management plan; water loss; percent

Plain English Breakdown

The bill text defines 'large municipal provider' to include irrigation districts, but Section 45-568(A)(4) specifically lists only cities, towns, and private water companies for the 10% limit. It is unclear if this was an intentional exclusion of irrigation districts or a drafting oversight.

HB2052: Water Loss Limits for Certain Arizona Utilities

This bill requires specific water providers in designated areas to limit lost and unaccounted-for water to no more than 10% of their total supply.

What This Bill Does

• Requires the Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources to set a limit on lost water for certain entities during the fifth management period (2020–2025).
• Mandates that eligible utilities must lose no more than 10 percent of the total quantity of water entering their distribution system.
• Allows the director to calculate this percentage based on either one calendar year or an average of three years.
• Sets a goal of losing 8 percent or less as a best management practice, though it is not required by law.

Who It Names or Affects

• Cities and towns in initial active management areas that have assured water supply status and receive Central Arizona Project (CAP) water.
• Private water companies meeting the same location, supply, and CAP requirements as cities and towns.

Terms To Know

Lost and unaccounted for water

Water that enters a distribution system but is lost or cannot be measured before reaching customers.

Initial active management area (AMA)

A specific geographic region in Arizona where groundwater use is regulated by state law.

Assured water supply

A designation given to an entity that has proven it can provide enough reliable water for its customers over a long period.

Limits and Unknowns

• The rule applies only during the fifth management period (2020–2025) unless changed by the legislature.
• The requirement applies only to cities, towns, and private water companies; irrigation districts are not included in this specific mandate despite being defined as large municipal providers elsewhere.

Official Summary Text

HB2052 - 572R - House Bill Summary

ARIZONA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

57th
Legislature, 2nd Regular Session

Majority Research Staff

House
: NREW DPA 6-4-0-0

HB
2052
: management plan; water loss; percent

Sponsor:
Representative Griffin, LD 19

House
Engrossed

Overview

Mandates
the Arizona Department of Water Resources Director require an entity that has
been designated as having as assured water supply in an initial active
management area that receives Central Arizona Project water to limit lost and
unaccounted for water to less than 10 percent of the entity's total quantity of
water that enters their distribution system.

History

Fifth
Management Plan for Active Management Areas

The Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) Director is
required to develop a management plan for each initial active management area
(AMA) for each of the five management periods outlined by statute. The plans
must include a continuing mandatory conservation program for all persons
withdrawing, distributing or receiving groundwater designed to achieve
reductions in withdrawal of groundwater. The fifth management plan for each
initial AMA was adopted and the conservation requirements remain in effect until
the legislature determines otherwise (A.R.S. ��
45-563
,
45-568
)(
ADWR
).

Lost and Unaccounted For Water

In
fifth management plans for initial AMAs a large municipal provider is required
to limit the amount of lost and unaccounted for water in their distribution
system to no more than 10% of the total quantity of water that enters their
distribution system, calculated either annually or on a three-year average
basis.

Large
municipal provider
means a city, town, private water company or
irrigation district that begins serving more than 250 acre-feet (af) of water
for non-irrigation use per year after January 1, 2000 (
ADWR
).

Provisions

1.

Instructs
the Director to, for the fifth management period, require an entity that has
been designated as having as assured water supply in an initial active
management area that receives Central Arizona Project water to limit the total
quantity of lost and unaccounted for water of the entity's distribution system
to 10% or less of the total quantity of water from any source that enters the
entity's distribution system. (Sec. 1)

2.

Specifies
that this requirement would exist on an entity's distribution system that is in
an initial AMA. (Sec. 1)

3.

Requires the
Director to calculate the total quantity of lost and unaccounted for water on
either:

a)

a calendar
year basis; or

b)

a three-year
average basis based on the applicable calendar year and the two preceding
calendar years. (Sec. 1)

4.

Makes
technical changes. (Sec. 1)

5.

6.

7.

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8.

