By Madelaine Braggs | Rose Law Group Reporter
PINAL COUNTY— Against the backdrop of a rare rainy morning in Arizona, water experts gathered Friday to discuss the future of water resources in Pinal County. The panel, hosted by Pinal Partnership, brought together key figures in the region’s water management sector to address the challenges and opportunities shaping Arizona’s water landscape.
Moderated by Craig McFarland, President and CEO of Pinal Partnership, the discussion featured:
- Patrick Dent, Assistant General Manager, Water Policy, Central Arizona Project (CAP)
- Doug Dunham, Director of Water Resources, EPCOR
- Jake Lenderking, Senior Vice President, Water Resources and Legislative Affairs, Global Water
- Terri Sue Rossi, Vice President of Water Resources, Arizona Water
The conversation centered on water availability, conservation strategies, legislative challenges, and innovative solutions for securing long-term water sustainability.
The State of Water in Pinal County
Dunham, representing EPCOR, discussed the newly implemented Alternate Designation of Assured Water Supply (ADAS) rule, which allows water providers to transition into a designation system while managing long-term replenishment responsibilities. He explained historically, smaller water providers faced barriers to achieving designation because every drop of groundwater had to be replaced. The ADAS system allows for a phased approach to that responsibility. “The other advantage of becoming designated is that you’re able to have a lot more flexibility in your water supplies. You can move all of your renewable supplies around and you can gives you a lot more ability to make use very efficient use of every drop of renewable water that you have.”
Rossi emphasized the need for a diversified water supply portfolio, saying, “Arizona Water Company has a pretty simple water resource strategy. It’s twofold; one is to develop a diverse water supply portfolio and the other is to use every single water supply we have as efficiently as possible.” She elaborated by saying Arizona Water Company is fully utilizing CAP water, working with communities to reclaim effluent, and exploring local surface water options to develop a sustainable water supply strategy.
Navigating Colorado River Challenges
The Colorado River, a critical source of Arizona’s water, was another major point of discussion. Dent described CAP’s involvement in shaping post-2026 guidelines for managing Lake Powell and Lake Mead, which supply much of Arizona’s water. “We’re in a complex negotiation process with water users across the basin. We need cooperation from California and the Upper Basin states to ensure sustainable water levels.”
The reductions have had significant consequences, particularly for Pinal County. “Absolutely, Arizona has taken the biggest cuts to date,” Dent said. “Pinal County is the poster child for where these cuts have fallen, and and it’s been difficult. The future of CAP water availability is much lower than what was envisioned in the ‘80s and ‘90s”
Innovative Solutions for Water Sustainability
One promising initiative is the Bartlett Dam expansion, which aims to capture previously lost Verde River water. Unlike buying water on the open market, where prices are skyrocketing, the Bartlett project is an investment in infrastructure that creates new capacity at a lower long-term cost, Rossi explained. “It’s a forever project, much like CAP. We feel that’s a really important part of the picture”
Lenderking highlighted Global Water’s Total Water Management Strategy, which integrates conservation, recycled water, and smart infrastructure. “We use recycled water from day one, ensuring purple pipe infrastructure is installed before streets are paved. This allows for direct reuse of treated wastewater for landscaping, reducing reliance on groundwater.”
Dunham added that EPCOR is ramping up aquifer recharge efforts, ensuring that excess treated water is stored underground for future use. “ If we don’t directly serve that water, we store it underground. Every single drop, every drop that we can’t directly use of our CAP allocations, we also store that underground.”
The Role of Legislation in Water Security
While technological and strategic advances offer hope, policy remains a major roadblock. Supervisor Steve Miller pointed out the legislative gridlock preventing key water initiatives from moving forward. “The state legislature and external forces have attacked Pinal County and do not want legislation that will create the path for development in the future here,” he said.
Supervisor Miller added, “We had a real simple bill, but it was never heard, and it died. It’s totally unacceptable. It was one of those steps that was going to help us move forward with the Bartlett Dam project.”
One such policy is Agriculture-to-Urban (A2U) Water Transfers, which would allow the water savings from farmland conversion to be counted toward assured water supply requirements. Urban development uses significantly less water than agriculture Dunham explained. “Agricultural water use, on a per acre basis, uses much more water than an acre of housing. We’re saving a bunch of water and groundwater use when you convert ag to urban. So, you should calculate that and be able to rely on that groundwater savings as part of the long-term supply for the new subdivision. The math is there. It all makes sense. The Department of Water Resources has done calculations showing that, but there are certain constituencies at the legislature who want a more direct conversion than some other parties want.
A Future with Water?
The panelists agreed that while challenges persist, Arizona’s history of proactive water management offers a strong foundation for the future. “We’ve always lived in a desert,” Rossi remarked. “This is an amazing state with amazing resources and we have done a phenomenal job of providing water to our community.”
Lenderking echoed this sentiment, emphasizing Arizona’s resilience: “We’re gonna have water, but I think when we get into the other nuances how we work together, how we work on the Colorado River, I think there’s no state better positioned than Arizona. The institutional infrastructure in Arizona is so strong. We are so sophisticated when it comes to water, and we’ve been solving it forever. We are not like the Midwest, where we have water outages regularly, nor the Northeast where they had a day that hit 100 degrees, and they ran out of water. We hit a hundred every summer and we always have water and we’re always planning for it.”
As policymakers and water managers navigate the complexities of supply and demand, one message from the panel was clear: Pinal County’s future is still being written, but ensuring water security will require a mix of conservation, investment, and legislative action.
