PHOENIX — The Arizona Supreme Court has declined to order Gov. Katie Hobbs and the Arizona Department of Water Resources to study whether the upper San Pedro River basin needs tighter state limits on groundwater pumping.
In a brief order without explanation, the justices rejected an appeal by the Center for Biological Diversity and the San Pedro Alliance, the Arizona Daily Star reported.
The groups argued state law requires the department to periodically determine whether groundwater depletion warrants an active management area, and noted the San Pedro Basin has not been reviewed in more than two decades.
The ruling leaves in place a Court of Appeals decision by Judge Kent Cattani, who wrote that while the law requires periodic reviews, it does not define “periodically,” leaving the department discretion over how often to conduct them.
The San Pedro, near Sierra Vista, is one of the last free-flowing desert rivers in the Southwest. Water policy has become a major issue in Arizona’s Nov. 3 elections.
Sources: Arizona Daily Star. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Bureau of Land Management / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
