Terms Used In Arizona Laws > Title 45 > Chapter 2 - Groundwater Code

• Accounting period: means the calendar year, except such other twelve-month period as may be otherwise agreed on by the director and the owner of a farm or a district on behalf of its landowners. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• 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or, in the case of the Santa Cruz active management area, active management of any water, other than stored water, withdrawn from a well.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
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Animal industry use: means the production, growing and feeding of livestock, range livestock or poultry, as such terms are defined in section 3-1201. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Aquifer: means a geologic formation that contains sufficient saturated materials to be capable of storing water and transmitting water in usable quantities to a well. See Arizona Laws 45-561
• Augmentation: means to supplement the water supply of an active management area and may include the importation of water into the active management area, storage of water or storage of water pursuant to chapter 3. See Arizona Laws 45-561
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Certificate of exemption: means a certificate which was issued by the state land department or Arizona water commission under prior statutory law for the purpose of describing specific uses and amounts of water which could not be enjoined if found to constitute the transfer or transportation of groundwater. See Arizona Laws 45-461
• Conservation district: means a multi-county water conservation district established under Title 48, Chapter 22. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Convey: means to transfer the ownership of a grandfathered right from one person to another. 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.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Date of the designation of the active management area: means :

  (a) With respect to an initial active management area, June 12, 1980. See Arizona Laws 45-402

• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Development plan: means a plan for the non-irrigation use of land in connection with which land has been or will be retired from irrigation for the bona fide purpose of conserving or using water for such non-irrigation use which would otherwise be used to irrigate the retired land. See Arizona Laws 45-461
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Director: means the director of water resources, who is also the director of the department. See Arizona Laws 45-101
• District: means a groundwater replenishment district established under Title 48, Chapter 27. See Arizona Laws 45-701
• District member: means a member of the district as provided by Title 48, Chapter 27. See Arizona Laws 45-701
• 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
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• 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.
• Exempt well: means a well that has a pump with a maximum capacity of not more than thirty-five gallons per minute and that is used to withdraw groundwater pursuant to section 45-454. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Existing well: means a well which was drilled before June 12, 1980 and which is not abandoned or sealed or a well which was not completed on June 12, 1980 but for which a notice of intention to drill was on file with the Arizona water commission on such date. See Arizona Laws 45-591
• Expanded animal industry use: means increased water use by an animal industrial enterprise on the land in use by the enterprise on June 12, 1980 or on immediately adjoining land, excluding irrigation uses. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• 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

• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• General industrial use: means a non-irrigation use of groundwater except those subject to permits issued pursuant to sections 45-513 and 45-514 and those for which a certificate of assured water supply is required pursuant to section 45-576. See Arizona Laws 45-511
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• 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
• Groundwater withdrawal permit: means a permit issued by the director pursuant to article 7 of this chapter. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Incidental recharge: means the percolation of water to an aquifer after the water has been withdrawn, diverted or received for delivery by a municipal provider for use within its service area, except water that is added to an aquifer pursuant to chapter 3. See Arizona Laws 45-561
• Incidental recharge factor: means the ratio of the amount of incidental recharge attributable to a municipal provider during a calendar year to the amount of water withdrawn, diverted or received for delivery by the municipal provider for use within its service area during the year. See Arizona Laws 45-561
• including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Industrial use: means a non-irrigation use of water not supplied by a city, town or private water company, including animal industry use and expanded animal industry use. See Arizona Laws 45-561
• 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
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• 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

• Intermediate water duty: means an irrigation water duty, as defined in section 45-402, which is established by the director during a management period to apply for a specific number of years during the management period. See Arizona Laws 45-561
• 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.
• Large untreated water provider: means a municipal provider that as of January 1, 1990 was serving untreated water to at least five hundred persons or supplying at least one hundred acre-feet of untreated water during a calendar year. See Arizona Laws 45-561
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Management period: means a period of years prescribed by sections 45-564 through 45-568 during which a prescribed management plan applies. See Arizona Laws 45-561
• Member land: means real property that qualifies as a member land of a conservation district as provided by Title 48, Chapter 22. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Member service area: means the service area of a city, town or private water company that qualifies as a member service area of a conservation district as provided by Title 48, Chapter 22. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Mined groundwater: means the amount of groundwater withdrawn or received by a municipal provider from within an active management area during a calendar year for use in its service area, minus both of the following, as applicable:

