The Daily Agenda: The hard part about being first

Tough decisions about water … Just say yes (to helping Pima County youth)... Road repair updates

Cochise County residents have their hands full trying to figure out what to do with their new groundwater rules. So far, state officials aren’t being much help.

Last November, voters in the Douglas area created what’s known as an active management area, or AMA, to better regulate the rapidly diminishing groundwater that supplies most of Cochise County. They were the first local voters in the history of Arizona to create an AMA and now they’re the first ones to have to deal with how to make it work.

The AMA has a bunch of new stuff, like requiring large-scale water users to report how much water they use. But the question of the moment is the big-picture one: What is the goal of the AMA?

Answering that question is uncharted territory for state officials. When the other five AMAs were created in the landmark 1980 groundwater law, each one’s goal was included in the law. But nobody created a new AMA since then, Arizona Department of Water Resources officials said in a presentation at a recent public hearing in Douglas.

ADWR officials now have to figure out how to do it for the first time in more than 40 years.

They stumbled a bit in the goal they proposed when they used the word “attempting.” 

“The management goal of the Douglas AMA is to support the general economy and welfare of water users in the basin by attempting to reduce the rate of aquifer depletion by 2035 and every 10 years thereafter,” according to the notice of public hearing.

That didn’t sit well with some Cochise County residents who spoke at the public hearing and would have preferred “making sure” instead of “attempting.”

“You’ve set the bar as low as you felt you might get away with,” Christian Sawyer said. 

Other residents who submitted comments called the proposed goal “very weak,” said it “does nothing to protect the groundwater or the economic base of the basin,” accused ADWR of “refus(ing) to do its primary job,” or urged ADWR officials to be “bold and courageous.”

Attorney General Kris Mayes weighed in at the public hearing, saying ADWR’s proposed goal “lacks specificity, teeth, benchmarks, and accountability.” 

She said a lack of groundwater regulation in rural areas made Arizona “ripe” for mega-farms and hedge funds to take advantage

“The very fact that the voters here took matters into their own hands to create an AMA is a sign of a failure of the state to help local communities manage their groundwater supplies,” Mayes said.

As for what the goal should be, many of the public comments submitted to ADWR over the last few months called for the the AMA to protect local farms (with a heavy emphasis on local), stabilize the aquifers, and not set the area up for more urbanization.

One of the problems they’re trying to fix with the AMA is quite literally earth-shattering. Huge cracks appear in the ground when too much groundwater is pumped from the aquifer. It’s been happening for years in Cochise County, even closing down highways.

But the bigger problem is that people’s wells are going dry, while they watch out-of-state companies like Minnesota-based dairy Riverview pump huge amounts of water for thousands of dairy cows. 

In their public comment to state officials, Riverview said the goal of the AMA should be to “preserve existing agricultural economies in the AMA for as long as feasible.”

Without those state regulations, it’s up to local communities to decide, and they don’t always think like the Douglas-area voters. Residents of the Willcox area had a similar choice last November, but they rejected an AMA.

And some Douglas-area residents don’t want the AMA at all. More than 2,600 people voted against the AMA in November (3,170 voted in favor) and some are trying to repeal it. 

Organizers of the repeal effort have until today to turn in enough signatures to put it up for a vote.

Investing in youth: The Pima County Health Department is seeking to allocate an estimated $650,000 in marijuana tax revenue to enhance its ongoing efforts to address youth mental health, according to a memo by Health Department Director Theresa Cullen. The department has proposed using the funds for training events and a conference; marketing for its “Not Alone” campaign; implementation of school-based programs and professional development for staffers; training six student ambassadors; development of the “Response Ready” program that would provide technical assistance to schools and access to rescue medications; creation of an online database and resource hub for schools; and four staffers to support the efforts.

Pollution solutions: Preliminary findings from a new study conducted by the Sonoran Institute could help determine the pollution source of the Santa Cruz River, the Tucson Sentinel’s Daniel Shailer reports. The study involves collection, weighing and analysis of trash and has already suggested some possible solutions, including “trash traps” — floating bags placed in the river where they won’t be dislodged during flash floods. Researchers also hope their data will help clear up the long-held prejudice that most of the trash in the river comes from the houseless population that tends to live there. They say the types of trash they’re finding indicates a “wholesale problem across the community.”

Funding public art: The Marana Town Council is moving forward with a proposed public art policy that would establish funding and a committee to create high-quality public art across the town, according to Tucson Local Media’s Veronica Kuffel. The policy would invest 1% of value from any private development project with commercial, office or apartment-style use with greater than 10,000 feet of net floor area. It would also take 0.5% of value from private industrial-use buildings of the same size and set a maximum contribution of $150,000 for private development projects. The proposal will return to the council for formal approval in September.

Town of Marana

Conserve water, save money: Tucson city officials are offering rebates to residents who install water conservation-focused appliances, including high-efficiency toilets and washing machines, and setting up greywater or rainwater harvesting systems, Fronteras Desk’s Alisa Reznick reports. The program also offers small grants for low-income residents, but as of this month, people who want rebates must participate in a free workshop before installation to give residents a better understanding of the systems.

Citizen detectives wanted: The Tucson Police Department is hiring professional staff investigators, a newly created position that pairs civilians with detectives to investigate crimes, collect evidence, prepare reports and develop probable cause, according to the job posting. PSIs will not carry a gun, respond to crimes in-progress or make arrests. Minimum experience qualifications include at least two years of investigative work in law enforcement, public safety, loss prevention, crime scene management, forensics or a related field. But hold on, retired Tucson police officers — these jobs aren’t meant for you. Retired city employees can’t accept full-time employment without forfeiting certain benefits.

Paving Pima County: Pima County will repair and preserve more than 100 miles of roads over the next year as part of an ongoing program, the Arizona Daily Star’s Charles Borla reports. Supervisors approved a 2023/24 budget that allocated $14 million for milling and paving roads, $6 million for preservation treatments and another $23 million to transportation capital projects. About 74 miles of milling and paving and 34 miles of repairs are scheduled this year to roads in the Bear Canyon Hills, Heritage Hills, Linda Vista Terrace and Sabino Vista Hills neighborhoods. The county will also be repairing and treating stretches of arterial and collector roads, including Bilby Road, Overton Road, Orange Grove Road, Sahuarita Road and Picture Rocks Road.

It will cost far less to make the Tucson Agenda sustainable than it will to fix Pima County’s roads.

Minnesota, where the Riverview dairy company is based, borders Lake Superior, one of the largest bodies of freshwater in the world.

National Park Service photo