AZ HB2723

Requires cities or towns to obtain a certificate of adequate mitigation from the Arizona Department of Water Resources before withdrawing groundwater from the Big Chino subbasin for transportation to the Prescott Active Management Area.

Mandates the department adopt rules ensuring base flow, water quality, and natural flood flow cycles are maintained, based on the best available science including the department's most recent groundwater model.

Requires certificate holders to renew every ten years and submit annual reports with data on groundwater withdrawal impacts, mitigation water quality and quantity, and data collection methodology measured at the Paulden stream gage.

Allows mitigation through recharging treated effluent, permanently retiring irrigated acres, or other recharge methods that maintain base flow, water quality, and natural flood flow cycles.

Applicants must demonstrate that projected groundwater withdrawals will not reduce base flow or degrade water quality, and that mitigation water is physically, continuously, and legally available with sufficient financial capability to ensure availability.