36 minute read
Zone
Food wars continue / P. 4
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE THE EAST VALLEY) | TheMesaTribune.com
Setting the table
/P. 8
Sunday, January 16, 2022
INSIDE
This Week
COMMUNITY .......... 11
Mesa women ramp up mountain biker club.
SPORTS................ 22
Mesa High soccer team is poised for special run.
GETOUT................. 25
Barrett-Jackson auto auction ready for the highest bidders.
COMMUNITY ...............................11 BUSINESS ......................................16 OPINION........................................19 SPORTS..........................................22 GET OUT........................................25 CLASSIFIED...................................29
Zone 1
MPS may mandate masks as COVID cases soar
BY PAUL MARYNIAK
Tribune Executive Editor
As COVID-19 transmission levels throughout the East Valley skyrocketed to unprecedented proportions last week, Mesa Public Schools raised the specter of mask mandates at individual school sites.
In a letter to parents, district Assistant Superintendent Holly Williams said masks will be required for 10 days at schools where 3% of its staff-student population tested positive for the virus while principals at other schools might impose other mitigation strategies on events, such as performances.
Those limitations could range from limiting audience sizes by scheduling an event multiple times to moving events outside or online to cancelling them all together. “This week we have seen a significant increase of student and staff COVID-19 cases across the district,” Williams wrote. “Staff absenteeism has disrupted our ability to deliver some services in a timely manner.”
She added that the district would “increase mitigation strategies as needed.”
MPS has had an optional mask policy since last spring.
The advisory was issued as the latest data from the county health department showed transmission levels at their highest since the
seeVIRUS page 6
Mesa Council OKs $4.5M to bridge ‘digital divide’
BY GARY NELSON Tribune Contributor
The City of Mesa is preparing to spend $4.5 million to ensure that students on the city’s west side can join the 21st century.
City Council on Jan. 10 approved the expenditure as part of a broader citywide effort to attack the so-called “digital divide” in which less affluent parts of town lack the internet access that wealthier neighborhoods enjoy.
Numerous studies have shown that students suffer without access to the information highway.
The Forbes Technology Council reported in December, for example, that “without the ability to connect, … students obviously cannot demonstrate the same academic achievement as their peers.”
seeDIGITAL page 6
A hand up
Volunteer Christina Avila last week helped Red Mountain High School senior Ivy Trowers and Susan Jenni at the Mesa Drive-Up, a program aimed at helping East Valley seniors take a vital first step in applying for financial aid for higher education. For a look at why events like this are
so important, see the story on Page 3. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)
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BY DANA TRUMBULL
Tribune Staff Writer
East Valley high school seniors seeking scholarships and other tuition help for college got a helping hand in filling out applications last week as 50 trained volunteers manned the “Mesa Drive-Up” in the Mesa Convention Center parking lot.
The volunteers helped the seniors and their parents complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) paperwork, an essential first step for students seeking any financial aid for higher education.
It is also required for participation in the Mesa Promise and Arizona Promise programs that can provide free tuition at Mesa Community College and Arizona public universities.
“We’re happy to host this event, but we are particularly engaged in it, because we have the Mesa College Promise. That’s a needs-based program, so the gateway into that is filling out the FAFSA form,” said Mesa Mayor John Giles, who attended the event to express the city’s support. “Really, it is the first step for any type of scholarship or student aid, but it can be a little bit intimidating, particularly if you are a first-time college-going family or if you’ve got immigration status issues, or what have you. So, we’re anxious to hold people’s hands and help them to realize that this is very important,” he added.
The Mesa College Promise guarantees two years of community college education at Mesa Community College for Mesa high school graduates. If a student qualifies for any kind of federal aid pursuant to FAFSA, they qualify for the Mesa College Promise.
It is a “last dollar” program, meaning that after a student receives the Pell Grant and other scholarship funds, the Mesa Promise makes up the difference in tuition.
The drive-up event is part of a larger scale strategy to encourage more families to complete the FAFSA.
Last year, the Mesa Drive-Up attracted 250 people in 170 cars during the threeCars filled with high school seniors and their parents rolled into the Mesa Convention center parking lot last week as the students got some help to fill out the initial forms needed to seek
tuition help for higher education. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)
hour event. The count included all passengers in the cars and was the largest of 12 FAFSA events conducted by a partnership that includes the City of Mesa, Access ASU, Education Forward Arizona, Be a Leader Foundation and Ask Benji.
