Herb Guenther is stepping aside as head of the Department of Water Resources, but the longtime director will stay on board as adviser.

Arizona has always had its fair share of larger-than-life politicians.

For years, the state has also been on the cutting edge of progressive politics, in selecting powerful women to hold its highest offices, in a traditionally male-dominated arena.

Arizona elementary school students are taught about the history and importance of water conservation, but for most students, instruction on the subject typically slows once they enter middle school.

Salt River Project has filed documents in Maricopa County Superior Court arguing that it is exempt from the state’s public record laws because it is not technically a public body.

SRP is one of the largest utility companies in the state and is considered a quasi-governmental agency because it operates as both a private, for-profit company and a political subdivision of the state.

For the moment, the state Legislature can count out one of the many lawsuits it faces, as the Arizona Supreme Court will not hear a challenge to the sweeping of millions of dollars from a fund used to carry out a multi-state water-rights agreement.

Salt River Project and a pair of Arizona municipalities will face off in court over a public records dispute in February.

A Maricopa County judge on Dec. 2 set a hearing date of Feb. 17. The two sides will debate whether the quasi-governmental utility company is subject to the state’s public records law. Prescott and Prescott Valley have filed two public records requests with SRP, and the utility has refused to turn over the documents.

The nation’s third-largest public power utility and one of the state’s largest water suppliers avoided a ruling earlier this year that would have determined whether it was subject to Arizona public records law. But now the Salt River Project is again bracing against claims that its quasi-governmental status requires it to maintain and provide access to documents.

PRESCOTT – The state Department of Water Resources has affirmed a judge’s ruling that Prescott is entitled to pump more than 8,000 acre-feet of water a year from its Paulden-area ranch.

While rain and snow have ended droughts across much of the U.S. this year, conditions have gotten worse in Arizona, further extending a dry streak that began in 1996.

Two municipalities are challenging the authority of one of the state’s largest utilities and are now asking a Maricopa County court to order Salt River Project (SRP) to turn over records under the state’s public records law.