Senate panel nixes bid from Pinal farmers to change water rights rules
by Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services
A Senate panel has rebuffed a plea from some Pinal County farmers to change Department of Water Resources rules they say affect the value of their land.
Current law allows farmers to continue to pump as much groundwater as they have been using forever, as long as it is for agriculture. They also can convert 94 percent of that water right for industrial and municipal uses.
The issue is that new developments — or the cities where they build and get their groundwater — have to replenish any water they pump.