Lisa Woodburn and her son, Ethen Fernandez, were among the attendees seeking assistance Tuesday. Ethen, who attends McClintock High School in Tempe, is planning to become a firefighter. He is Lisa’s youngest son and the first to attend college.
“I heard it’s a hard process,” she said. “It’s so great that they’ve got someone to help you through. When I told my coworker and my boss, they were like, ‘That’s awesome! Because when we did it, nobody helped.’”
As cars drove into the lot, they were assigned to one of nine stations, three of which had Spanish-speaking volunteers. All were equipped with wi-fi. Attendees remained in their cars while masked volunteers responded to their questions and walked them through the application process.
Heidi Doxey, a program manager for Education Forward Arizona, explained that the goal was to complete the FAFSA, then sign and submit it electronically so it was done and filed by the time the students and parents drove out.
Doxey praised Mesa Public Schools for “leading the charge” with innovative FAFSA strategies.
In 2018, FAFSA completion numbers in the district were at 38%. By the end of 2019, under the leadership of then newly appointed Director of Opportunity and Achievement, Dr. Michael Garcia, the numbers had increased to 50%, “which is a huge bump,” said Doxey.
Then COVID hit and the numbers started sliding all across the country.
“Arizona is 49th in FAFSA completion in the country and has been for a very long time,” she explained. “So, when we were seeing numbers trend up by 3%-5% statewide pre-pandemic, we were really excited. Then with COVID, everything flattened out or decreased.”
When schools closed to in-person classes, students weren’t able to get help from their counselors or attend workshops at the schools, so the educational partnership decided to build a computer lab outside. “It’s not easy, just for the record,” said Doxey. “It’s a huge lift, but it’s what kids needed. It was what families needed.”
Although there is no tracking data on how many applications were completed as a result of the Drive-Up events, Doxey stated that one of the partners has encouraged the group to, “keep doing FAFSA Drive-Ups, because every time you do, we bump up, like, 2% as a state.” ■
GOT NEWS?
THE MESA TRIBUNE | JANUARY 16, 2022
Adult learning program ramping up for spring
TRIBUNE NEWS STAFF
Retirees and other adults looking to expand their intellectual, cultural or social horizons will have a chance will have a chance to begin exploring some options virtually this week. New Frontiers for Lifelong Learning, an adult non-credit educational program of Mesa Community College, has released its spring schedule for courses starting Feb. 7 and registration begins online Jan. 24. To help potential students through the array of courses, New Frontiers will host a virtual open house at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 19, at newfrontiers. mesacc.edu. For an annual $60 tuition, people can enroll as non-credit students of MCC and participate in as many New Frontiers courses or activities they want.
Those courses include online and inperson classes, social activities and offsite field trips. to local sites.
The spring schedule offers 70 courses with a topics on history, social sciences, discussion, literature, nature, travel, technology, arts, finance and health. Others involve fun gatherings.
Hiking, walking, and cycling groups also are provided a mailed copy can be obtained by calling 480-461-7497.
Only fully vaccinated people who are comfortable being in gatherings are advised to participate in the in-person classes. Members who wish to participate in online classes but have computer issues should contact the New Frontiers office as there are some donated computers with cameras and microphones than can be loaned to members.
Information: SuzanneBrownpt@
gmail.com. ■
Mesa food truck park showdown looms Feb. 7
BY GARY NELSON
Tribune Correspondent
The final salvos in a long-running battle over a northeast Mesa food truck park will be fired on Feb. 7 – maybe.
City Council agreed on Jan. 10 to hold a public hearing and final vote on the matter at its first meeting in February.
But Council also promised neighbors who oppose the project that no vote on the rezoning request will be held if key documents are not ready in time.
Those documents are a development agreement between Mesa and the developers and a “good neighbor” policy wherein the owners of the facility would agree to mitigate the effects of their operation.
The development agreement would be enforceable by the city, which presumably could shut the operation down in the face of violations.
That both documents are under development did not stop a cadre of neighbors from registering their opposition during the Jan. 10 Council meeting. Two of the neighbors’ spokesmen – David Sloan and Ted Sparks – cited a long list of complaints about the operation that has sprung up on the west end of their neighborhood northeast of Power and Brown roads.
