The Mohave County Board of Supervisors will oppose a water conservation bill pending in the Arizona Senate, where lawmakers are working to fix potential flaws in the bill related to Arizona's rural areas.
SB 1221, introduced by Arizona Sen. Cine Carr earlier this year, would allow local elected officials to have more control over Arizona's groundwater use by allowing for the creation of watershed management districts instead of traditional active management districts. It allows for greater restrictions to be exercised. But critics of the bill say it would strengthen agricultural benefits in rural areas while adding another layer of government bureaucracy.
Nick Ponder, a Phoenix lobbyist for Highground, addressed the issue at Monday's Mohave County Board of Supervisors meeting. High Ground has represented the county's interests in water bills since 2017.
“I think it's too early to say what position anyone other than Senator Carr is on this bill,” Ponder said. “She herself acknowledges that this bill has had to evolve significantly between its hearing in committee last week and the time it gets to the public hearing in order to make it to the other side of Congress,” she said. Masu.”
SB 1221 may be circling the drain unchanged
Sen. Sonny Borelli, a 30-year-old Republican from Arizona, seems cautiously optimistic about the bill, but is reserving judgment until a final draft is submitted, Deliberation said. He said there may be.
“In our conversations with him, he wanted to support something that would help (Kingman's Hualapai groundwater basin). We indicated that this was not a favorable bill for Kingman. . I think he's waiting to see what changes will happen.”
Ponder said Mohave County Reps. Leo Biasiucci and John Gillette also spoke with Highground about the bill.
“(Biasiucci) told Sen. Kerr that we absolutely need something that will help the Kingman Basin, and right now that's not the case,” Ponder said. “He didn't get there with this current version. (Gillette) has indicated he has not yet read the bill and intends to wait until it is introduced in the House of Commons before taking a position. .”
Lingenfelter: New bill is not the solution Kingman needs
According to 2019 data from the U.S. Geological Survey, the Hualapai groundwater basin was losing more than 30,000 acre-feet of water than can be replenished annually. And at this rate, Kingman's main water source will reach its expiration date within the next century, officials said.
As of last year, agriculture accounted for about 70% of Mohave County's total water use, according to HighGround. Supervisor Travis Lingenfelter spoke Tuesday about how the bill could contribute to agricultural benefits that far exceed the benefits SB 1221 could bring to county residents.
“The current version of the bill proposes to provide quantitative water rights to corporate farms in Saudi Arabia and California that have entered the Kingman area only within the past nine to 10 years,” Lingenfelter said. . “Currently, they are the majority water users in the Hualapai Basin…This bill proposes to grant quantitative water rights to farms after one of these BMAs is created. They could use all of their allotted water, or they could sell some of their allotted water to enrich themselves.”
Lingenfelter said this is one aspect of SB 1221 in its current form that would further strengthen agricultural interests in Mojave County (which includes Fondomonte Arizona, a subsidiary of Saudi-based Almarai Inc.) at the expense of local residents. He pointed out that it makes it possible.
“When you look at the Hualapai Valley groundwater basin in Kingman, (SB 1221) does nothing to help the long-term health of our groundwater basin,” Lingenfelter said. “Conservation is strictly voluntary and does nothing for the Kingman area… Digging deeper into this bill, it creates local councils and elections funded by local taxpayers. But you don't need to know anything about water (to be a member of that council). ”
Mr. Lingenfelter suggested Tuesday that agricultural industry members themselves could be elected to such a board, against Mr. Kingman's interests.
Old debates, new politics
“From a political standpoint, Mohave County is one of the most vocal political parties on this issue, along with La Paz County, Yavapai County and Coconino County,” Ponder said Tuesday.
And Ponder said Mohave County's history of debating water issues in Phoenix could itself be the impetus for it to take a stand on SB 1221 when the time is right.
“If the county remains silent on a bill that Mohave County is not satisfied with, there will be limited incentive for (the Senate) to work to reach a bill that satisfies Mohave County,” Ponder said. .
If SB 1221 passes and Mohave County creates a Hualapai Valley subwatershed watershed management area, only 60% of the BMA board's board would live within the affected watershed, Ponder said. Ta.
But the creation of such a commission would also require the creation of a new political branch, meaning new taxes and a new tier of government.
Highground's proposed alternative would rely on BMA board members recommended by local stakeholders and appointed by the state Legislature, and avoid creating a new agency.
But as debate continues and changes are made to SB 1221, Lingenfelter said Kingman is now ramping up conservation efforts to restore depleted water supplies.
“(Kingman) is trying to diversify its water portfolio as much as possible,” Lingenfelter said. “They're looking at active recharge wells. In a wastewater sewage treatment plant, you have the ability to produce wastewater, and the active recharge well is pushing that water back into the aquifer to recharge it. It costs more than $1 million, but I don't think it's something we can rely on completely. (Kingman's) primary water source has always been the Hualapai Basin.”
The bill received second reading in the Arizona Senate on Jan. 30 and was considered by the Senate's Democratic and Republican caucuses in Phoenix on Tuesday. As of this week, no date has been set for third reading on the Senate floor.
