management plan; water loss; percent

Plain English Breakdown

The bill summary does not provide specific details on enforcement mechanisms or penalties for non-compliance.

Water Loss Management Plan

HB2052 requires water providers designated with an assured water supply in initial active management areas to limit lost or unaccounted-for water to no more than eight percent of their total distribution system.

What This Bill Does

• Requires the Arizona Department of Water Resources Director to mandate that entities distributing water for municipal use, which have been designated as having an assured water supply and receive Central Arizona Project water in initial active management areas, limit lost and unaccounted-for water to no more than eight percent of their total distribution system.
• Allows the director to calculate this percentage either annually or over a three-year average basis based on the applicable calendar year and the two preceding years.
• Directs the director to create rules for managing water loss in active management areas that align with these requirements.

Who It Names or Affects

• Water providers designated as having an assured water supply in initial active management areas who receive Central Arizona Project water, such as cities, towns, and private companies.
• The Arizona Department of Water Resources Director responsible for enforcing the rules.

Terms To Know

Active Management Area (AMA)

A specific area where the state manages groundwater to ensure sustainable use and prevent overuse.

Assured Water Supply

A designation given by the Arizona Department of Water Resources to water providers that have a reliable supply of water for their customers.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if a provider fails to meet the eight percent goal.
• It is unclear how this law will be enforced or what penalties might apply.
• The exact date when these requirements must start is not clearly stated in the summary.

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

Caucus
& COW

Overview

Mandates
the Arizona Department of Water Resources Director require an entity that
distributes water for a municipal use to limit lost and unaccounted for water
to less than eight 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
distributes water for municipal use to limit the total quantity of lost and
unaccounted for water of the entity's distribution system to 8% or less of the
total quantity of water from any source that enters the entity's distribution
system. (Sec. 1)

2.

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)

3.

Directs the
Director to adopt rules for the management plan for the fifth management period
that are consistent with this act. (Sec. 2)

4.

Makes
technical changes. (Sec. 1)

Amendments

Committee on
Natural Resources, Energy & Water

1.

Modifies the
characteristics of the municipalities or private water companies from an entity
that distributes water for municipal use to an entity that has been designated
as having as assured water supply in an initial active management area that
receives Central Arizona Project water.

2.

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

3.

4.

5.

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6.

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

7.

02/02/2026����������� Page
0 Caucus & COW

8.

9.

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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