Sparks decried the “invasion and chaos caused by the ongoing unauthorized food truck operation.” But he said the neighbors’ complaints are not about food trucks per se. “It is about preserving the integrity and nature of our neighborhood.” He said the neighborhood first galvaHomeowners near the controversial and popular East Mesa food truck park say the operators already have shown they do not deserve city permits. (Tribune file photo) nized in opposition to a proposed selfstorage facility on the corner of Power Road and Halifax Avenue, eventually winning a two-year fight to stop the project. But, he said, when the property owners proposed an office park on that corner, neighbors were supportive. That project never came to fruition.
Sparks said the owners of the property “have a terrible history with their malicious actions toward our neighborhood, including removing a line of eucalyptus trees that had completely shielded a neighbor visually from Power Road just because a survey showed the trees and their irrigation to be on the food truck property. This was done in one day without notice to the neighbor.” He cited concerns about lighting and traffic, and said the owners have a practice of dumping liquid waste from their own food truck onto neighborhood streets. “We have witnessed them doing this maybe 15, 20 times,” Sparks said, adding that neighbors have photographic evidence of illegal dumping. After citing other alleged violations, he said, “There is no apparent reason to reward this behavior with special treatment they have done nothing to earn.” Sloan, who lives immediately east of the food truck park, said the food truck park already does not have enough parking and that as business grows the problem will get worse. That, he said, is going to spill into neighborhood streets.
“They graded that property illegally, without a permit,” he said. “They were red-tagged by the city of Mesa. They violated the stop-work order and just went ahead and finished the grading.”
Further, he said, the owners have not followed through on a promise to move the food trucks farther north, away from homes.
“They said they would move the generators away from the fence line. Last week I had generators 5 feet from my fence,” he said. And he said, the owners put a DJ booth 25 feet from his bedroom window.
He said the owners’ actions to date make it questionable whether a “good neighbor policy” would mean anything in practice.
After Sloan and Sparks spoke, Mayor John Giles closed the door on further comments because Council was not actually deciding on the merits of the case that night. Sean Lake, a zoning attorney representing the applicants, was in the audience and did not get to rebut the neighbors’ comments.
District 5 Councilman David Luna, who represents the neighborhood, cast the sole vote against putting the item on the Feb. 7 agenda.
Seventy-four neighbors have signed petitions in opposition to the rezoning request. The battle has raged through City Hall meetings of the Board of Adjustment and the Planning and Zoning Board. It also has attracted the attention of several state legislators who assert that Mesa would be overstepping its bounds if it prevented the “park” from continuing to operate. ■
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pandemic began in March 2020 in Mesa with 1,647 cases per 100,000 people and new positive test results at 41.35%. Those figures represent a five-fold increase in cases and more than twice the positivity rate from the previous week.
Similar levels were reported in all East Valley districts and cities.
MPS’ dashboard of active COVID-19 cases among staff and students also reflected the virus surge. It showed that among the total staff-student population of 65,819, the disease had been contracted by 779 students and 317 adults. Dobson and Red Mountain high schools High by far had the highest numbers, with each reporting 57 affected students and 17 adults.
At the same time, only about half of all eligible Mesa residents ages have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, other county health department data show.
Most of MPS’ neighboring districts maintained an optional-mask policy, though the three Tempe districts have made masks mandatory since the fall.
Mesa’s selective mask mandate policy
DIGITAL from page 1
“The risk is that an entire subsection of America’s youth will be left behind, unable to move forward academically,” it added.
The Forbes report said that while 87 percent of American families have an internet-enabled device, that still leaves more than one in 10 students without one. And even if they have, say, a smart phone, many students can’t connect without reliable high-speed wireless at home.
The problem worsens as income decreases.
A study by the Oklahoma State University Extension in August 2020 reported that only 62 percent of households making less than $20,000 had an internet connection, compared to more than 95 percent of households making more than $75,000.
Without internet access, students can’t do web-based research, connect with teachers or classmates, or get online homework help.
The contract approved by the Mesa City Council seeks to address that problem for about 2,100 students living in council districts 1, 3 and 4, which cover the west side and the city’s struggling inner-city neighborhoods.
Mesa Public Schools is cooperating with not only defuses much of the public rancor from mask opponents that has beset those Tempe districts but also keeps schools open at a time when Gov. Doug Ducey ratcheted up his determination to force classrooms to remain open.
