Champions for the Environment and Sustainability
Please, consider attending the Pima County DEQ Meeting on the Sundt Generating Station and its impact on our air quality. This is our chance to demand that any future investment goes towards building a clean infrastructure. If we want change, we have to show up and demand it. It is on Thursday, March 1st. 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. Abrams Public Health Center, Room 1108, 3950 S. Country Club Road,
More information here.
RSVP to tell the Department of Environmental Quality these new gas investments are unacceptable.
There is a lot going on with water in our state legislator. Some bad bills have made it through committee and will probably be up for a vote on the Senate floor early next week. (See more information below). Please, tell your senator to vote no on SB1493. This bill would be a first step in giving ADEQ control of a critical Clean Water Act program that protects washes and wetlands
Sandy Bahr from the Sierra Club wrote:
This week, a crazy number of bills were heard in committee and there were some long agendas and late nights. Next week, there are only two committee hearings, the House and Senate Appropriations committees. The reason for the packed agendas this week was it was the last week to hear bills in committee in the house in which the bills originated. Bills that were not heard are considered dead, unless they are heard in Appropriations or resurrected as a strike-everything amendment. For those unfamiliar with strike-everything amendments, these entail striking the original bill and replacing it with a brand new bill. This is one of many reasons no bill is really dead until the chambers adjourn, sine die, for the session.
It is likely that a couple of bills to allow the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to take control of important water programs will come to the Senate Floor early next week. We are particularly concerned about one of them, SB1493. This would be a first step in giving ADEQ control of a critical Clean Water Act program that protects washes and wetlands. Please ask your senator to vote NO on SB1493!
Update on other Water Bills: The Senate Natural Resource, Energy, and Water Committee and the House Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Committee both advanced a number of bills, the larger bills that include multiple provisions -- SB1507 and HB2512 -- and then several other bills that include the individual provisions. They will either attempt to pass them as they are and send them up to the Governor for a veto, or will try to work out some pretty major floor amendments. Either way, there is nothing in the bills that helps protect the environment, our rivers and streams, or consumers. The provisions help developers and big agriculture, mostly. Stay tuned for more on these as they move through the process. Let legislators know you want to see an open, transparent, and inclusive process for addressing Arizona's waters.
To find out who your Representative is, first find your district: https://azredistricting.org/districtlocator/
Then use that district to find your rep.: https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/
B1507, SB1515, HB2553, and HB2512 will allow for more development in areas without adequate water, such as Sierra Vista, robbing the San Pedro of its lifeblood. These bills passed out of committees. People can continue to contact senators and representatives on them, but this week the Sierra Club focused on SB1493 as it is closer to being considered by the entire senate. Please, tell your senator to vote no on SB1493. This bill would be a first step in giving ADEQ control of a critical Clean Water Act program that protects washes and wetlands.
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