[Southern_AZ_MWS] CAP Board Candidates

Tue Oct 21 16:49:47 MST 2008

Hi Stewards!

A few of you have asked if I can provide you any information on the
candidates running for the Central Arizona Project Board of Directors.
There is not a great deal of information available, but the Arizona Daily
Star has bios for all of the candidates and they ran an article that I have
included below.  It is important to know that this board does not make
policies that address growth, but they do set water and property tax rates,
they make decisions about new infrastructure and requests to buy excess
water and the board is involved in a long-term process to find additional
water supplies and distribute them through the CAP infrastructure.  Based on
this job description, it would be advantageous for individuals to have a
background and experience with water management in Arizona.

Here are the candidate bios:
<http://www.azstarnet.com/special/08candidates>
http://www.azstarnet.com/special/08candidates 

For more information on the role of the CAP and water in Arizona, please
visit:  <http://www.cap-az.com> www.cap-az.com  or
<http://www.cals.arizona.edu/azwater> www.cals.arizona.edu/azwater

Thanks!
Candice

Candice Rupprecht
Statewide Coordinator
Arizona Master Watershed Steward Program

University of Arizona Cooperative Extension
Water Resources Research Center
350 N. Campbell Ave.
Tucson, AZ 85719
office: 520.792.9591 x.24
cell: 520.275.1950

 <http://cals.arizona.edu/watershedsteward/>
http://cals.arizona.edu/watershedsteward/

Published: 09.29.2008

Six are seeking Pima County's four positions on CAP board 
By Erica Meltzer 
ARIZONA DAILY STAR 
DID YOU KNOW 
The Central Arizona Project is a large system of canals that sends Colorado
River water 336 miles from Lake Havasu City to Tucson. 
The system provides nearly 3 million acre-feet of water annually for farming
and municipalities in the Phoenix and Tucson regions. It also supplies 12
Indian tribes. 
Construction of the project took 20 years and cost $4 billion. While
construction began in 1973, planning and lobbying for the project began more
than 50 years earlier. 
For more information on the Central Arizona Project, visit www.cap-az.com
<http://www.cap-az.com/> . 
Sources: CAP, Star archives
The board that oversees the CAP and makes decisions about where our water
will come from in the future is in for some wholesale changes. 
Six candidates, just one of them an incumbent, are running for Pima County's
four seats on the 15-member Central Arizona Water Conservation District
board. 
Maricopa County controls 10 seats on the board, while Pinal County has one. 
One of those giving up his seat is former Tucson Water director David
Modeer, who now works for the city of Phoenix. His departure means the
single largest user of Central Arizona Project water in the state will no
longer have a voice on the board. 
Representatives of two smaller water companies  Arturo Gabaldón, president
of Community Water Co. of Green Valley; and Warren Tenney, assistant general
manager of Metro Water  are seeking seats on the board, as are Pat Jacobs,
a retired courts administrator; Steve Lenihan, a land-use and real estate
attorney who once was the president of a private water company; and Sharon
Megdal, a resource economist with the University of Arizona who works on
water issues. 
Carol Zimmerman, a political consultant, is seeking a second, six-year term.