Ducey last week said he is offering cash to parents to send their kids to private or parochial schools if a school or even a classroom shuts down for even one day. In what his office describes as “preemptive action,’’ Ducey announced an Open for Learning Recovery Benefit program to provide up to $7,000 for parents who face “financial and educational barriers due to unexpected school closures.’’ It can be used for things like child care and online tutoring.
But the cash, taken from federal COVIDrelief programs, also can be used for tuition so parents can send their youngster to a private school, covering what gubernatorial press aide C.J. Karamargin said are “any charges from the school: tuition, books, uniforms if required.’’
The new $10 million program is a variant of one announced by Ducey last year to give what amounted to $7,000 vouchers for
the program.
The contract was obtained through the Houston-Galveston Area Council, a cooperative purchasing arrangement that uses Motorola technology.
City staffers told Council in a report that it’s unlikely better pricing could be found elsewhere, so the city did not seek competitive bids. Discounts associated with the cooperative contract knocked $728,000 off the price.
“The City evaluated multiple solution proposals for this service and found the solution utilizing Motorola Solutions to best meet the needs of the City,” the staff report stated. “This choice will allow flexibility to use infrastructure of both the City and MPS and allow the schools and the City to also use the same cellular network for public safety and other municipal needs under the Mesa Smart City program ensuring longevity of the infrastructure investment. An evaluation committee from Department of Innovation and Technology unanimously agreed on the recommendation.
The project includes construction of 21 cellular radio towers. The targeted students will receive Internet-connected devices, support services and training. The contract includes five years of mainprivate schools to parents who want to pull their child out of a school solely because it has a mask mandate. Ducey also divided up $163 million in federal aid that is under his control to districts that do not require students and staff to wear face coverings. Both of those actions came under fire last Friday by U.S. Treasury, which demanded Ducey return over $170 million in federal pandemic relief money for threatening schools.
Karamargin said the idea of this new program is not necessarily to give out more money.
“It’s that parents have options,’’ he said. But there is a message there.
“That the closing of schools should not be an option,’’ he said.
Like many districts, Mesa Public Schools has been hit hard by the virus in other ways, especially when it comes to absences among staff.
Superintendent Dr. Andi Fourlis told the board last week the district is “holding things together with baling wire and duct tape.” The biggest difficulty involves finding
tenance services.
Money for the project comes from the city’s third round of federal COVID-19 recovery funds under the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan Act. The first two rounds came during the final year of the Trump administration.
Gov. Doug Ducey a year ago announced a $100 million commitment to expand highspeed broadband to underserved areas of the state. The money, which the Ducey administration called “one of the single largest broadband investments in state history, also comes from the American Rescue Plan Act.
Ducey’s program provides up to $5 million grants to both uban and rural applicants in Maricopa and Pima counties and up to $10 million in the rest of Arizona’s counties. No awards have yet been made since the deadline for applying is the end of this month.
Mesa City Council’s action is not the first time it has tried to help underprivileged families have better access to technology. In June 2020, Council authorized $7 million from its earlier COVID-relief money to buy 9,500 laptops for elementary school children.
Also on Jan. 10, the City Council hired Willmeng Construction to build a police
THE MESA TRIBUNE | JANUARY 16, 2022 substitute teachers.
Early last week, she said, substitutes were able to cover 235 classes for teachers who called out sick but the district had no substitutes to cover for 130 other absentees. She said 141 classified staff have signed on to fill in as subs and that other tTeachers are taking classes in lieu of their prep time. The district in some instances also is doubling class sizes to make sure students had a teacher .
Fourlis called the situation "“All hands on deck.”
Other districts in the past week were holding classes in cafeterias under the watchful eye of security and other personnel because there were no subs to fill in for absent teachers. Chandler Unified’s superintendent and other top administrators were prepared to fill in, but said that an urgent call for substitute applicants – along with a boost in daily pay from $115 to $145 – drew more than 100 new applicants.
Capitol Media Services writer Howard Fischer and Tribune staffer Dana Trum-
bull contribiuted to this report. ■
evidence storage facility next to downtown police headquarters.
Mesa voters approved the project in a 2018 bond election. No cost estimate for the evidence building was provided, but the bond election provided $35 million for both the evidence facility and for a northeast Mesa police substation.
