|
|||
| Political Action |
Legislative Updates 2007“How lovely the little river is, with its dark changing wavelets! It seems to me like a living companion while I wander along the bank, and listen to its low, placid voice . . . “— George Eliot Sierra Club 2007 Legislative Update #9-Revised March 2, 2007 Hello Conservation Friends! It is hard to tell if the Legislative Session is on track to end at some normal time or not. While the bills continue to move through the process, many of the important issues linger on various agendas. Of course, what happens with the budget will largely determine whether an April or June adjournment sine die will occur (Sine die means “without day” and is used when an organized body’s existence is terminated. In this case, it is this session of the legislature.) The Senate is focusing on the budget this week, so committees are not meeting there. They have not really tackled anything meaningful relative to water, yet. While there are bills floating about that have potential to help with water adequacy and consumer protection and even, perhaps, to provide the San Pedro River a tad more protection, they still have a long way to go. The language for the San Pedro bill has still not been introduced. This week, please call your Arizona Senator and both of your Arizona House members and ask them to support strong protections for our water resources including our rivers and streams. Here are some details on the bills: HB2692 water supply development revolving fund (Mason, Ableser, Saradnik, et al.) establishes a water development revolving fund for the purpose of providing financial assistance to water providers for water supply development. It does limit the use of the fund to water providers who are located within a county or municipality that has adopted the adequacy requirements for new subdivisions in HB2693 or that is within an active management area, and it contains a conditional enactment provision relative to HB2693. If HB2693 is improved, then this bill could be less damaging, but still could be a mechanism for fueling urban, suburban, and rural sprawl. It does not provide any protections for stream or river flows and therefore could be used by Prescott or Prescott Valley to pipe from the Big Chino and dry up the upper portion of the Verde River. PLEASE SUPPORT AN AMENDMENT THAT PROVIDES PROTECTION FOR RIVERS AND STREAMS. SB1608 water supply development revolving fund (Flake) the strike-everything amendment adopted in the Senate Natural Resources and Rural Affairs Committee conforms this with the provisions in HB2692. See above. HB2693 water adequacy provisions (Mason, Ableser, Saradnik, et al.) authorizes cities and counties outside of active management areas to require that any new subdivisions have a determination of water adequacy from the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR). It defines “adequate water supply” as sufficient groundwater, surface water or effluent of adequate quality to satisfy the needs of the proposed use for at least 100 years. The water supply must be continuously, legally and physically available. There are numerous exceptions for these water adequacy requirements including for developers who have made a substantial capital investment when the adequacy provisions are adopted. The bill allows a county, city or town to provide an exemption for subdivisions that will be served by projects under construction provided the construction will be completed within a twenty year timeframe, if the current supplies can sustain the subdivision for that time period. It also provides an exemption for subdivisions that will be hauling water by truck or train. It prohibits a city or town that is within a county that has adopted the adequacy provision to approve a subdivision unless ADWR has determined that the subdivision has demonstrated an adequate water supply or has obtained a written commitment of service from a city, town, or private water company that has been designated as having an adequate water supply. While the bill provides additional consumer protection, it does not provide any additional protection for surface water rivers, streams, springs, etc. PLEASE SUPPORT AN AMENDMENT THAT RECOGNIZES PLANNING EFFORTS TO PROTECT RIVERS AND STREAMS. SB1575 water adequacy amendments (Arzberger, Aguirre, Landrum Taylor, et al.) contains the provisions of HB2693 except that a unanimous vote by the County Board of Supervisors is required to adopt local water adequacy requirements. This provision was included in the bill because certain interests do not want to see members of the Navajo Nation be able to adopt an adequacy provision in Apache County, where there are two Navajos and one non-Navajo on the county board of supervisors. That is pretty outrageous. This provision should be stripped out of the bill. See above for bill details. HB2484 well impacts; contamination (Mason, Adams, Bradley, et al.)/SB1638 well impacts; contamination (Arzberger, Garcia, Hale, et al.) require the Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) to review an application to drill a new well to determine if the well is likely to cause contaminated groundwater to migrate to another existing well. If the Director determines that contaminated groundwater is likely to migrate to another well, permission to drill the well will be denied. This is to help some concerns about groundwater pumping in the Payson area where they have significant groundwater contamination and are spending dollars to contain and remediate it. SUPPORT. Go to http://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster.asp to email legislators or to find their direct office phone number. If you're outside the Phoenix area, you can call toll free at 1-800-352-8404. In the Phoenix area call (602) 926-3559 to be connected to your Senator and (602) 926-4221 to be connect to your House members. There was more good news this week. SB1119 water; overlapping service area providers (C. Gray, Aguirre, Harper, et al.) failed in the House Committee of the Whole. It would