6/14/2009 1:42:00 AM ADWR looks at creating AMA for the Big Chino
USGS
In order for the Arizona Department of Water resources to administratively declare the Big Chino to be an independent groundwater basin, they would have make a determination that it is not part of the larger Verde River Basin.
CAMP VERDE - Sandy Fabritz-Whitney is not a household name to the residents of Yavapai County.
However, as the assistant director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources Water (ADWR) Management Division, she plays a critical, behind-the-scenes role in the controversy surrounding Prescott's request to pump groundwater from the Big Chino.
Although the players in the controversy know her well, the public has seen and heard little of her work.
That is until she testified last month at the hearing on Prescott's request to modify its certificate of assured water supply. If approved by ADWR, the modification would allow Prescott to use water pumped from the Big Chino for future growth.
During that testimony, Fabritz-Whitney testified for the first time publicly that her agency has been working on the idea of designating the Big Chino Basin as an Active Management Area (AMA).
An AMA designation is a tool used by the state to regulate groundwater basins impacted by growth.
The designation comes with strict rules on the use of groundwater, and is used to help bring the basin into safe yield, a state of balance where the amount of water going out is balanced by the amount of water being recharged.
The designation restricts future growth to the extent that the growth adversely affects the management goals of the AMA basin.
Although the Big Chino basin is currently in safe yield, most hydrologists believe it is nearing a critical point where additional pumping will impact its ability to provide water for the springs that form the headwaters of the Verde River.
The basin beneath Prescott and Prescott Valley is an AMA, as are the ones beneath Phoenix and Tucson. The Big Chino is not, nor is the larger Verde River basin of which the Big Chino is a part.
Fabritz-Whitney testified at the Prescott hearing that the agency has been working on the AMA designation for more than a year, but was forced to stop work until the hearings on Prescott's modification of its assured water supply are completed.
The agency stopped because some members of the ADWR team working on the AMA designation, including Director Herb Guenther, will make the final decision on Prescott's request to pump water from the Big Chino.
In an interview with Verde Valley Newspapers this week, Fabritz-Whitney explained in greater detail the process of creating an AMA and some of the challenges posed by the Big Chino.
"We all admit there are concerns for the Big Chino. But as far as Prescott's ability to pump the Big Chino, they have met the letter of the law," she said. "The problem now needs to be addressed with facts and not emotion. And an AMA is a good place to start."
Under state statute, AMAs can be created one of two ways. The first way, under Arizona Revised Statute 45-412, is for ADWR to designate an AMA administratively, a process that involves analysis and review of the aquifer, the setting of management goals and public hearings.
However, as Frabritz-Whitney stated in her testimony in Prescott, there are legal constraints and other challenges as far as the Big Chino basin is concerned.
Arizona Revised Statute 45-412 allows the director of ADWR to designate an AMA in a groundwater "basin." The Big Chino is, technically, a subbasin of the larger Verde River basin, which includes the Verde Valley and Verde Canyon subbasins in the lower reaches of the river's watershed.
The law is specific in stating the administratively designated AMA may include more than one basin but may not be smaller than an entire groundwater basin.
"One of the things we were looking at was whether or not the Big Chino was a distinct basin separate from the Verde River basin it is in now. That was the first hurdle," Frabitz-Whitney said.
She said ADWR was also looking at identifying a management goal for the AMA.
"When you designate an active management area you have to come up with a management goal for that basin," she said. "Some of the struggles we had were the statutes that allow Prescott to transport water out of the basin and the retirement of the historically irrigated land.
"How we balance that basin's goal with Prescott's ability to transfer water out was something we were working through when we had to stop the discussion. It's sitting there waiting for the administrative action to be resolved and whatever else may pop up in the interim," Frabitz-Whitney said.
Future discussions on an administratively proposed AMA will depend largely on the thoughts and opinions of Gov. Jan Brewer, according to Frabritz-Whitney.
"We weren't being real public about it because we wanted to make sure we had all the pieces in place before we took it to the public," she said.
ADWR has not created a new AMA since the original ones were designated in 1980.
The second way to create an AMA is outlined in state statute 45-415. It allows the citizens within a groundwater basin to petition for designation by gathering the signatures of 10 percent of the registered voters "within the boundaries of a proposed active management area."
If the required signatures are gathered, the issue goes to a vote of the citizens living within the boundaries of the proposed AMA basin.
As no AMAs have been created by citizen initiative, it is uncertain if the law applies to the entire basin or the "proposed boundaries." The law does not address subbasins.
No new AMAs have been created by citizen initiative since the law went into effect, and to date there has been no citizen initiative to petition for AMA designation in the Big Chino subbasin or the larger Verde River basin.
