Adequate Funding Needed for ADWR to do its Job

This guest view was contributed by Mike Pearce, an attorney with Fennemore Craig, P.C. and former Chief Counsel of the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

In these times of lean state budgets and large predicted state revenue shortfalls, much attention has been focused on reducing the size of state government, eliminating waste and reducing duplicative effort among state agencies. There is no doubt that these are good policies for hard times and most would agree that state government is by its nature an inefficient enterprise always in need of vigilant supervision to prevent waste. Like any good policy, however, there comes a point of diminishing returns in reduction of state government. The Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) is at such a point. Before ADWR meets the big budget axe again, we should stop to question what that agency means to the overall credibility of Arizona.

In the United States, our governments were created to serve the people, to accomplish the social goals that individuals, corporations and municipal entities cannot accomplish alone. As a state agency and member of the executive branch of our state government, ADWR is charged with responsibility of enforcing the water laws of the state. It has investigative power and administrative authority to enforce the groundwater code, the artificial lakes regulations, dam safety standards, export of water from the state and the multi-faceted underground storage and recovery program. These programs represent the will of the people to live by a set of rules designed to enhance the overall health of Arizona's economy and the welfare of its citizens.

Within the groundwater code, for example, the decision to close the Active Management Areas to new irrigated agriculture was the single most important way to reverse the sharply increasing overdraft of these basins. But the program depends on effective administrative enforcement of the irrigation grandfathered right boundaries. Likewise, state-wide regulation of water well drillers and enforcement of minimum well construction standards are designed to protect our aquifers. But paper standards are meaningless if the industry knows that the emperor has no teeth. Still more important is the assured water supply program. This program, recognized around the west as one of the most progressive, has forced a regimen of sound long-term planning on the state, the cities, the utilities, the developers and the homebuilders alike. But maintenance of this program is dependent upon good hydrologic science and sound technical and legal review of professionally prepared applications.

Recharge of groundwater aquifers is undoubtedly the water management trend of the 21st century, but it is a program still in its infancy in Arizona. We have not yet begun to truly depend on the water stored under our existing legal and physical infrastructure, nor have we begun to withdraw it in times of real water shortage. While the amassing of "credits" is an admirable expression of our desire to stockpile water for the future, we have yet to make any regulatory distinction between stored water and ambient groundwater, or to reconcile the rights of the residual groundwater pumper vis-à-vis the recovery well. The value of recharge credits, and accordingly the health of the recharge industry, depends on the state based administration system. Our recharge laws are certainly among the best in the country, but they must be administered by technically proficient permitting processes, accurate accounting and enforcement of property rights.

And what of matters of interstate, national and international importance? Will our director of water resources continue to speak to the Secretary of the Interior on the management of the Colorado River with the same level of authority to which we are accustomed, or will Arizona lapse into the California model of incessant internal discord and painful lack of a state position? Mere words and rhetoric will not suffice here. Intellectual credibility on the Colorado requires precise knowledge of the law of the river, a thorough understanding of the Bureau of Reclamation's operating regime, and sensitivity to the politics of the seven basin state forum. This is not the director's job alone. Anyone in that position needs seasoned staff to attend the meetings, challenge the science and produce well reasoned alternatives to the constant flux.

Similarly, the implementation of the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act present increasing evidence of federal "policy creep" on traditional state-based water management. How will the state of Arizona fare in determining its own policy if we have no staff or technical expertise to bring to the bargaining table? Will the issues surrounding Mexico's increasing dependency on Arizona's groundwater near the border, and Arizona's increasing dependency on Mexican effluent discharges, be resolved by the Department of State's International Boundary and Water Commission, or will Arizona step into a role of leadership on these international issues and assert our state's unique interests? It will be difficult to assert leadership without staff to develop sound policies backed by credible scientific and economic study.

Wither the Arizona Department of Water Resources? The old expression "water flows uphill toward money" is as true at the state and national level as it is on the irrigation ditch. If water is important to our future — and there is no one in Arizona who would argue to the contrary — then Arizona must present a credible agency to develop, promote and implement our state's water policy. Can the agency do more with less? Yes it can, by focusing on the important programs, hiring key "exempt" employees at competitive salaries for critical management positions, and continuing to weed out ineffective programs and inefficient staff. This is a tall order for any director, and the task is not aided by budget cuts that draw no distinction between short-term and long-term prosperity. Ask of the director to do more with less, but ask of our next governor, and our next legislature, to support this small state agency as the regional voice of Arizona in the high stakes game of western water politics.

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