Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Source for Arizona Government, Politics and Business

Gov. Doug Ducey's current, hurried water policy process bears little resemblance to the proven formula for development of sound, nonpartisan water law in Arizona. Much of the focus of these invitation-only gatherings appears intent on merely criticizing (and silencing) CAP, not on resolving honest differences of opinion and developing a consensus solution to the critical issues facing us today.

We are at the crossroads regarding additional looming challenges including drought, especially drought on the Colorado River; where our next “buckets” of water will come from; and who will be the next generation of champions who provide the vision and courage to make extremely tough decisions about Arizona’s water future.

Collaboration is often touted as key to Arizona’s successes in water management, and it is. We just forget how messy, cantankerous, and difficult collaborating can be. We are seeing it again this summer as the state wrestles with Colorado River and groundwater issues in a stakeholder process led by Gov. Doug Ducey.

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality disagrees with its own advisory committee, which says current septic system regulations need a serious update to ensure protection of groundwater.

Under a special permit, 26 breweries already made use of reclaimed wastewater as the basis for new craft beers.

All along the U.S.-Mexico border, about 840,000 mostly low-income, immigrant Latinos have settled in colonias – cheap plots of land outside city limits without basic infrastructure such as water and sewage systems, electricity and paved roads.

In the 24-month report released by the United States Bureau of Reclamation in 2016, the bureau predicted a more than 50 percent chance of a water shortage in 2018. This August, the Bureau of Reclamation report reduced that projection to zero.

Was this just a brief respite from 20-plus years of drought, or are we finally at the end of the latest 20- or 30-year dry cycle and ready to start the next wetter period? We don’t know the answers to those questions yet.

After 44 years, the adjudication of water rights in Arizona is still far from being resolved, and water policy experts say that resolving these competing claims is essential to providing certainty about water rights.

For those of us that do not follow the intricacies of water policy, we are left asking basic questions, such as how to deal with drought and climate change? How do we manage growth and economic development opportunities sustainably to support future generations? And importantly, how can we ensure that Arizona’s last remaining rivers, streams, and springs are preserved, not just for future generations, but right now, for all?