Celebrate World Water Day: Advocate for Water & Public Lands

Next week there are a bunch of bad water, utility and energy, and democracy bills on the agendas.  There are 16 Request to Speak actions in all. Keep an eye out for the one bill we are supporting: HB2518. Please, weigh in on the bills on the RTS system before they are heard in their respective committees.  (See list below.) 

Sign into the Request to Speak system here: https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

If you haven't signed up for the system, you can find the form here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdjBMoAJrjHD57GGegmdUCKAowcr93K4vQA6a7_AjyElBtrQ/viewform

Directions on how to navigate the system:

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

Next week, there will be a rally at the Capitol for Public Lands. Please join the Sierra Club Thursday, March 27th at 1:00 PM. For details and to RSVP, go here:

https://act.sierraclub.org/events/details?id=701Po00000l56MsIAI&formcampaignid=701Po00000j4yzmIAA

Monday, March 24th   House Land, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs Committee at 2:00 PM SB1212 biosolids; land application; immunity (Dunn) SB1212 provides immunity to the State Land Commissioner, ADEQ, the State Land Trust, and the State of Arizona from all liabilities or damages from actions relating to the use of fertilizers, biosolids, or soil amendments on state land. Immunity will not clean up the land or the water. OPPOSE SB1721 now: egg-laying hens; housing size standards (Bolick) prohibits the Arizona Department of Agriculture from requiring housing standards for egg-laying hens. This is just a big factory farm stamp of approval and also a license for being cruel. OPPOSE Tuesday, March 25th Senate Natural Resource Committee at 1:30 PM  Members of the public may attend in person or access a livestream of the meeting here. HB2091 land division; applicant submissions; review (Griffin: Diaz, Hendrix, et al) has a strike-everything on assured water supply; certificate; model that requires the Arizona Department of Water Resources to review an application for a certificate of assured water supply in 15 days and requires it to use models that are nearly 20 years old. OPPOSE HB2204 assured water supply; commingling (Griffin) requires the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR), when determining physical availability for a designation or certification of assured water supply, to consider only the source of the water supply, regardless of whether the water is commingled with other sources of water supply. This is another measure to get around assured water supply physical availability requirements and could result in double counting. There is no way to guarantee the water going to a new development would be non-groundwater and would put even those with an assured water supply at risk. OPPOSE  HB2300 electric vehicle charging stations; report (Biasiucci) has a strike-everything amendment on fuels that will allow for additional fuel formulations in Area A -- Maricopa County. Weakens the requirements for reformulated fuels to comply with the Clean Air Act - including allowing fuels that haven't been reformulated at all. Basically it's saying that the state of Arizona isn't going to do anything to comply with the Clean Air Act. OPPOSE  HB2568 conservation requirements; industrial water use (Griffin)  requires the ADWR Director to adopt rules by January 1, 2026, for AMAs 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. Shouldn’t we be requiring all entities, including mining operations, to have an assured water supply? Why exempt them from replenishment obligations? OPPOSE HB2572 NOW: subsequent AMAs; groundwater rights; adequacy (Griffin) Weakens the required statement from the director of Water Resources from stating that the water supply is inadequate but instead to say that "sufficient water might not be available to satisfy the water needs of the subdivision for 100 years." It makes the situation sound better than it is and may deceive potential homebuyers. OPPOSE HB2727 county water authority; post-2024 authority (Biasiucci: Gillette, Angius)  Weakens the limitations on groundwater pumping in the Harquahala Irrigation Non-expansion Area. OPPOSE HB2753 groundwater replenishment; Pinal AMA (Martinez: Lopez) Weakens the requirement for the Phoenix and Pinal AMAs by reducing the groundwater replenishment obligations for subdivisions. OPPOSE HCR2039 assured water supply; legislative intent (Griffin) includes misinformation about the Groundwater Management Act and seeks to re-write history on legislative intent in order to say the legislature never meant for ADWR to deny certificates of assured water supply based on commingling of other sources of water than groundwater. OPPOSE House Natural Resources, Energy, & Water Committee at 2:00 PM Members of the public may attend in person or access a livestream of the meeting here. SB1538 corporation commission; non-thermal generating unit (Carroll: Gowan, Shamp, et al) adds the word "nonthermal" to the power plant and line siting statutes and changes the trigger for the need to get a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility (CEC) from 100 to 200 megawatts (MW). This would mean it would apply to a limited number of projects. With the 200 MW trigger for a CEC, most gas plants would no longer need a CEC either. While this bill is seeking to further regulate solar and wind, it is at the same time allowing for siting of polluting power plants right next to communities without any CEC or opportunity for further analysis or for the community to seek conditions to limit the impact. This has already been a problem with utilities siting plants just under the current 100 MW trigger and indicating they will add more in the future. This has outraged a number of communities. OPPOSE House Commerce Committee at 2:00 PM SB1024 state agencies; payments; cryptocurrency (Rogers: Weninger) allows state agencies to enter into agreements with cryptocurrency service providers. Cryptocurrency and cryptomining use enormous amounts of electricity - frequently keeping coal fired power plants online to mine crypto.  OPPOSE Wednesday, March 26th Senate Government Committee at 8:05 AM HB2518 employment; prohibitions; corporation commission (Olson) prohibits utilities from employing an individual who has served as an Arizona Corporation Commissioner in the past two years. This closes the revolving door at the Commission a bit. SUPPORT  House Government Committee at 9:00 AM SB1088 now: government; compliance; immigration; deportation (Hoffman: Keshel) requires cooperation on immigration deportation measures and imposes severe penalties for violations as well as allowing private individuals to bring enforcement actions against cities, counties or state agencies which will tie them up trying to respond to all these actions  OPPOSE Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee at 1:30 PM HB2005 voter registrations; recorder; inactive status (Gillette) requires county recorders to file an action if they believe a voter has fraudulently registered or to place them on inactive status if they believe the information may be inaccurate. OPPOSE HCR2025 constitutional amendments; sixty percent vote (Kolodin: Kupper, Marshall) refers a proposed constitutional amendment to the ballot that would require sixty percent approval for any future constitutional amendment, thus raising the bar significantly for future amendments. OPPOSE