AMA Management Plans

Management Plans for each active management area reflect the evolution of the Groundwater Management Code, moving Arizona toward its long-term water management goals. The plans include mandatory conservation programs for all persons withdrawing, distributing or receiving groundwater designed to achieve reductions in withdrawals of groundwater.

A series of five management plans prepared beginning in 1980 and running through 2025 contain progressively more rigorous management requirements for agricultural, municipal and industrial water users.

Management Plans

Fourth Management Plan

ADWR is in the process of formulating and adopting the Fourth Management Plans (4MP), for the period 2010-2020. The AMA Groundwater Users Advisory Council meetings are the forum for public comment.

An evaluation of the management plans as of 2008 assisted the Department in the development of the Fourth Management Plan.

Phoenix AMA

Phoenix AMA Fourth Management Plan

Overview of Changes from the Third Management Plan

Application for Administrative Review

Application for Variance

Comments on the 4MP

COMMENTS ON THE 4MP submitted during formal comment period

Paradise Valley | Nathan Chipman-Boden | Roosevelt Irrigation District | Dobson Ranch | Moe Wakefield

COMMENTS ON THE 4MP

Prescott AMA

Prescott AMA Fourth Management Plan

Comments on the 4MP

CWAG | U of A Water Resources Research Center | Western Resource Advocates 1 | Western Resource Advocates 2

Santa Cruz AMA

Draft Santa Cruz Fourth Management Plan

Overview of Changes from the Third Management Plan

Tucson AMA

Tucson AMA Fourth Management Plan

Comments on the 4MP

Metro Water District | Tucson Water | PCRWRD | Tucson GUAC | U of A Water Resources Research Center

Meetings

Upcoming Meetings

Pinal AMA Fourth Management Plan Public Hearing

Thursday, August 20, 2020 - 1:00pm

1891 Historic Courthouse 135 N. Pinal Street

DRAFT PAMA 4MP Notice of Public Hearing Template.pdf

Notice of Public Hearing for the Pinal AMA Fourth Management Plan

PAMA4MP-Additional PublicHearingInfo.pdf

Additional Information on the Pinal AMA Fourth Management Plan Public Hearing

Previous Meetings

Phoenix AMA Fourth Management Plan Public Hearing

Monday, February 10, 2020 - 1:00pm

1110 W. Washington St., Suite 310, Phoenix, AZ 85007 Conference Room 3175A-B

Hearing Transcript

Public Hearing Notice

Phoenix AMA Fourth Management Plan Stakeholder Meeting

Wednesday, October 16, 2019 - 2:00pm

1110 W. Washington St., Phoenix, AZ 85007, Conference Room 3175

Phoenix AMA 4MP Stakeholder Meeting Agenda

Phoenix AMA 4MP Stakeholder Meeting Presentation

At several recent public meetings, ADWR has received input regarding the path forward for the Phoenix, Pinal, and Santa Cruz AMAs Fourth Management Plans. Two options were presented during these meetings: one to allow additional time for stakeholder feedback while moving forward with incremental adjustments to the conservation programs in these plans and another to maintain the status quo and adopt conservation programs substantially similar to those in the Third Management Plans. ADWR received comments supporting both options.

As Governor Ducey has stated, Arizona is transitioning into a drier future; the time to begin additional conservation is now. Maintaining the status quo would be a missed opportunity to expand on the conservation framework in the Third Management Plans and would do a disservice to the incremental design of the management plans in the Groundwater Management Act.

ADWR will proceed with incremental adjustments to these remaining Fourth Management Plans. The Department has been working with various stakeholders on refinements to the program outlines that were published in July and is incorporating those changes into the draft Phoenix AMA 4th Management Plan. Additionally, ADWR will hold a Phoenix AMA Fourth Management Plan Stakeholder Meeting at 2 pm on October 16, which will serve as a public forum for questions or further stakeholder input on the draft Phoenix AMA 4th Management Plan.

The Director expresses his appreciation to all those who took time to provide input. That input was weighed carefully as he made a decision on this matter. ADWR believes this path forward balances the need for time and stakeholder input with the need to move forward and make conservation progress under these plans.

First Management Plan

The first management plan for each AMA set forth conservation requirements to assure a dependable water supply and to protect and enhance the future of Arizona. The First Management Plans contained chapters on water resources, management strategy, conservation programs for agricultural, municipal, and industrial users; and description of a groundwater withdrawal management program and a monitoring and enforcement program.

Second Management Plan

The Second Management Plan, adopted in 1989, is the second in a series of five management plans required by the 1980 Groundwater Management Code. The plan guided water management efforts in the Active Management Areas during the last decade of the 20th century. The conservation programs for agricultural, municipal and industrial waters users, introduced in the First Management Plan, have been strengthened; and the water resources analysis of the Active Management Areas have been revised. With the addition of two new programs - water quality assessment and management, and water supply augmentation and reuse - the Second Management Plan presents a more comprehensive water management strategy. The plan's requirements are designed to bring water users another step closer to achieving the water management objectives for the Active Management Areas.

Phoenix AMA

Second Management Plan

First Order of Modifications

Second Order of Modifications

Pinal AMA

Second Management Plan

First Order of Modifications

Second Order of Modifications

Prescott AMA

Second Management Plan

First Order of Modifications

Second Order of Modifications

Tucson AMA

Second Management Plan

First Order of Modifications

Second Order of Modifications

Fifth Management Plan 2020-2025

The provisions of the 4MP will be in effect until the Fifth Management Plan is effective, for the period 2020-2025.

ADWR has formed a Management Plans Work Group for the development of the 5th Management Plans. Meeting materials and information are available.

Phoenix AMA

Pinal AMA

Prescott AMA

Santa Cruz AMA

Tucson AMA

Third Management Plan

All AMAs are currently in the third management period. (The Third Management Plans were adopted in December 1999.) ADWR is in the latter stages of completing the Fourth Management Plan (4MP), scheduled for adoption before 2020. The provisions of the 4MP will be in effect until the effective date of the Fifth Management Plan (5MP).

The Third Management Plan adopts water management programs for the Prescott, Phoenix, Pinal, Tucson and Santa Cruz Active Management Areas until the Fourth Management Plan takes effect.