45-2457. Accounting; rules of operation

A. The authority shall develop an accounting system for the long-term storage credits accrued or purchased by the authority. The accounting system shall be designed to allow the authority to determine which funding source of the banking fund paid for each long-term storage credit accrued or purchased by the authority.

B. The authority shall operate in accordance with all of the following rules of operation:

1. The authority shall reserve a reasonable number of long-term storage credits accrued or purchased with general fund appropriations, other than general fund appropriations for replenishment under chapter 15, article 3 of this title, for the benefit of municipal and industrial users of Colorado river water in this state that are outside of the service area of CAWCD.

2. The authority may distribute long-term storage credits accrued or purchased with general fund appropriations, other than general fund appropriations for replenishment under chapter 15, article 3 of this title, for both of the following:

(a) To make water available to a municipal and industrial user of Colorado river water in this state that is outside of the service area of CAWCD, if both of the following apply:

(i) The municipal and industrial user would otherwise suffer a water shortage. The authority may distribute long-term credits to the extent reasonably necessary to offset the water shortage.

(ii) The authority collects reimbursement for the cost to the authority of replacing the long-term storage credits distributed. The authority may replace the long-term storage credits in any year it deems appropriate but shall use good faith efforts to replace the long-term storage credits at a reasonable cost to the person who is responsible for reimbursing the authority for the credits distributed.

(b) To make water available to CAWCD to the extent necessary for CAWCD to meet the demands of its municipal and industrial subcontractors, if all of the following apply:

(i) CAWCD's normal diversions from the Colorado river have been or will be disrupted by shortages on the river or by disruptions in the operation of the central Arizona project.

(ii) The authority does not distribute for this purpose the long-term storage credits reserved in accordance with paragraph 1 of this subsection.

(iii) The authority collects reimbursement from CAWCD for the cost to the authority of replacing the long-term storage credits distributed. The authority may replace the long-term storage credits in any year it deems appropriate but shall use good faith efforts to replace the long-term storage credits at a reasonable cost to CAWCD.

3. The authority may distribute or extinguish long-term storage credits accrued or purchased with general fund appropriations, other than general fund appropriations for replenishment under chapter 15, article 3 of this title, to implement the settlement of water right claims by Indian communities in this state.

4. On request from the director, the authority may extinguish long-term storage credits accrued or purchased with general fund appropriations, other than general fund appropriations for replenishment under chapter 15, article 3 of this title, to fulfill the water management objectives set forth in chapter 2 of this title.

5. The authority may exchange long-term storage credits accrued or purchased with general fund appropriations for long-term storage credits held by other persons if the long-term storage credits received by the authority were stored in a location that better enables the authority to fulfill the purposes and policies of this chapter than were the long-term storage credits exchanged by the authority. For the purposes of this paragraph, the authority may make exchanges of long-term storage credits stored in one active management area for long-term storage credits stored in a different active management area or of long-term storage credits stored in one groundwater basin for long-term storage credits stored in a different groundwater basin.

6. The authority shall distribute or extinguish long-term storage credits accrued or purchased with monies collected in accordance with section 45-611, subsection C, paragraph 3 only for the benefit of the active management area in which the monies were collected. The authority may distribute or extinguish these long-term storage credits to the extent necessary to meet the demands of CAWCD's municipal and industrial subcontractors during times in which CAWCD's diversions from the Colorado river have been or will be disrupted by shortages on the Colorado river or by disruptions in operation of the central Arizona project, to implement the settlement of water right claims by Indian communities in this state or, on request from the director, to meet the other water management objectives set forth in chapter 2 of this title. The authority may use the monies collected in the Pinal active management area under section 45-611, subsection C, paragraph 3 to acquire long-term storage credits for replenishment purposes under chapter 15, article 3 of this title.

7. The authority shall distribute long-term storage credits accrued or purchased with monies deposited in the fund in accordance with section 48-3715.03, subsection B only for the benefit of the county in which the monies were collected. The authority shall distribute these long-term storage credits to CAWCD to the extent necessary to meet the demands of CAWCD's municipal and industrial subcontractors during times in which CAWCD's diversions from the Colorado river have been or will be disrupted by shortages on the Colorado river or by disruptions in operation of the central Arizona project.

8. For each county within the CAWCD service area, on a determination by the authority that the number of long-term storage credits accrued or purchased with monies deposited in the fund in accordance with section 48-3715.03, subsection B exceeds the needs specified in paragraph 7 of this subsection for that county, the authority shall distribute those excess long-term storage credits to municipal water providers within that county that are at the time of distribution experiencing surface water supply shortages not associated with the central Arizona project. The authority shall distribute to each such municipal water provider the lesser of the following number of long-term storage credits:

(a) The total number of credits determined to be available by the authority under this paragraph multiplied by the percentage produced by dividing a numerator equaling the amount of revenues paid pursuant to section 48-3715.02, subsections B and C by taxpayers that are within both the boundaries of the municipal provider that is experiencing the shortage and the boundaries of the surface water supply system that is experiencing the shortage by a denominator equaling the total revenues paid pursuant to section 48-3715.02, subsections B and C by all taxpayers that are located within both the boundaries of a municipal water provider and the boundaries of a surface water supply system in the county. In making these computations, the authority shall use the amounts of revenue paid by taxpayers during the most recent tax year for which this information is available.

(b) Twenty per cent of the total surface water shortage that the municipal and industrial water provider is experiencing.

9. The authority shall distribute or replace long-term storage credits accrued with monies collected pursuant to water banking services agreements in accordance with the terms of those agreements.

10. The authority shall acquire sufficient water supplies to perform its replenishment responsibilities under chapter 15, article 3 of this title. The authority shall acquire those water supplies with monies appropriated from the state general fund by the legislature for replenishment under chapter 15, article 3 of this title and to the extent that monies appropriated by the legislature for that purpose are not available, with monies collected in the Pinal active management area under section 45-611, subsection C, paragraph 3. The authority shall use the water supplies acquired pursuant to this paragraph for any replenishment activity authorized by section 45-2623 and for implementation of the southside replenishment bank established by section 45-2624, including delivering water directly to the Gila river Indian community for those purposes.

C. Any other long-term storage credits accrued or purchased by the authority may be distributed or extinguished by the authority in accordance with the policy and purposes of this chapter.

D. Except as provided by subsection B, paragraph 7 of this section and except as provided by agreements entered into by the authority, the decision to distribute or extinguish any long-term storage credit accrued or purchased by the authority is at the complete discretion of the authority.