Urgent Action on SB1221: Basin Management Areas will make water shortages worse in rural Arizona

Sink hole in Willcox area

I just got an email from Sandy Bahr at the Sierra Club: SB1221 regarding Basin Management Areas will hurt rural Arizona. (See her comment below.)  Included are 2 documents that explain how bad this bill is.

SB1221 basin management areas; appropriation (Kerr: Griffin) establishes a process for creating basin management areas via a petition with signatures from 15 percent of the registered voters that live in the basin and receive their drinking water from the basin. These can only be established if land subsidence is endangering property or affecting water storage, and there is an accelerated decline in groundwater levels. This would be too difficult to pass until it is too late. Why wait until the situation is critical?

If you haven't already, please sign onto the Request to Speak and oppose SB1221.

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

If you already weighed in on RTS, consider contacting the members of the Senate Natural Resources. Energy, Water Committee before the bill goes for a vote in the committee at 9:00 AM and urge them to vote NO on SB1221 to protect rural groundwater. If the committee member is the representative of your district, please, mention that you are their constituent and from (city). 

Sen. Frank Carroll (Republican, District 28): FCARROLL@azleg.gov, 602-926-3374

Sen. Brian Fernandez (Democrat, District 23): BFERNANDEZ@azleg.gov, 602-926-3098

Sen. David Gowan (Republican, District 19): DGOWAN@azleg.gov, 602-926-5154

Chairman Sine Kerr (Majority Whip, Rep, District 25): SKERR@azleg.gov , 602-926-5955

Sen. Juan Mendez (Dem, Assist. Minority Leader, Dist. 8): JMENDEZ@azleg.gov , 620-926-4124

Vice-Chairman Thomas "T.J." Shope (Rep. President Pro Tempore, D 16) TSHOPE@azleg.gov, 602-926-3012

Sen. Priya Sundareshan (Democrat, District 18) PSUNDARESHAN@azleg.gov, 602-926-3437 (Priya is an Environmental Lawyer, UA professor and champion for water.)

Email from Sandy Bahr:

I wanted to give you a heads up that this bill is being heard on Thursday and would have negative implications for Oak Flat as it locks in groundwater mining outside of AMAs. Attached are some info sheets on the process. If you can sign in against it, we encourage you to do so. 

https://apps.azleg.gov/RequestToSpeak 

SB1221 would create new rules for groundwater basins (the geographic areas overlying water-storing aquifers). Under SB1221, “Basin Management Areas” or “BMAs” could be created and would bring new groundwater laws for communities in the basin. But these new laws would not require a stop to groundwater overpumping. Instead, they would lock overpumping in place (pages 4-5) and make it nearly impossible to stop the decline. While the bill would require a cut to the aquifer for transfers or changes to groundwater certificates (page 5), the only way to require a reduction across a BMA would be to upgrade the BMA to an “Active” BMA. Even then, an Active BMA could only reduce pumping by 2% per year, capped at a total of 10% reduction—and only if the Active BMA council unanimously agrees to require that reduction. (Page 10).

See materials prepared by the counties and the Water for AZ Coalition.

file:///C:/Users/janas/OneDrive/Pictures/Trees%20and%20Poppies/BMAs%20Hurt%20Rural%20AZ_1%20pager_2-02-2024_w%20index%20well%20diagram.pdf

file:///C:/Users/janas/OneDrive/Pictures/Trees%20and%20Poppies/SB%201221_Problems%20Step%20By%20Step_2-5-2024%20(1).pdf

Request to Speak Action: Stop AZ legislature from overturning the ACC’s renewable energy mandate

 Use Request to Speak to OPPOSE SB1175 and HB2248

Sign on to Request to speak: https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

Sign up for a Request to Speak account here: https://www.cebv.us/rts.html

In November, the Arizona Corporation Commission voted on a comprehensive set of new clean energy policies. If finalized, these rules will require Arizona utilities to deliver 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050 (with benchmarks along the way), invest in more energy efficiency and energy storage, and make utility planning processes more transparent. Our legislature, of course, sees this as a personal attack, so two bills are moving forward to ban the ACC from doing its job. (Called mirror legislation, which you may remember from the bill that became Prop 305, it involves two identical versions of a bill moving simultaneously in the House and Senate, in a process designed to fast-track legislation and limit public input.) And since our ACC was established in Article 15 of the Arizona Constitution, the bills may even be unconstitutional.

RTS to OPPOSE SB1175 and HB2248, you can make one or more of the following points in your comment:

• Clean energy is good for Arizona. It keeps electricity costs lower, consistent, predictable and reliable over the long term. Being a solar leader gives us more energy independence and control.
• This is not the Legislature's job. Managing energy policy is one of many reasons why the ACC exists and why Arizona voters elect their utility regulators.
• This silences voters. The ACC rules have gone through nearly two years of development and vetting, If we wanted this done, we would have said so.
• This would make our state an outlier. APS, TEP and SRP all have introduced plans to significantly reduce carbon emissions, as have neighboring states like New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado.

Scheduled for House Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee, Tuesday at 2 p.m.

(Weigh in on Request to Speak before or while it is still in committee.)

HB2248, sponsored by Gail Griffin (R-14), would prohibit the Arizona Corporation Commission from regulating the types of electric generation used by public service corporations, retroactive to June 2020. In other words, the entity that is supposed to regulate power companies in Arizona would be left unable to require clean energy standards. This comes in the wake of landmark new rules the ACC passed in November which require state-regulated utilities to get 100% of their power from carbon-free sources by 2050. Newly elected commissioner Anna Tovar described the bill on Twitter as an unconstitutional overreach that would force the ACC to abdicate its power to the legislature. See mirror bill SB1175, also moving this week. Scheduled for House Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

Senate Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee Wednesday at 9 a.m.

(Weigh in on Request to Speak before Wednesday or while it is still in committee.)

SB1175, sponsored by Sine Kerr (R-13), would prohibit the Arizona Corporation Commission from regulating the types of electric generation used by public service corporations, retroactive to June 2020. In other words, the entity that is supposed to regulate power companies in Arizona would be unable to require clean energy standards. This comes in the wake of landmark new rules the ACC passed in November which require state-regulated utilities to get 100% of their power from carbon-free sources by 2050. Newly elected commissioner Anna Tovar described the bill on Twitter as an unconstitutional overreach that would force the ACC to abdicate its power to the legislature. See mirror bill HB2248, also moving this week. Scheduled for Senate Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.

Wanna do more? 

Then consider watching the committee hearings (House Tuesday at 2pm, Senate Wednesday at 9am). It's also not too late to testify remotely in the Senate. Here's how: RTS "no" on SB1175, click the "testify remotely" button, and email SenateNREW@azleg.gov by Tuesday at 9am for login instructions.

1. Use Request to Speak as usual; select "Yes - Remotely" under "Do you wish to speak?"
2. Send an email to the committee email address (listed here) at least 24 hours before committee hearing begins (not counting weekends and holidays)
3. You will receive an email with teleconference sign-in instructions.