House panel will devise ways to loosen water rules in Pinal County to help developers
by Parker Shea | AZMirror
A house being built at Encanterra in May 2019
A new legislative ad hoc committee will come up with ways to loosen the permitting process for groundwater access in one of the state’s driest counties.
Under the current system, developers must prove 100 years’ worth of groundwater supply in order to make improvements on subdivided land in Pinal County. The House Ad Hoc Committee on Groundwater Supply in Pinal County will make recommendations for loosening the permitting criteria.
Rep. David Cook, R-Globe, the foremost critic of the Pinal County groundwater permitting process, will chair the committee, which will present its final results on or before Nov. 1, 2019. Cook, who earlier this year introduced legislation to slash the groundwater supply needed for housing developments in Pinal County to 10 years, requested the committee be created.
