HB2842 - 562R

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 45-544, Arizona Revised Statutes, is repealed.

Sec. 2. Title 45, chapter 2, article 8, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section 45-544, to read:

START_STATUTE45-544. Transportation in areas not subject to active management; correlative rights: damages; rules; definition

A. Notwithstanding any other law, in basin-fill aquifer areas outside of active management areas, irrigation non-expansion areas and basins or subbasins that water may be transported out of pursuant to article 8.1 of this chapter:

1. Groundwater may be transported freely within the same basin or subbasin, is not appurtenant to a well or other location from which it was transferred and may be conveyed separately from any parcel of land.

2. Groundwater may be withdrawn and used in a manner that is consistent with correlative rights of owners of land, as determined pursuant to subsections B and C of this section, in a manner that is reasonable and consistent with beneficial use as otherwise provided by law. Groundwater transfers and conveyances within the same basin or subbasin pursuant to this section shall be deemed a reasonable and beneficial use.

3. The department may not require a permit or any other form of approval for any transfer prescribed by this section.

4. A transfer prescribed by this section is not subject to any claim for damages from any other groundwater user.

B. Within ninety days after the effective date of this section, the director shall do all of the following to determine the correlative rights of owners of land in the relevant basin or subbasin:

1. Determine the total surface area of eligible acres in a basin or subbasin. For the purposes of this paragraph, the director shall round all partial acres to the nearest acre.

2. Determine the total volume of groundwater available in acre-feet in the relevant basin or subbasin at the time of inquiry to a depth of one thousand two hundred feet. For the purposes of this paragraph, the director shall round to the nearest acre-foot.

3. Determine the total average volume of annual natural recharge in acre-feet per year in the relevant basin or subbasin over the preceding thirty years. For the purposes of this paragraph, the director shall round to the nearest acre-foot per year.

4. Determine each eligible acre's proportional share of the TOTAL surface area of eligible acres in the relevant basin or subbasin by dividing the number one by the total surface area determined pursuant to paragraph 1 of this subsection.

5. Determine each eligible acre's proportional share of the total volume of groundwater available in the relevant basin or subbasin to a depth of one thousand two hundred feet by multiplying the total surface area determined pursuant to paragraph 1 of this subsection by the proportional share determined pursuant to paragraph 4 of this subsection.

6. Determine each eligible acre's proportional share of total annual natural recharge in the relevant basin or subbasin by multiplying each acre's proportional share of the total surface area determined pursuant to paragraph 4 of this subsection by the total average volume of annual natural recharge over the previous thirty years as determined by paragraph 3 of this subsection.

7. Identify each tax parcel in each relevant basin or subbasin that contains a portion of eligible acres.

8. Determine a tax parcel's total proportional share of the total surface area as determined pursuant to paragraph 1 of this subsection by adding the total numbers of acres of eligible acres in the relevant basin or subbasin.

9. Determine a tax parcel's total correlative right in acre-feet to a depth of one thousand two hundred feet by multiplying a tax parcel's total proportional share determined pursuant to paragraph 8 of this subsection by the total volume of groundwater available in the relevant basin or subbasin determined pursuant to paragraph 5 of this subsection.

10. Determine a tax parcel's total correlative right in acre-feet to the annual recharge in the relevant basin or subbasin by multiplying the tax parcel's total proportional share determined pursuant to paragraph 8 of this subsection by the total average volume of annual natural recharge in the relevant basin or subbasin determined pursuant to paragraph 3 of this subsection.

C. The director shall:

1. Establish a personal groundwater account for each owner of a tax parcel identified pursuant to subsection B, paragraph 7 of this section.

2. Assign each account a lump volume of groundwater that is equal to the correlative rights calculated pursuant to subsection B, paragraph 9 of this section.

3. Assign each account an annual credit of annual groundwater recharge consistent with a tax parcel's total correlative right in acre-feet to the annual recharge in the relevant basin or subbasin calculated pursuant to subsection B, paragraph 10 of this section.

4. Within ninety days after the effective date of the determinations prescribed by subsection B of this section, assign to the owner of each exempt and nonexempt well registered in the basin or subbasin a personal groundwater account and the corresponding correlative rights.

5. Adopt rules the director deems necessary to implement this section, including rules:

(a) Relating to the enforcement and measuring of groundwater withdrawals.

(b) Establishing an application and verification process for the establishment, aggregation and assignment of personal groundwater accounts to landowners in the relevant basin or subbasin.

D. Beginning on the effective date of this section, a landowner who owns tax parcels that are located in a basin-fill aquifer and that meet the requirements of subsection A of this section may apply to the director to claim ownership of any personal groundwater accounts that correspond to each relevant tax parcel the landowner owns if all of the following apply:

1. The tax parcels meet the requirements of subsection a of this section.

2. The tax parcels contain eligible acres as determined pursuant to this section.

3. The tax parcels are not located with the designated service area of an entity described in subsection F of this section.

E. The owner of a personal groundwater account:

1. May not withdraw any water from an exempt or nonexempt well that exceeds the amount available in the person's personal groundwater account.

2. May credit to the person's account a volume of groundwater that is equal to the volume credited from another person's account located in the same basin or subbasin after providing written notice of a transfer to the director.

3. May not appropriate subflow or surface water out of priority.

4. Shall be responsible for ensuring that the personal groundwater account owner's well remains deep enough to use or withdraw all groundwater that the person desires to use or withdraw from the person's personal groundwater account.

F. Beginning ninety days after the effective date of this section, the director shall grant a person that owns a community water system, municipal water system or other water distribution system that provides water service to more than one eligible tax parcel all correlative rights associated with the eligible acres to which the person provides water service.

G. The director shall credit an owner of an active or passive groundwater replenishment or recharge facility located on eligible acres with the difference between the owner's correlative rights to annual natural recharge in the basin or subbasin and the increased annual natural recharge caused or created by the owner's facility as confirmed by the director. If an active or passive groundwater replenishment or recharge facility is owned by multiple persons, the director shall award the additional credit to each owner's personal groundwater account in proportion to the ownership of a facility or as contracted among the parties.

H. On the tenth anniversary of the director's determinations pursuant to subsection B of this section and every ten years thereafter, the director shall complete an audit and hydrological update for the relevant basin or subbasin and each personal groundwater account located within the basin or subbasin, including:

1. Reassessing the total volume of groundwater available in the relevant basin or subbasin to a depth of one thousand two hundred feet.

2. Reassessing the total average volume of annual natural recharge in the relevant basin or subbasin over the preceding thirty years.

3. Reassigning each personal groundwater account in the relevant basin with an updated lump-sum volume of groundwater associated with the account holder's correlative right minus the total volume of groundwater withdrawn or credited from the account during each of the last ten years plus the total volume of groundwater credited to the account during each of the last ten years.

4. Reassigning each personal groundwater account in the relevant basin an annual credit of the annual groundwater recharge associated with a personal groundwater account holder's correlative rights.

I. For the purposes of this section:

1. A person may not appropriate subflow or surface water out of priority.

2. Subflow or surface water is not exempt from a general stream adjudication.

J. For the purposes of this section, "eligible acres" means land that constitutes the surface area of alluvium that composes a basin-fill aquifer that meets the requirements of subsection a of this section. END_STATUTE

Sec. 3. Conforming legislation

The legislative council staff shall prepare proposed legislation conforming the Arizona Revised Statutes to the provisions of this act for consideration in the fifty-seventh legislature, first regular session.