The initial contract will pay Willmeng $140,055 for pre-construction work including design, the preparation of cost estimates, and planning the sequence of construction. Willmeng was chosen from among four companies that submitted statements of qualification for the project.
Mesa believes the facility is needed because evidence storage is scattered across all three floors of police headquarters. It is expected to accommodate the city’s needs through 2050.
“The new facility is approximately 37,500 square feet and will accommodate police evidence staff operations, space for a supply warehouse, evidence intake and processing, general/bulk/long term storage, associated office staff spaces, drug storage and disposal processing, valuables storage and disposal processing, a secured public lobby, and spaces for future police evidence freezers and coolers,” a city staff report said. ■
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THE MESA TRIBUNE | JANUARY 16, 2022
Election changes, water are high on Legislature’s mind
BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services
Lawmakers returned to the Capitol last week with a full agenda of things they want, ranging from reenacting what the Supreme Court voided to deciding what to do about previously approved tax cuts that are subject to voter repeal.
Gov. Doug Ducey opened the session by pitching a request for: $1 billion to help secure a lasting and secure supply of water; funds to accelerate the widening the last stretch of I-10 between Chandler and Casa Grande that is now just two lanes in each direction; and additional state dollars to families that take in relatives who otherwise would wind up in foster care. The biggest fights may be over how much to alter state election laws. And at least some of the proposals stem from the continued charges that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump despite numerous lawsuits and audits that have shown those claims have no basis in fact.
A few of what lawmakers are expected to debate could be considered relatively innocuous, at least on the surface.
For example, Sen. Wendy Rogers, RFlagstaff, proposes to make the dates of the primary and general elections a state holiday. That would mean a day off for public workers.
Rogers would also set up a new Bureau of Elections within the governor’s office to investigate any allegations of fraud in any state, county or local election.
That new $5 million agency would have the power to not only subpoena individuals but also get a court order to impound election equipment and records. It would issue public reports but would be unable on its own to bring criminal charges.
Arizona already uses paper ballots. But they are tallied by machines. House Speaker Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa, brushed aside calls to have ballots counted entirely by hand as impractical.
“If we’ve got seven months to wait for an election, then count away,’’ he said. “Most people want it in a relatively short amount of time. And that’s what I’m interested in delivering.”
Ducey and Arizona lawmakers appear finally ready to act on a more permanent solution to the fact that it’s hotter and dryer and there just isn’t enough water to sustain the state’s growth.
And that could involve not only the state spending far more money than it has before but some creative solutions, ranging from piping and treating salt water from the Sea of Cortez to what is commonly known as “toilet to tap.’’
The consensus comes as prior efforts to stabilize Arizona’s water supply have come up short – by a lot.
Facing a diminished supply of Colorado River water, lawmakers in 2019 adopted a “drought contingency plan’’ requiring Arizona and other states in the lower Colorado River basin to reduce the amount of water being taken from the river in an attempt to restore the level of Lake Mead to 1,090 feet.
Even Ducey conceded at the time that was just a temporary solution, designed to preclude further cuts until 2026, by which time there would be new plans.
Gov. Doug Ducey last week gave his final State of the State address as he opened the 2022
legislative session (Howard Fischer/Capitol Media Services)
As of this past week, however, the lake had dropped to less than 1,070 feet. That’s less than 200 feet above the point at which no water would pass through Hoover Dam, cutting off not just that supply but also the electricity the dam generates.
Arizona has enacted some other shortterm fixes, like renting the river allocations that belong to Arizona tribes, convincing them not to use their Colorado River allocations to keep Lake Mead from dropping any further. That included a $30 million infusion just this past October, on top of $40 million already provided to the Department of Water Resources for the same purpose.
But as hot temperatures and dry conditions continue, further action will be necessary.
“You can expect some big things on water,’’ Ducey told Capitol Media Services.
House Speaker Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa, said he envisions something more than the stop-gap measures of the past. “Water is the determiner of growth in Arizona,’’ he said.
At the very least, what a new supply would do, said Bowers, is protect rural Arizona.
He noted that some urban communities are looking around for water supplies elsewhere as they seek to continue to grow.
“I don’t want to empty every aquifer in Arizona to build the central three counties and then not have anything,’’ Bowers said. More to the point, the House speaker said the state needs a really long-term solution.
“I’m looking at more than 100 years,’’ he said. And that means tapping a source that is going to be around and available for that long.
