image as a smart water steward, earned by enactment of the 1980 Groundwater Management Act, the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association argued.

That law mandated pre-construction proof of 100-year supplies in urban counties such as Maricopa. It also allowed more rural counties to opt in with their own similar requirement — a step that Cochise and Yuma counties took.

"If one part of the state is seen as weakening its water management, the whole state is seen as weakening its water management," said Warren Tenney, executive director of the Arizona Water Users Municipal Association, which represents city water suppliers in the Phoenix area.

"It doesn't seem to be consistent with the message that the governor has been saying regarding water in recent months."

The governor and his administration have frequently touted Arizona'swise water management and aquifer recharge programs as having prevented a water crisis of the kind that forced statewide restrictions on Californians last year.

Bill goes back to Senate for concurrence

The House passed the bill 33-25 with heavy Republican support and sent it back to where it originated and first passed in the Senate for concurrence on amendments.

SB 1268 would allow Sierra Vista to ignore Cochise County's groundwater rule and approve the embattled Tribute development, among others.

The development has been tied up in state court for years. Opponents, including the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, have argued that the Arizona Department of Water Resources improperly declared the developers had access to a 100-year supply and ignored the likely depletion of the river and a congressionally-designated water right for a