WHEREAS, forty-three (43) years ago, Governor Bruce Babbitt convened the Arizona Groundwater Management Commission in a time of great uncertainty and adversity to ensure that Arizona remained a welcoming home for everyone for generations to come by protecting against overuse of the State’s finite groundwater; and

WHEREAS, this effort brought leaders of both parties and stakeholders across the State together to pass the 1980 Arizona Groundwater Management Act (the “GMA”); and 

WHEREAS, the GMA was both a symbol of bipartisan collaboration and a monumental innovation in sustainable groundwater management that was recognized throughout the Country as well as internationally; and

WHEREAS, since the GMA’s initial passage, the population of the State of Arizona has grown more than one hundred seventy percent (170%); and 

WHEREAS, the State has experienced moderate or severe drought conditions almost continuously for more than twenty (20) years; and

WHEREAS, these historic drought conditions and the related effects of climate change have diminished the availability of surface water, which diminution has in turn increased demand for groundwater pumping; and  

WHEREAS, the GMA contemplated that the most populous areas of the State would achieve “safe-yield” by 2025, meaning that withdrawals from and recharge to the aquifers in such areas would be in long-term balance; and

WHEREAS, due to the confluence of factors described above and incomplete water stewardship by the broader community, the achievement of safe-yield by 2025 is now highly improbable; and

WHEREAS, the goals of the GMA cannot be achieved without updates to current law developed through bipartisan, State-wide collaboration; and 

WHEREAS, the State is home to many civic, scientific and business leaders who, collectively, possess the skills, knowledge and resolve required to achieve the long-term sustainability of Arizona’s groundwater, a resource that is enjoyed by and necessary to all Arizonans.  

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Katie Hobbs, Governor of the State of Arizona, by virtue of the power vested in me by the Arizona Constitution and the laws of this State, hereby order and direct as follows:

1. The Governor’s Water Policy Council (the “Council”) is created to analyze and recommend updates, revisions and additions to the GMA and related water legislation, which shall include, without limitation, analysis and recommendations for groundwater management outside current Active Management Areas.

2. The Council shall also build upon the work of the Governor’s Water Augmentation, Innovation, and Conservation Council (the “GWAIC”), which GWAIC is hereby dissolved. 

3. The Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources shall serve as the Chair of the Council.

4. The Arizona Department of Water Resources shall provide staffing and technical support to the Council, which may include support from the Department’s legal counsel.

5. The Chair shall create committees, as necessary, to facilitate the Council’s work and the Chair shall appoint the chair and vice chair for any committee so created.

6. The Council shall meet at such frequency as the Governor or the Chair may direct.

7. The Chair may establish sub-committees, which sub-committees may include non-Council members.

8. The Council shall be composed of the following members, each of whom shall be appointed by the Governor and serve, without compensation, at the pleasure of the Governor.

Membership shall include the Directors of the following governmental entities:

• Arizona Department of Water Resources

• Arizona Department of Agriculture

• Arizona Department of Environmental Quality

• Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management

• Arizona State Land Department

• Arizona Commerce Authority

Membership shall include additional representatives to be chosen by the Governor including, without limitation, from the following:

• State Legislature

• Governor’s Office

• Salt River Project

• Central Arizona Project

• Local government leaders

• Arizona Municipal Water Users Association

• Kyl Center for Water Policy, Arizona State University

• University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center

• College of the Environment, Forestry, and Natural Sciences, Northern Arizona University 

• Two (2) Tribal communities within current Active Management Areas (as recommended by the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona)

• One (1) Tribal community outside current Active Management Areas (as recommended by the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona)

• Navajo Nation

• Sustainable agriculture/ranching industry

• Development community

• Non-governmental conservation organizations

• Private water companies

9. The Council shall prepare legislative and policy recommendations at a frequency to be determined by the Chair in consultation with the Governor or her designee.

10. Executive Order 2019-02 is hereby superseded and rescinded by this Order.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the Great Seal of the State of Arizona

GOVERNOR

DONE at the Capitol in Phoenix on this ninth day of January in the Year Two Thousand Twenty-Three and of the independence of the United States of America the Two Hundred and Forty-Seventh.

ATTEST:

SECRETARY OF STATE