Southern Arizona developments face lawsuit over federally reserved groundwater

Fifty-five southern Arizona subdivisions have been illegally
siphoning water from federally protected wetlands since at least 2006,
conservationists say in a new lawsuit. 

The Center for Biological
Diversity and San Pedro 100 are challenging 100-year water supply
designations for Sierra Vista subdivisions, citing a 2023 ruling that
quantified water rights for the San Pedro National Riparian Conservation
Area in response to Congress’s 1988 protection of the San Pedro River. The lawsuit
urges the Arizona Department of Water Resources to reassess whether the
developments can proceed without draining the Southwest’s last
free-flowing river.

“Governor Hobbs and Director Buschatzke refuse
to acknowledge that over-pumping in Sierra Vista is violating the San
Pedro River’s water rights,” Robin Silver, co-founder of the Center for
Biological Diversity, said in a Thursday press release.
“They refuse to act despite laws requiring review of inaccurate water
adequacy designations and consumer protections requiring full disclosure
of those facts. So we’re taking Arizona to court.”

Conservationists
say the San Pedro River is vital for millions of migratory birds and
endangered species, but groundwater pumping for housing and a U.S. Army base
is depleting it. Water levels in six of 13 court-monitored wells and
gauges have dropped below mandated levels, the lawsuit claims.

Along
with demanding a reevaluation of water certificates, the plaintiffs
accuse the department of violating the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act by
assuring developers access to water that may not be legally available,
claims they say Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs and Department Director Tom
Buschatzke have ignored for two years.

Only after the center’s August 2024 lawsuit
did Buschatzke and the department agree to review the water-supply
designation of one of the local subdivisions, a 7,000-home development
called Pueblo Del Sol. The department settled the suit and agreed to
reexamine the matter.

That was the second time in recent years that the center sued Arizona over the San Pedro. In June 2024, it sued to demand that Hobbs declare the riparian area an active management area, in which the state would closely monitor and record groundwater pumping. A state judge dismissed that challenge in January. 

Thursday’s
lawsuit centers around water rights assigned to the San Pedro in 1988.
Though Congress reserved the water, the rights were never quantified in
statute, allowing the state to give those water rights to developers.
The state supreme court affirmed the transfer in a 4-3 decision in 2018,
leaving the decision to reserve them for the San Pedro up to the
department’s interpretation. 

Dissenting justices noted that “this
interpretation defeats the adequate water supply provision’s manifest
purpose to proactively protect consumers in Arizona before they purchase
property.”

The winds shifted in the San Pedro’s favor in August 2023, when Maricopa County Judge Mark H. Brain issued
a ruling quantifying water rights for the conservation area. Now,
plaintiffs say that the ruling nullifies the granting of water rights to
the 55 subdivisions named in the suit. 

The Arizona Department of Water Resources has not replied to a request for comment.