It’s a rare privilege to bring a former reporter back into the fold, especially as the news business turns into a smoldering crater around us.
But today, we’d like to announce that we’re bringing on Arren Kimbel-Sannit to cover water for the Tucson Agenda.
And not a moment too soon.
New plans for managing the dwindling Colorado River are shaking up Arizona’s water world. And that won’t change for the foreseeable future.
The deal has to be reworked every two years, which means it’s never going to be really settled until all seven states that rely on the river, alongside the federal government, Mexico and tribes, reach a permanent agreement.
Nobody really knows when a permanent deal will come, but it’s not far-fetched to think the price of that deal might be a giant, gold-lettered “Trump River” sign at Horseshoe Bend.
Such a big, constantly changing situation needs reporters who can track it and make sense of it for the public.
Arren is perfectly suited to deliver that reporting.
Arren in his happy place, exploring the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness on a reporting trip.
Southern Arizona is home to a lot of people interested in water: rainwater harvesters cutting curbs in front of their houses in Tucson, Cochise County ranchers whose wells are running dry and political junkies who like to see how water policy is hammered out, just to name a few.
Also, many of our readers followed water policy for years and don’t need an explanation of “acre-foot” or “Lower Basin,” but they do need somebody to ask the right questions.
The great thing about Arren is he has the detailed knowledge to satisfy the hardcore water experts. At the same time, he can write in a way that appeals to casual readers who like to stay informed, but aren’t sitting atop a reservoir of water knowledge.
He wrote a bunch of editions of the Water Agenda last year, and you may have seen his name pop up in the Tucson Agenda a few times since then. He knows a lot of the movers and shakers in Arizona’s water world.
He’s a graduate of the journalism school at Arizona State University (nobody’s perfect) and went on to cover the Arizona House for the Arizona Capitol Times. For the past few years, he’s been writing for the Montana Free Press.
The good news for us is he just moved to Tucson to start a Ph.D in geography at the University of Arizona.
Arren’s nerd profile on the UofA website. We may someday have a “doctor” on staff!
For you water wonks reading this, here’s how he describes his research interests: “hydrosocial systems in an advanced capitalist society, land use and development, data centers, food systems and more.”
If you need somebody to untangle complicated water policy questions, he’s your guy.
For more casual readers, he also writes about the “blogging wars” between Arizona’s state water officials and researchers at ASU. He tells us his goal is to “help people see the connections to water and the natural world in their lives.”
“And you can’t do that without understanding politics,” Arren says.
It’s worth pausing for a moment to take in the big picture.
Tucsonans, for example, can complain at city council meetings about water rates, share their two cents about data centers using water, or any other water-related concern they might have.
But that’s kind of where the public’s power over water ends.
Look no further than Arizona’s part of the new Colorado River deal. Last fall, we wrote about the need for state officials to involve the public more in the negotiations. A year later, Arizona ended up losing one-third of its share of the river water for the next two years.
And yet, most government officials will tell you not to worry, at least not existentially.
Maybe they’re right, but without someone to hold them to account, it’s hard for you to know. And the next round of negotiations will probably play out behind closed doors, just like the officials have done for the past two years.
Knowledge is power, and broadly put, the general public doesn’t have enough knowledge or power.
We’d like to fix that, and we think Arren is the guy for the job.
But he won’t just focus on the Colorado River. As always, there are plenty of local water-related threads to pull on:
This week, Pima County Supervisor Matt Heinz said he wants the state to ban flood irrigation for farms
Emergency water-sharing deals between Tucson and other Arizona cities
Just how much water are data centers really using? And how efficient are Arizona cities at using water in general?
The potential of using desalinated water from treatment plants in Mexico and California
The plight of the San Pedro River and Arizona’s few remaining riparian ecosystems
Joe and Curt could write about any of those, but they just don’t have the background knowledge to do it as much justice as Arren can. That’s why we’re bringing in a specialist.
But that costs money. So if you haven’t yet, please consider doing your part to support local journalism so we can keep paying him.
A chronic mass disaster: Pima County’s chief medical examiner Greg Hess told CNN that whenever a set of human remains arrives at his office, he wonders whether they could belong to Nancy Guthrie. Pima County stores more human remains than any other county in the nation, many believed to be migrants found in the Sonoran Desert. Now, the Guthrie case is putting a new spotlight on what anthropologists call a “chronic mass disaster” along the border, where heat, monsoons and animals can quickly damage remains and make them difficult to identify.
Eight months in: Pima County officials say eight months of data show the One Pima Initiative, a public-safety program, is working, the Daily Star’s Hannah Cree reports. Officials point to 300 tons of waste cleared from the Chuck Huckelberry Loop, fewer complaints about encampments and lower jail rebooking rates. Supervisor Andrés Cano introduced the program after Enrique Mercado was fatally stabbed during a bike ride on the Loop in September 2025. Meanwhile, Tucson is spending more than $2 million to boost security on public transit, including more police at busy bus stops, security guards and six new transit ambassadors, per KOLD’s Payton May.
The backlash builds: Politicians across the political spectrum are embracing data center restrictions as public sentiment sours, Politico reports, and the tech sector is starting to worry. While some industry advocates think the backlash will fade after the midterms, others say data centers could become an even bigger issue in the 2028 presidential election. States are also starting to rethink financial incentives — Arizona was one of eight states that scaled back data center subsidies this year.
The herd returns: Cattle from Mexico will slowly start to trickle back into Arizona after the Douglas port of entry reopened Monday for the first time in over a year due to the screwworm outbreak, KOLD’s Kayla Butter reports. The cattle will face stringent screwworm inspections, and Arizona is the test case — if inspections go smoothly, more border ports could reopen next.
Owl see you in court: The San Carlos Apache Tribe and conservation groups are suing to stop a proposed copper mine about 55 miles northeast of Tucson where endangered Mexican spotted owls hang out, the Daily Star’s Henry Brean reports. Faraday Copper’s proposed Copper Creek Project would include as many as six open pits and an underground block-cave mine, but the lawsuit alleges federal officials violated the Endangered Species Act when they approved drilling plans despite evidence the owls were in the area.
Prolific Tucson muralist Joe Pagac is asking for help with his new mural for the Grant Road underpass.
He wants photos of classic cars — or just cool-looking rides in general — to use as inspiration for the artwork, which is planned to look like extra lanes of traffic traveling in both directions, KGUN9’s Don Davis reports. Some of Pagac’s early mockups appear to put native Arizona animals behind the wheel.
Hopefully, it doesn’t turn into a Wile E. Coyote situation. Either way, Pagac wants your input first.
You can pitch your car online or at a public feedback session from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday at the Old Pascua Museum & Yaqui Culture Center.