure for allocating CAP water that is currently allocated to the ASLD pursuant to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior's final allocation of CAP water dated January 10, 1983, to parcels of state trust land that may be sold or leased.
2. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
House Action
NREW 2/12/26 DP 6-4-0-0
3rd Read 2/23/26 32-25-3
Prepared by Senate Research
March 19, 2026
SB/SF/hk