The Groundwater Management Act of 1980 created the Arizona Department of Water Resources to administer and enforces Arizona's groundwater code and surface water rights laws, to oversee and protect Arizona's Colorado River supply, to oversee the use of surface and groundwater resources under state jurisdiction, and to represent the state in water rights discussions with the federal government. Prior to 1980, the State Land Department Water Rights Division determined rights to public water, issued certificates of public water rights, conducted determinations of conflict in public water rights, controlled drilling of water wells in critical groundwater areas, maintained information files of all groundwater wells in the state and assisted the State Land Commissioner in authorizing the sale at public auction of indirect uses of groundwater on state trust lands. In 1979, the Water Rights Division of the State Land Department transferred to the Arizona Water Commission until 1980 Groundwater Management Act centralized all water planning and regulation under Water Resources.
In 1976 the Arizona Supreme Court ruled in Farmers Investment Company (FICO) vs. Bettwy that groundwater could not be used off the land from which it was pumped if other users of the same aquifer were injured by the transfer. This decision, which threatened the water supplies for the City of Tucson as well as some mining companies, spurred the State Legislature to modify Arizona’s groundwater laws. In May 1977 Governor Raul Castro signed Senate Bill 1391 into law. Senate Bill 1391, also known as the Groundwater Transfer Act, addressed the transfer and distribution of Arizona’s groundwater resources in light of FICO vs. Bettwy. The law established that persons or entities wishing to transfer groundwater from critical groundwater areas file for a certificate of exemption from the State Land Department. Senate Bill 1391 also provided that the State Land Department hold hearings regarding the issuing of certificates if proper written objections to the transfer were received and preserved the right of any persons to recover damages when the transfers impaired or damaged their groundwater supply.
Sources: Arizona State Land Department, Arizona State Land Department Annual Report, 1974/1975, (Phoenix, AZ., 1975), 24.
Committee on Western Water Management, National Research Council. Water Transfers in the West: Efficiency, Equity, and the Environment. Washington D.C.: National Research Council, 1992, p. 201.
From the guide to the Arizona Department of Water Resources, Legal Division, 1970-1981, (Arizona State Archives)
