Drought has been on the top of people’s minds in Arizona, with Gov. Doug Ducey (R) announcing in late February a new state agency to identify and develop new long-term sources of water, while federal lawmakers with water and agriculture stakeholders also held a roundtable to discuss the drought issue plaguing the state.
Ducey’s new Arizona Water Authority would significantly change how Arizona approaches water. The nine-member board has the authority to acquire, own and sell water on behalf of the state. They also have the authority to plan, construct and own water-related infrastructure by providing grants and loans through two programs.
The Water Supply Development Revolving Fund would provide loans and grants to eligible entities outside of Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties for planning and developing water supplies. The second fund, the Long-Term Water Augmentation Fund, will provide loans to all entities in the state, with at least 75 percent of this fund for one or more large-scale projects to import water into the state.
Depending on how the Legislature decides on its budget, this fund could receive up to $1 billion.
Ducey proposes spending $1.16 billion on water augmentation over the next three years—one-third this year and one-third apiece in each of the next two years. In Ducey’s State of the State address in January, he touted the idea of a desalination plant in the Gulf of California in Mexico as part of his water plan.
In the speech, Ducey said with the resources available in the budget, “Instead of just talking about desalination, how about we pave the way to make it actually happen?” Ducey said the goal is to secure “Arizona’s water future for the next 100 years.”
The Associated Press (AP) stated a report shows that even a $1 billion state investment would only cover about 20 percent of the cost of building a new plant capable of producing up to 200,000 acre-feet (an acre-foot is equivalent to 325,851 gallons of water).
Former Gov. Bruce Babbitt (D) said at a news conference that desalination is not the answer to Arizona’s water problems. Babbitt said the reason is the cost to agriculture producers. He pointed out the Poseidon plant in San Diego County, CA, where San Diego is required to purchase water from the plant at $2,725 per acre-foot, resulting in the highest water rates in the nation.
Babbitt said the maximum sustainable cost agricultural producers could afford to pay, according to estimates from the Central Arizona Project (CAP), is less than $200 per acre-foot. CAP charges most users $155 per acre-foot under its current rate schedule.
Babbitt, who negotiated the Arizona Groundwater Management Act in 1980, called for a long-term solution to groundwater issues and said a desalination plant could be in the future as technology changes.
Babbitt was at the Capitol to help push through legislation by Rep. Regina Cobb (R-5-Kingman). House Bill 2661 would use money from the state lottery fund for the Department of Water Resources Heritage Fund, which would allow for the creation of rural management areas to regulate groundwater use in rural parts of the state.
According to the Daily Independent, House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R-25-Mesa) said the state may be looking for a “magic bullet” with the desalination plant, but it is not a bad idea.
Bowers, who helped craft the legislation establishing the water authority, said specific details on projects the water authority would tackle were omitted, as “We’re not trying to limit the scope per se of what projects might be available.”
According to the AP, Bowers said the agency would look at multiple solutions, such as treating brackish groundwater, and more extensive projects, like developing supplies in three remote desert valleys earmarked for decades as potential sources for metro Phoenix. Bowers said there are other options such as paying farmers to convert to new crops or use different irrigation techniques and providing incentives to homeowners to cut back on water use.
However, Ducey is pushing back against water cutbacks for farmers, saying, “Farming and agriculture is a huge part of the economy.”
Roundtable
Members of the Congressional Western Caucus recently participated in a policy roundtable with water stakeholders and the agriculture community.
Brenda Burman, former U.S. Bureau of Reclamation commissioner and current executive strategy adviser for CAP, told the roundtable that runoff in the last couple of years has been below average, and the West is in the middle of the worst drought in 1,200 years.
Burman said CAP has junior rights to other users on the Colorado River, and within CAP, there are different priorities for water users. In exchange for lower water rates, agriculture agreed to take the lowest priority. Burman noted CAP has been working with other water users to soften the blow to agriculture and other users, but it has not been enough.
Arizona experienced water cutbacks of 18 percent as a result of Level 1 restrictions due to low water levels in Lake Mead. To further stave off water reductions, Burman said the 500+ Plan—which Lower Basin states on the Colorado River have voluntarily agreed to—would help fund irrigation technology and other water-saving measures.
Stefanie Smallhouse, Arizona Farm Bureau president, posed two questions to the roundtable. First, “Why are farmers losing their water, specifically in Arizona and across the West?” Smallhouse said the reason boils down to two things: climate change and the courts.
Smallhouse said there is not much farmers can do about drought and climate change, but agriculture always loses in the courts with fights over endangered species and water rights for groundwater and surface water flow.
The second question Smallhouse asked was, “Whose problem is that; whose problem is it to solve?” Smallhouse said water is getting more expensive with the cost to build and maintain infrastructure, and consequently, farmers are negotiating their rights to be able to afford water. Smallhouse noted the farmer is directly impacted, and it has a ripple effect on other farmers, the community and the consumer.
Smallhouse said she thinks consumers have not engaged on the issue and connected the dots between agriculture and water. Smallhouse noted that agriculture is responsible for $23.3 billion to the economy and comprises 60 percent of land in the state, and local food is essential for resiliency and quality of life. Smallhouse said the Southwest is pretty good at turning sunshine into food and doesn’t want to fill the void with imports from other countries.
“Before we can do any more regulation of agriculture, we need to do augmentation, because agriculture has given as much as they can give,” Smallhouse said.
Smallhouse praised the state for establishing the water authority and investing in infrastructure and the federal government for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Shelby Hagenauer, senior director of congressional relations at the American Farm Bureau Federation, echoed Smallhouse’s comments on the impacts of drought on agriculture and thanked Congress for the increase in budget to the Bureau of Reclamation to fix aging water infrastructure and for grants to local irrigation districts for water conservation. — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
