Where Will Our Future Water Come From?
When it comes to Arizona water and the current drought of the Southwest, everyone is asking the same question: where will our future water come from? On July 6th, 2022 Arizona passed AZSB 1740 allocating $1 billion to Arizona Water Resources over the next three years. In the interview below, bill sponsor Senator Sine Kerr talks to Rosie On The House about how these funds will be managed and allocated so Arizona gets the most drops per buck.
Senator Sine Kerr on SM 1740 – Arizona $1 billion dollar water bill.
WIFA Board Application – OPEN THROUGH SEPTEMBER 16TH
https://bc.azgovernor.gov/bc/form/water-infrastructure-finance-authority-board-application
Once the expanded board is selected, they will be looking at allocating the money in the following categories:
- 200 million in water conservation
- 250 million in new in-state water resources
- 700 million in new out of state water resources
Listener Survey
Let’s hear from you! Take our survey on what three areas you would focus on if you were in control of the 1 billion dollar purse: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/F6FFYBM
Listener Responses:
New water sources
- Develop Primary Water Well that will naturally flow into existing tributaries | https://primarywater.org
- A pipeline from the Mississippi river basin to the Colorado River watershed
Agriculture Conservation
- Alfalfa Project | https://thealfalfaproject.com
- In Drip
- Organic Fertilizer | https://www.azfb.org/Article/Whats-the-Poop-on-Fertilizer-and-Looming-Shortages
Crops that would grow in salt water
Municipal Conservation & Recycling
- All public roadway/right of way landscapes be planted with native trees/shrubs/cacti/ or vegetative materials that would only require water for establishment and irrigation could be terminated after one year
- Private/commercial streetscapes be limited to one irrigation per week-landscape requirements be reviewed and densities of trees and shrubs be reduced (if you look around, most all commercial landscapes are overplanted and hence overpruned)
- Have an billing system for residential water users that would impose a “luxury” tax for water used above a certain no of gals per month (I believe the information exists to determine what an average home should use per month) you could then use a portion of this luxury tax to : one- give incentives to those homes who come in below the average and two- fund education programs on water and power conservation
- Purification of grey water to potable levels
- Convert all public sporting fields to artificial turf
Desalination
- Sea of Cortez or Pacific or for recycled water
- Rice Hull Filters | https://www.glanris.com
- TorayWater.com
Rain water harvesting
- Improve watershed runoff yields- control burns, channelization, and other methods so our watershed areas maximize runoff
Arizona’s instate waterways
- Raise the damn at Bartlett Lake
- install pump back systems in glen canyon and hoover dams so power can be generated and the water can then be pumped back into the reservoir ( saguaro, and I think canyon and apache lakes have this feature). *SRP Follow Up Request
- Exploration of untapped underground aquifers that way me not know exist
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