While the group generally agrees we need more than just the CAP to guarantee
our water future, they part ways on how to achieve that added supply. 
The CAWCD board oversees operation of the 336-mile CAP pipeline, which
delivers Colorado River water to dozens of municipal, industrial,
agricultural and Indian users in Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties. 
In addition to setting water and property tax rates, the board makes
decisions about new infrastructure and requests to buy excess water. The
board also is involved in a long-term process to find additional water
supplies and distribute them through the CAP infrastructure. 
Zimmerman worked on a strategic planning effort known as ADD Water, which
stands for acquire, distribute and deliver water. 
CAP has junior status on the river, meaning our supplies will be cut first
in the event of a shortage. Zimmerman said that makes finding additional
supplies even more important. 
"We need to be at the forefront of everything that is going on to make sure
we're protected," she said. 
Many of the ideas in the ADD Water program focus on increasing the amount of
water in the Colorado River, whether through cloud-seeding or by getting the
Yuma Desalting Plant up and running. 
The plant was built to improve the quality of Colorado River water that goes
to Mexico by treaty, but has not been used. If it were brought on line, it
could satisfy some of our treaty obligations to Mexico, allowing more water
to be held back for use by Southwestern states. 
Zimmerman said she would be a strong advocate for Pima County as decisions
are made about how to distribute future water supplies. 
Megdal, the author of a water resource study that concluded Pima County
already has enough water, provided more use is made of effluent, said she is
frankly skeptical of the effectiveness and affordability of cloud-seeding
and of some other efforts to get more water. 
"What's feasible and at what cost?" she said. "The sooner people look
realistically at what is feasible over what time period and at what cost,
the sooner we can make realistic decisions." 
Megdal said she is running because the board faces some very difficult
decisions, especially in regard to the Central Arizona Groundwater
Replenishment District, and she wants to contribute to those discussions. 
Water companies and homeowners that don't have a renewable water supply can
join the CAGRD, which recharges CAP water on their behalf. The CAWCD board
also oversees the replenishment district. 
But the district does not necessarily recharge in the same areas where
groundwater pumping is occurring. And questions loom over how the
replenishment district will meet future obligations, where future recharge
facilities should be built, and how much it will cost homeowners, who pay
for the additional water through property taxes. 
The replenishment district also relies on CAP water, potentially putting its
needs in conflict with other users. 
Megdal said board members need to look at doing more frequent plans for the
replenishment district and interact more with developers, homeowners and
local jurisdictions. 
She said location of replenishment sites clearly is an issue, but building
new infrastructure could be expensive. 
Zimmerman said she would favor increased conservation requirements for
subdivisions that join the GRD. 
Gabaldón said he felt it was very important to have someone from southern
Pima County on the board. The water table in Green Valley is dropping 4 feet
a year, and there is evidence subsidence could start to be a problem. 
The CAP pipeline ends at Pima Mine Road, and there is no recharge south of
there. As president of Community Water Co., Gabaldón has entered into an
agreement with Canadian mining company Augusta Resources to build a pipeline
to deliver Community Water's CAP allotment. 
Even with Community Water taking its own steps, Gabaldón said there needs to
be more underground storage in Pima County to enhance the reliability of CAP
supplies. 
"We cannot rely on CAP water without storage," Gabaldón said. "If there is a
problem on the pipeline, I cannot tell people, 'For the next two days, don't
drink.'" 
That's a priority for Tenney, as well. A group of water providers in the
Northwest, including Metro Water, are working on their own storage and
treatment facility for direct delivery of CAP water to their customers. 
Tenney said Pima County needs to have more storage and back-up pumps,
similar to what exist in Maricopa County. 
Plans for storage in Pima County were put on hold when Tucson Water stopped
direct delivery of CAP water. Because Tucson Water recharges CAP water into
the aquifer at its Clearwater project in Avra Valley, building additional
storage became a low priority. 
But with smaller water companies moving to make use of their CAP allotment
and even do direct delivery, it has become an issue again. 
"A lot of people with CAP allocations are moving forward with direct
delivery. We need the reliability," said Tenney, who also said he would have
a short learning curve because he has sat in on board meetings for the last
three years. 
Lenihan, the attorney, identified many of the same issues facing the board.
He said the first priority of the CAWCD board is the maintenance of the
existing infrastructure, but also believes Pima County needs to be assertive
about getting more water and needs more storage capacity. 
He said water from the replenishment district definitely needs to be
recharged where groundwater pumping occurs and that surface water recharge
could be improved. 
He also agrees the board needs to seek additional supplies, though if it is
too successful, it eventually would mean expanding the CAP pipeline to carry
more water, a very expensive proposition. 
Lenihan said his background  he started as a certified public accountant,
was president of a private water company and handles land-use and real
estate law  would help him negotiate effectively and understand the needs
of private sector and governments. 
Jacobs, a former administrator of Pima County Justice Courts and a current
Northwest Fire District board member, said he brings a different perspective
because he is not part of the "professional water community." 
Like Megdal, he questioned the wisdom of aggressively pursuing more water
supplies. He said his focus would be on conservation and restoring the water
table, but he did not have specific proposals. 
"My interest is to put conservation of our water supply first and to educate
as many people as possible about what CAWCD does and can do to conserve our
water supply," he said. 
DID YOU KNOW 
The Central Arizona Project is a large system of canals that sends Colorado
River water 336 miles from Lake Havasu City to Tucson. 
The system provides nearly 3 million acre-feet of water annually for farming
and municipalities in the Phoenix and Tucson regions. It also supplies 12
Indian tribes. 
Construction of the project took 20 years and cost $4 billion. While
construction began in 1973, planning and lobbying for the project began more
than 50 years earlier. 
For more information on the Central Arizona Project, visit www.cap-az.com
<http://www.cap-az.com/> . 
Sources: CAP, Star archives
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