Appeal seeks to overturn lower court decision that threatens the state’s ability to respond to local groundwater depletion and threats to farming communities across Arizona
(PHOENIX – June 10, 2026) Two local growers in Cochise County and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) partnered to file a joint amicus curiae brief today with the Arizona Court of Appeals, seeking to preserve the Arizona Department of Water Resources’ (ADWR) authority to protect vulnerable communities from the impacts of runaway groundwater depletion.
Groundwater is essential for human health, growing food and economic security. However, more family farms and rural residents across Arizona who have relied on groundwater for generations now face mounting challenges due to excessive pumping, which is causing wells to run dry and land to sink and crack.
In response to these challenges, growers in the San Simon subbasin filed a petition to ADWR to initiate proceedings for an Irrigation Non-expansion Area (INA). However, a recent lower court decision in the case of ADWR v Opal Investments, LLC and Steff Investments, LLC threatens to paralyze ADWR’s ability to act not only in the Hualapai Valley, which includes the San Simon subbasin, but across the state.
“This lower court decision is delaying action on the INA petition that my neighbors and I filed now 9 months ago.” said Mark Cook, a grower in the San Simon subbasin. “Needless harm is being done to our finite groundwater supplies here with more land being developed leading to more pumping with no end in sight. The appeals court must step in immediately. The long-term viability of my family farming in this area depends on it.”
In the 1980 Groundwater Management Act, the Arizona Legislature rightly understood that geology in each basin is unique and consequently granted authority to the ADWR director to act in response to local challenges, including creating Irrigation Non-expansion Areas. ADWR’s hands would be tied by this lower court decision.
“We desperately need the INA petition to move forward. We must stop additional wells from being developed, we are already depleting the aquifer and without the INA it will just get worse.” said Calvin Allred, another grower in the San Simon subbasin. “This is a critical first step that is essential to fixing this problem and we need to take this first step immediately.”
“Protecting rural communities from groundwater depletion is about survival. Like those in the Hualapai Valley and San Simon, most rural communities in Arizona have no other water supplies.” said Chris Kuzdas, Arizona Water Program Director for EDF, a mission-driven nonprofit focused on water security for all people. “We cannot afford to risk community water supplies and rural economies being wiped out because of the paralysis brought about by this lower court decision. For all of us in Arizona and for future generations, we ask the court to swiftly correct course and overturn the lower court decision.”