Initials CW��������������������� HB
2052

9.

02/27/2026����������� Page
0 House Engrossed

10.

11.

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Current Bill Text

HB2052 - 572R - H Ver

House Engrossed

management plan;
water loss; percent

State of Arizona

House of Representatives

Fifty-seventh Legislature

Second Regular Session

2026

HOUSE BILL 2052

AN
ACT

Amending section 45-568, Arizona Revised
Statutes; RELATING to groundwater management.

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

Be it
enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Section 45-568, Arizona Revised
Statutes, is amended to read:

START_STATUTE
45-568.

Management plan
for fifth management period; guidelines

A. For the fifth management period, 2020 to 2025,
the director shall promulgate a management plan for each initial active
management area not later than January 1, 2019 pursuant to the guidelines
prescribed in section 45-567, subsections A and B, except that:

1. The director shall establish the historic annual
net natural recharge for any groundwater replenishment district in the active
management area, computed by determining the net natural recharge, as defined
by section 48-4401, for the groundwater basin beneath the district during
calendar years 1988 through 2017 and dividing the result by thirty.

2. The director may adjust the highest twenty-five

per cent
percent
of the irrigation
water duties established within an area of similar farming conditions pursuant
to section 45-567 by reducing each water duty in an amount up to five
per cent

percent
, except
that in making the adjustment, no water duty may be reduced to an amount less
than the greater of the following:

(a) The highest water duty within the lowest seventy-five

per cent

percent
of the water duties
computed within the area of similar farming conditions for the fifth management
period.

(b) A water duty computed for the farm unit under
this paragraph using an irrigation efficiency of eighty
per cent

percent
.

3. A person who is entitled to use groundwater
pursuant to an irrigation grandfathered right may apply to the director at any
time during the management period for an exemption from the irrigation water
duties established pursuant to this section. The director shall
grant the exemption if the person demonstrates to the director's satisfaction
that granting the exemption is consistent with achieving the management goal of
the active management area and that one of the following applies:

(a) Withdrawal of groundwater pursuant to the
irrigation grandfathered right during the management period will intercept
groundwater that would otherwise flow out of and be lost to the active
management area in the next fifteen years without entering another active
management area.

(b) Withdrawal of groundwater pursuant to the
irrigation grandfathered right during the management period will prevent
encroachment of a rising depth to groundwater level that will cause
waterlogging problems within the next fifteen years.

4. The director shall require a city,
town or private water company that
has been designated as
having an assured water supply pursuant to section 45-576 in an initial
active management area and that receives central Arizona project water to limit
the total quantity of lost and unaccounted for water of the city's, town's or
private water company's distribution system
in the
initial active management area to ten percent or less of the total quantity of
water from any source, including effluent, that enters the city's, town's or
private water company's distribution system
in the
initial active management area.� The director shall CALCULATE the total
quantity of lost and unaccounted for water on either a calendar year basis or a
three-year average basis based on the applicable calendar year and the
two preceding calendar years.� Achieving eight percent or less of lost and
unaccounted for water is a goal that should be considered a best MANAGEMENT
practice.

B. Within thirty days after the management plan for
the fifth management period is adopted, the director shall give written notice
in the manner and to the persons prescribed in section 45-565, subsection
B and shall give written notice of the non-per capita conservation program
established pursuant to section 45-568.01 to all municipal
providers. Two years before the compliance date specified in the
management plan for any irrigation water duty, intermediate water duty,
conservation requirement or intermediate conservation requirement, the director
shall give additional written notice by first class mail to the last known
addresses of the persons prescribed in section 45-565, subsection B and
this subsection.

C. Except for a person who is exempt from irrigation
water duties under section 45-563.02, subsection A, all persons notified
pursuant to subsection B of this section shall comply with the applicable
irrigation water duty or conservation requirements for the fifth management
period not later than January 1, 2025 and shall remain in compliance until the
legislature determines otherwise.
END_STATUTE