Terms Used In Arizona Laws > Title 11 > Chapter 2 > Article 1 - Preliminary Provisions

• Action: includes any matter or proceeding in a court, civil or criminal. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Active management area: means a geographical area that has been designated pursuant to article 2 of this chapter as requiring active management of groundwater or, in the case of the Santa Cruz active management area, active management of any water, other than stored water, withdrawn from a well. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Director: means the director of water resources, who is also the director of the department. See Arizona Laws 45-101
• Effluent: means water that has been collected in a sanitary sewer for subsequent treatment in a facility that is regulated pursuant to Title 49, Chapter 2. See Arizona Laws 45-101
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Farm: means an area of irrigated land that is under the same ownership, that is served by a water distribution system common to the irrigated land and to which can be applied common conservation, water measurement and water accounting procedures. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Farm unit: means :

  (a) With respect to areas outside an active management area and with respect to an active management area other than the Santa Cruz active management area, one or more farms that are irrigated with groundwater and that are contiguous or in proximity to each other with similar soil conditions, crops and cropping patterns. See Arizona Laws 45-402

• Grandfathered right: means a right to withdraw and use groundwater pursuant to article 5 of this chapter based on the fact of lawful withdrawals and use of groundwater before the date of the designation of an active management area. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Groundwater: means water under the surface of the earth regardless of the geologic structure in which it is standing or moving. See Arizona Laws 45-101
• Groundwater basin: means an area that, as nearly as known facts allow as determined by the director pursuant to this chapter, may be designated so as to enclose a relatively hydrologically distinct body or related bodies of groundwater, which shall be described horizontally by surface description. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Initial active management area: means the Phoenix, Prescott or Pinal active management area established by section 45-411, the Tucson active management area established by section 45-411 and modified by Section 45-411. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Integrated farming operation: means :

  (a) With respect to land within an irrigation non-expansion area, more than ten acres of land that are contiguous or in close proximity, that may be irrigated pursuant to section 45-437, that are not under the same ownership and that are farmed as a single farming operation. See Arizona Laws 45-402

• Irrigate: means to apply water to two or more acres of land to produce plants or parts of plants for sale or human consumption, or for use as feed for livestock, range livestock or poultry, as such terms are defined in section 3-1201. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Irrigation acre: means an acre of land, as determined in section 45-465, subsection B, to which an irrigation grandfathered right is appurtenant. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Irrigation district: means a political subdivision, however designated, established pursuant to Title 48, Chapter 17 or 19. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Irrigation grandfathered right: means a grandfathered right determined pursuant to section 45-465. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Irrigation non-expansion area: means a geographical area that has been designated pursuant to article 3 of this chapter as having insufficient groundwater to provide a reasonably safe supply for the irrigation of the cultivated lands at the current rate of withdrawal. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Irrigation use: means :

  (a) With respect to areas outside an active management area and with respect to an active management area other than the Santa Cruz active management area, the use of groundwater on two or more acres of land to produce plants or parts of plants for sale or human consumption, or for use as feed for livestock, range livestock or poultry, as such terms are defined in section 3-1201. See Arizona Laws 45-402

• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Month: means a calendar month unless otherwise expressed. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Non-irrigation use: means :

  (a) With respect to areas outside an active management area and with respect to an active management area other than the Santa Cruz active management area, a use of groundwater other than an irrigation use. See Arizona Laws 45-402

• Person: means an individual, public or private corporation, company, partnership, firm, association, society, estate or trust, any other private organization or enterprise, the United States, any state, territory or country or a governmental entity, political subdivision or municipal corporation organized under or subject to the constitution and laws of this state. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Private water company: means :

  (a) With respect to areas outside an active management area and with respect to an active management area other than the Santa Cruz active management area, any entity that distributes or sells groundwater, except a political subdivision or an entity that is established pursuant to title 48 and that is not regulated as a public service corporation by the Arizona corporation commission under a certificate of public convenience and necessity. See Arizona Laws 45-402

• Property: includes both real and personal property. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Service area: means :

  (a) With respect to a city or town, the area of land actually being served water, for a non-irrigation use, by the city or town plus:

  (i) Additions to such area that contain an operating distribution system owned by the city or town primarily for the delivery of water for a non-irrigation use. See Arizona Laws 45-402

• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subsequent active management area: means an active management area established after June 12, 1980 pursuant to article 2 of this chapter. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Subsidence: means the settling or lowering of the surface of land that results from the withdrawal of groundwater. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Surface water: means the waters of all sources, flowing in streams, canyons, ravines or other natural channels, or in definite underground channels, whether perennial or intermittent, floodwater, wastewater or surplus water, and of lakes, ponds and springs on the surface. See Arizona Laws 45-101
• town: means a city or town incorporated or chartered under the constitution and laws of this state. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• water duty: means the amount of water in acre-feet per acre that is reasonable to apply to irrigated land in a farm unit during the accounting period, as determined by the director pursuant to sections 45-564 through 45-568 or as prescribed in section 45-483. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Well: means a man-made opening in the earth through which water may be withdrawn or obtained from beneath the surface of the earth except as provided in Section 45-591. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Writing: includes printing. See Arizona Laws 1-215