Monday, January 29, 2024

Request to Speak on bills that weaken AMAs, water protections and state agencies


Here are the rest of our Request to Speak actions for this week. Apologies for this being so late when there are so many bills. But there are some really destructive bills that will make it impossible for state agencies to do their job to protect our environment. You might want to weigh in on Tuesday's bills right away because there are several bad water bills mostly sponsored by realtor Gail Griffin and farmer Dunn. They are really trying to neuter the director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources who shared his concerns about some bad bills that Griffin was pushing through last week. In fact, they are trying to take rule making power away from all the state agencies and putting it in the hands of people who aren’t experts – our legislators. They are especially targeting environmental agencies.

Several of the water bills weaken the rules of the Active Management Areas (AMA). Here is the Sierra Club’s video with more information on AMAs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcmZn5oyIXE

Please, sign into the Request to Speak system and weigh in on these bills before they are heard in committee.

 Sign onto the RTS app:
https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

Review RTS directions:
https://desktopactivisttucson.blogspot.com/2018/03/request-to-speak-time.html

Register for the RTS system here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdjBMoAJrjHD57GGegmdUCKAowcr93K4vQA6a7_AjyElBtrQ/viewform

Tuesday, January 30th

House Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee at 2:00 PM

Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

  • HB2008 commercial; industrial; conservation requirements; rules (Griffin) requires the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) Director to adopt rules by January 1, 2025, for active management areas (AMA) for commercial and industrial water users that provide for greater water efficiency, conservation and on-site water reuse and recycling. However, it prohibits the rules from requiring them to obtain a certificate of assured water supply or otherwise meet a statutory replenishment obligation. OPPOSE
  • HB2015 subsequent water management areas; basins (Griffin) says a groundwater basin or subbasin may be designated as an Active Management Area (AMA) or Irrigation Non-Expansion Area (INA) upon petition by 10% of registered voters who receive their drinking water from that groundwater basin or subbasin. The change in the bill is that the only people who can petition for an AMA are residents who receive their drinking water from that basin. This would make it more difficult to establish AMAs. OPPOSE
  • HB2062 assured water supply; certificate; model (Griffin) This bill gives applicants that have already been denied a certificate of assured water supply a second chance by using an outdated water model. OPPOSE
  • HB2200 groundwater transportation; Harquahala nonexpansion area (Dunn: Griffin) allows ACC regulated private entities to import water from the Harquahala Irrigation Nonexpansion Area into the Phoenix and Pinal AMAs. The issue is Section 2 that gives a 1-year exemption from the rule making requirement of the law which means that there is no requirement for public input or review. OPPOSE
  • HB2201 Harquahala non-expansion area; groundwater transportation (Dunn: Griffin) The problem is that it allows water to be transported from Harquahala IMA to the unregulated portions of La Paz County. Also, Section 2 gives a 1 year exemption from the rule making requirement of the law which means that there is no requirement for public input or review.  OPPOSE
  • HB2281 solar royalties fund; county residents (Biasiucci: Dunn, Gillette, et al) Imposes a 12½% tax on energy generated by any non-utility solar panel. It doesn’t apply to rooftop solar. This bill could be used to prevent community solar. OPPOSE
  • HB2366 physical availability; review; designated providers (Griffin)  Requires the director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources to review the physical availability of groundwater and stored water of each municipality in the Phoenix AMA with an assured water supply designation. This is unnecessary interference with the powers of the director of the ADWR. OPPOSE
  • HB2368 transportation; groundwater; Douglas AMA (Griffin)  Yet another loophole grandfathering private water suppliers pumping water outside of the AMA to send to Douglas. OPPOSE
  • HB2589 assured water supply; analysis; availability (Dunn) establishes criteria for the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) Director to accept an analysis of assured water supply as a valid demonstration of physical availability of groundwater to meet the estimated demand of a proposed development. This pokes more holes in the groundwater management act and assured water supply requirements. OPPOSE

Wednesday, January 31st

Senate Committee on Government at 9:00 AM

House Regulatory Affairs Committee at 2:00 PM

  • HB2471 rulemaking; legislative approval (McGarr: Chaplik, Hendrix, et al) requires all rules to be approved by a majority of each House of the Arizona Legislature. If they are not, the rules are invalid. This is another measure to tie the hands of agencies and would affect important rules regarding air, water, wildlife, and more. OPPOSE

Thursday, February 1st

Senate Natural Resources. Energy, Water Committee at 9:00 AM

  • SB1172 physical availability credits; water supply (Shope) This is just a loophole that allows for development of prior farmland in an AMA to be developed without meeting the ground water management requirements.  OPPOSE
  • SB1181 groundwater replenishment; member lands; areas (Petersen) relates to replenishment obligations on Central Arizona Groundwater District member lands. It appears to create a loophole that allows municipal water suppliers to exclude some lands from replenishment requirements in the groundwater replenishment district by designating them as non-member lands. OPPOSE
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