have prohibited water providers (primarily municipalities) in an area that overlaps with an irrigation district from limiting a landowner’s right to use water that is supplied by an irrigation district. This bill would have significantly hindered cities’ water conservation efforts, drought plans, and efforts to address groundwater contamination. Thank you for all your calls and emails on this. It made a difference! Here is what is coming up in Committee this week: Tuesday, March 6 House Counties, Municipalities & Military Affairs Committee at 1:30 p.m. in Hearing Room 5 SB1313 state trust lands; planning (Flake) narrows the provisions the urban land planning oversight committee can consider regarding the final conceptual land use plans and the final five year state trust land disposition plans. WATCH. SB1423 municipal development fees; procedures (Bee, McClure) makes several changes to the process for how cities assess development impact fees. It requires them to adopt or amend an infrastructure improvement plan, it requires additional public hearings, and it changes some of the time frames. I see nothing in this that will ensure that we are better recovering the cost and the impacts of development on existing communities, but it is probably not worth opposing at this point either. WATCH. HCM2013 railroad rights-of-way (Pancrazi, Ableser, Alvarez, et al) asks that Union Pacific Corporation work with local communities and participate in town halls and local meetings to ensure that any new or proposed railroad, right-of-way does not devastate the local economy and that alternate routes are considered if proposed alignments have the potential to displace prime agricultural lands. This seems like a reasonable ask. Wednesday, March 7 House Commerce Committee at 9:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room 5 SB1323 antifreeze; aversive or bittering agent (Leff) requires a bittering agent be added to anti-freeze, but it removes all liability for injury, death, environmental or natural resource damage, related to the bitterant. Children, wildlife, and domestic pets have been harmed or killed from drinking antifreeze, which has a sweet taste, so that is a plus. WATCH. House Environment Committee at 1:30 p.m. in House Hearing Room 5 SB1083 waste tire disposal (Flake, O’Halleran, Brown, et al) extends the waste tire disposal program through 2017. This includes a fee on new tires to help pay for disposal of old tires. SUPPORT. SB1310 underground storage tanks (Flake, Brown: Huppenthal, et al) consists of primarily small technical changes. It limits the submittal of claims under the program to once per month per facility. This seems reasonable. It also limits the involvement of the Technical Appeals Panel to focusing on technical issues. I see no issues with this bill. WATCH. SB1311 channelization districts; formation (Flake) continues the ongoing power grab by the sand and gravel companies via the Arizona Rock Products Association the entity which has been pushing for formation of these districts. It removes the requirement that allows a county to form a channelization district that includes a city or town, only if that city or town has also approved it. It replaces it with a notification requirement and allows a city or town to disapprove the portion of a district located within its boundaries within 45 days of the notice. If the governing body does not disapprove within 45 days the formation is deemed approved. Cities have more power to regulate these entities than do counties, so they want to further limit their impact. OPPOSE. SB1455 low sulfur diesel fuel standards (Allen) establishes standards for low sulfur and ultra low sulfur diesel. SUPPORT. SB1531 vehicle emissions inspection; sunset extension (Allen) continues the vehicle emissions inspection program in both Area A (Phoenix and surrounding area) and Area B (Tucson) through January 1, 2019. SUPPORT. Thursday, March 8 House Transportation Committee at 9:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room 3 SB1161 HOV lanes; motorcycles; buses (Tibshraeny) clarifies that motorcycles and buses can travel in the high occupancy vehicle lanes at any time. THIS IS FINE. SB1531 vehicle emissions inspection; sunset extension (Allen) continues the vehicle emissions inspection program in both Area A (Phoenix and surrounding area) and Area B (Tucson) through January 1, 2019. SUPPORT. House Water and Agriculture Committee at 10:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room 1 ADWR presentation on Statewide Water Advisory Group Legislation SB1557 water; municipal conservation requirements (Flake) eliminates specific conservation requirements for certain municipal water providers under the non-per capita program located within Active Management Areas (AMAs) and instead requires them to adopt Best Management Practices, which are generally not enforced. This would allow backsliding on water conservation in the AMAs. OPPOSE. SB1570 NOW: critical water area study committee (Arzberger) establishes the Critical Water Area Study Committee to collect information on, and consider issues for, areas of the state that are outside AMAs and that are critical water areas of concern. The last things we need are more studies in some of these areas, especially for the San Pedro. We need action. MONITOR. For more information on these bills go to http://arizona.sierraclub.org/political_action/tracker/. To email legislators go to http://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster.asp. If you are not sure who your legislators are, please go to http://www.vote-smart.org (You will need your 9-digit zipcode.) or call the House or Senate information desks. If you're outside the Phoenix area, you can call your legislators’ offices toll free at 1-800-352-8404. In the Phoenix area call (602) 926-3559 (Senate) or (602) 926-4221 (House). Correspondence goes to 1700 W. Washington, Phoenix, AZ 85007-2890. For more information on legislation go to http://www.azleg.gov.
Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633 |