Rep. Oscar De Los Santos: “We Are in a Water Crisis. The Path We Are Currently on Is Unsustainable”

By Oscar De Los Santos, Representative for District 11 in the Arizona House of Representatives, Assistant Democratic Leader, and HECHO HCLC member.  

We are in a water crisis. Everybody needs to know it. If we don't make big changes in the very near future, our way of life, our society, our drinking water, and our economy could be at stake.

Water conservation and water resiliency are critical and urgent issues to sustain life in the desert, and every Arizonan should know and care about this. No matter where you live, the color of your skin, or what you do for a living, water is everyone’s concern.

There's hope, though, because, in many ways, water is a nonpartisan issue.

As a legislator, my current focus -and perhaps the most pressing issue we have in our hands- is getting protecting Arizona’s groundwater for the long term.

Today, the Colorado River -a vital watershed that provides water to over 40 million people including millions in Arizona- is drying up quickly. This is putting more and more pressure on our groundwater, which is water underneath the earth's surface stored in rock and soil pore spaces and the fractures of rock formations.

Unlike river water, which is surface water that can be replenished when it rains, groundwater doesn’t replenish – sometimes for centuries.

One of the biggest problems we have in Arizona is that the current law does not allow us to know how much groundwater we have and how much of it we're taking out. It’s shocking.

As such, our first priority should be determining how much groundwater we have and who is using it – and then we must implement measures to ensure we use it responsibly. 

I’ll give you an example of why this is so important. As you may know, news broke in late that  Fondomonte, a Saudi company, was sucking water out of the Arizona ground to grow crops to feed cows overseas. This is one of the many companies taking advantage of our state's lack of groundwater laws, allowing them to pump unlimited water. 

Since the news broke, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has terminated the state land lease with Fondomonte. I applaud the Governor’s actions. But this is an example of why it is essential to figure out how much groundwater Arizona has and who is pumping it from the ground.

But there’s hope. Last year, Governor Hobbs has appointed a Water Policy Council to update and modernize the Arizona Groundwater Management Act in order to protect our state's groundwater for the long haul.

The Groundwater Management Act of Arizona was a critically important law that was put in place in 1980 and allowed us to plan for decades ahead. It was a visionary law. But Arizona's population and economy have changed drastically since then. Thankfully, the Governor’s Water Policy Council – which gathered some of the brightest minds in the state who represented a diverse mix of perspectives -- deliberated for months and came to commonsense compromises. The legislature should enact the recommendations of the Council to ensure that Arizona is prepared for the future.

Besides getting control of our groundwater, there are other things I have been working on, including closing two loopholes.

One is called the "wildcat subdivision loophole." In many parts of Arizona, when a developer wants to build a new home, it must prove that the house has 100 years' worth of water to sell to someone. This law only applies when you are selling six or more homes. Unfortunately, some developers are gaming the system and splitting five lots so they don't have to follow the law. Basically, they sell houses that actually don't have that 100 years' worth of water to unsuspecting consumers. That is horrifying, but it is happening.

There is also the "build to rent loophole," in which developers only need to prove that the house has 100 years' worth of water if you're selling the home but not if you're renting it. This is puts consumers and our water at risk – and it needs to be outlawed.

While the water situation in Arizona is complicated, we should not lose hope; instead, we should take quick action and make better decisions regarding our water for a more sustainable future.