45-561. Definitions

In this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. " 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.

2. " 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 3.1 of this title.

3. " Incidental recharge" means the percolation of water to an aquifer after the water has been withdrawn, diverted or received for delivery by a municipal provider for use within its service area, except water that is added to an aquifer pursuant to chapter 3.1 of this title.

4. " 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of the amount of incidental recharge attributable to a municipal provider during a calendar year to the amount of water withdrawn, diverted or received for delivery by the municipal provider for use within its service area during the year. The amount of incidental recharge attributable to a municipal provider during a calendar year is the amount of water that is incidentally recharged during the year after it is withdrawn, diverted or received for delivery by the municipal provider for use within its service area.

5. " 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.

6. " 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.

7. " 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.

8. " Management period" means a period of years prescribed by sections 45-564 through 45-568 during which a prescribed management plan applies.

9. " Mined groundwater" means the amount of groundwater withdrawn or received by a municipal provider from within an active management area during a calendar year for use in its service area, minus both of the following, as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.

(b) If the municipal provider is a city or town in the Tucson active management area, the amount of groundwater withdrawn by the municipal provider during the calendar year from land owned or leased by the municipal provider to which a type 1 non-irrigation grandfathered right under section 45-463, subsection A is appurtenant, up to the following amount:

(i) If the municipal provider has made a request to the director as described in section 45-463, subsection F, the amount of groundwater computed by the director under section 45-463, subsection F, in determining whether to designate or redesignate the municipal provider as having an assured water supply, minus the amount of any groundwater withdrawn by the municipal provider from the land during the period beginning with January 1 of the year in which the request was made and ending on December 31 of the year immediately preceding the calendar year for which the calculation of mined groundwater is being made.

(ii) If the municipal provider has not made a request to the director as described in section 45-463, subsection F, the amount of groundwater that the director would have been required to include in determining whether to designate or redesignate the municipal provider as having an assured water supply, as computed under section 45-463, subsection F, if the municipal provider had made a request to the director as described in that subsection on January 1 of the calendar year for which the calculation of mined groundwater is being made.

10. " Municipal provider" means a city, town, private water company or irrigation district that supplies water for non-irrigation use.

11. " 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.

12. " 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.

13. " 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. For purposes of this paragraph, the amount of untreated water that is supplied by a large untreated water provider during a year shall not be counted in determining whether the municipal provider supplied two hundred fifty acre-feet or less of water for non-irrigation use.

14. " 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.