  (a) An amount of water computed by multiplying the amount of water supplied by the municipal provider for use within its service area during the calendar year by the incidental recharge factor established for the municipal provider pursuant to this article. See Arizona Laws 45-561

• Month: means a calendar month unless otherwise expressed. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Municipal provider: means a city, town, private water company or irrigation district that supplies water for non-irrigation use. See Arizona Laws 45-561
• Municipal use: means all non-irrigation uses of water supplied by a city, town, private water company or irrigation district, except for uses of water, other than Colorado river water, released for beneficial use from storage, diversion or distribution facilities to avoid spilling that would otherwise occur due to uncontrolled surface water inflows that exceed facility capacity. See Arizona Laws 45-561
• New well: means a well for which a notice of intention to drill or a permit is required pursuant to this article or which is drilled pursuant to a permit issued under Section 45-834. See Arizona Laws 45-591
• Non-irrigation grandfathered right: means a grandfathered right determined pursuant to section 45-463, 45-464, 45-469 or 45-472. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• 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

• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Owner: means :

  (a) With respect to an irrigation grandfathered right or a type 1 non-irrigation grandfathered right, the owner of the land to which the right is appurtenant. See Arizona Laws 45-461

• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Permit: means a permit to withdraw groundwater which is issued by the director pursuant to this article. See Arizona Laws 45-511
• 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
• person: means an individual, public or private corporation, company, partnership, firm, association, society, estate, 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 45-631
• Person: includes a corporation, company, partnership, firm, association or society, as well as a natural person. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Population: means the population according to the most recent United States decennial census. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• 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.
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• 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

• Process: means a citation, writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Property: includes both real and personal property. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Protected farmland: means land that has been designated by the director as protected farmland pursuant to section 45-483, subsection A and for which the designation has not been revoked by the director pursuant to section 45-483, subsection C. See Arizona Laws 45-461
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• replenishment district: means a district that is established pursuant to Title 48, Chapter 27. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Safe-yield: means a groundwater management goal which attempts to achieve and thereafter maintain a long-term balance between the annual amount of groundwater withdrawn in an active management area and the annual amount of natural and artificial recharge in the active management area. See Arizona Laws 45-561
• Same ownership: means ownership by the same person or entity or by successor persons or entities as a result of succession to heirs and personal representatives, corporate and partnership reorganizations, mergers, dissolutions, divestitures, partnerships, partitions, joint ventures, foreclosures, receivership or bankruptcy, purchase of capital stock, sale pursuant to United States Code, title 11, or similar succession, but not by outright sale to a bona fide purchaser for value where no portion of or beneficial interest in the successor in interest is retained by the original owner, its shareholders, partners, limited partners or beneficiaries. See Arizona Laws 45-461
• 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

• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Small municipal provider: means a municipal provider that supplies two hundred fifty acre-feet or less of water for non-irrigation use during a calendar year. See Arizona Laws 45-561
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Stored water: means water that is stored underground for the purpose of recovery pursuant to a permit issued under chapter 3. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Subbasin: 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 of groundwater within a groundwater basin, which shall be described horizontally by surface description. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• 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
• Temporary restraining order: Prohibits a person from an action that is likely to cause irreparable harm. This differs from an injunction in that it may be granted immediately, without notice to the opposing party, and without a hearing. It is intended to last only until a hearing can be held.
• 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.
• Transportation: means the movement of groundwater from the point of withdrawal to the point of use. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Untreated water: means water that is not treated to improve its quality and that is supplied by a municipal provider through a distribution system other than a potable water distribution system. See Arizona Laws 45-561
• Water district: means an active management area water district that is established under Title 48, Chapter 28 and that has adopted an ordinance or resolution to undertake water district groundwater replenishment obligations as defined and used in Title 48, Chapter 28, Article 7. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Water district member land: means real property that qualifies as water district member land of a water district as provided by Title 48, Chapter 28. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• Water district member service area: means the service area of the city, town or private water company that qualifies as a water district member service area of a water district as provided by title 48, chapter 28. See Arizona Laws 45-402
• 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
• Water duty acres: means the acres of land in a farm, as determined pursuant to section 45-465, subsection B, which are used in calculating the maximum amount of groundwater which may be used pursuant to an irrigation grandfathered right. See Arizona Laws 45-461
• 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