Statement: ADWR Moves Forward with Public Hearing to Consider New Irrigation Non-Expansion Area in the San Simon Sub-Basin

PHOENIX - Irrigators in the San Simon Valley sub-basin successfully initiated a hearing process yesterday for a new Irrigation Non-expansion Area (INA) with the Arizona Department of Water Resources through a petition filed in September 2025.

The irrigators petition stalled earlier this year due to a lower court ruling in favor of out-of-state investors who challenged the Hualapai Valley INA established in 2022. ADWR appealed the lower court ruling. EDF and two local growers in the San Simon sub-basin filed a joint amicus curiae with the Arizona Court of Appeals in June to support ADWR and its authority to respond adequately to unique, local groundwater conditions.

Yesterday, ADWR initiated proceedings to consider establishing an INA in the San Simon sub-basin. Effective immediately, expansion of new irrigated acreage is prohibited in the sub-basin.

"ADWR initiating the INA hearing proceedings in San Simon is a major step in the right direction for family farms and local communities in the region. It has been a winding journey to get here, but the resilience and persistence of the local growers leading the petition effort paid off. The INA would be a critical first step; it's not the end by any stretch," said Christopher Kuzdas, Arizona Water Program Director at Environmental Defense Fund.

"The irrigator's petition mechanism in the 1980 Groundwater Management Act empowers irrigators to partner with the state to protect family farms and local communities from severe groundwater depletion - that's exactly what happened here. The collective effort from irrigators in the San Simon sub-basin is another example of rural communities taking matters into their own hands to help ensure water security now and into the future. Today is an important milestone on that path."

The INA hearing is scheduled for October 24. If established, the San Simon INA would be the first in the state successfully initiated through an irrigator's petition. The area would be the fifth new region of the state to come under groundwater protections, either as an Irrigation Non-Expansion Area or Active Management Area, since 2022.