“The biggest body of water, while it is controlled by Mother Nature, at least it’s a
seeLEGISLATURE page 9
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Bill would stop HOAs from requiring real grass
BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services
Rep. John Kavanagh is in a turf war. Over turf. The Scottsdale Republican has proposed a state law to override any rules of a homeowner association that require lawns seeded with real grass and would permit residents to tear all that out and replace it with artificial turf.
And any dispute would be resolved in court. His HB 2131 may get a fight from the Arizona Association of Community Managers, the organization that represents companies that manage HOAs. But an association spokesman said Wednesday it was still studying the issue and had no immediate comment.
Kavanagh said there are times that state lawmakers need to intercede on behalf of individual homeowners whose preferences are being blocked for what he believes is not a good reason.
And in this case, he told Capitol Media Services, such anti-turf rules actually are bad policies. “Artificial grass is often superior and looks better than real grass,’’ Kavanagh said.
What’s also important, he said, is that artificial grass doesn’t need to be watered, something that is crucial during the middle of a drought.
“So it’s unreasonable for these HOAs to prohibit it,’’ Kavanagh said. Anyway, he said, artificial turf can look better than a poorly maintained natural laws.
There would be some limits on what homeowners would be allowed to do.
Under his legislation, HOA would be allowed to adopt “reasonable rules’’ about the installation and appearance of artificial grass. But Kavanagh said these could not be so restrictive as to preclude its installation entirely.
And it would permit an HOA to reject or require the removal of any artificial turf that “creates a health or safety issue that the member does not correct.’’
Kavanagh does not dispute that home buyers are made aware if a community is under the control of an HOA. But he said that in many places it is difficult to find a new development that does not have one.
“Many people are forced into HOAs and never imagined that a rogue board would abuse their power by imposing ridiculous restrictions on them,’’ Kavanagh said. “Somebody has to respect the homeowner.’’
Nor was he dissuaded by the fact that members of HOA boards are elected and can be replaced when their terms are up -- just like legislators -- saying that many residents don’t pay attention to those votes or that there are restrictions on campaigning. The fight over artificial turf is the latest squabble in what has been a series of disputes between individual homeowners and their HOAs that have been adjudicated at the state capitol.
One long-term -- and ongoing -- battle concerns what flags homeowners can fly.
Lawmakers have repeatedly forced HOAs to allow an increasing number of banners.
What started out as permission for federal and state flags now includes the flags of any branch of the service. Also permitted is displaying the POW/MIA flag.
And the list has been expanded to allow homeowners to add the Gadsden flag, that yellow flag with the drawing of a coiled rattlesnake and the phrase “Don’t Tread on Me.’’ Backers said it simply recognizes State Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Scottsdale, shot the breeze with Gov. Doug the historiDucey prior to a Jan.7 legislative forecast luncheon hosted by the Arizona cal role of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Capitol Media Services) flag during the American Revolution. But it also has most recently become a symbol of revolt against federal government authority. And there are new battles to be fought, including Kavanagh’s HB 2010 adding any “first responder’’ flag to the list. Lawmakers also have interceded to limit the ability of HOAs to keep out politicians and their campaign materials. And they have curbed regulations that limit certain off-street parking. No date has been set for a hearing on the measure. ■
LEGISLATURE from page 8
slower impact, is the ocean,’’ Bowers said. “And so, desalinization is a huge part of our future.’’
Tom Buschatzke, head of the Department of Water Resources, has said the price tag could be perhaps $2,500 an acrefoot, about 0.7 cents per gallon. And even if the political issues of international water transfer could be resolved, he said that kind of project is seven to 10 years away.
Bowers said he is prepared to introduce legislation to allocate “a substantive amount of money.’’
How much?
“Much bigger than anything I’ve ever asked for,’’ he said, declining right now to put a dollar figure on it.
Agriculture uses 75% of all the water in the state.
Senate President Karen Fann, R-Prescott, said she doesn’t want to impair the industry. But she said there needs to be a recognition that may not be sustainable.
A starting point, said Fann, are the current practices of flood irrigation: opening up a canal gate and letting the water run onto the property. That, she said, no longer makes sense.
She wants to look at using some of the state’s surplus to provide grants to farmers to convert to drip irrigation. Fann said test projects on two 500-acre parcels show that water use can be cut by 25% without harming crops.
That leads to the other key option: If there isn’t a new supply and if conservation efforts don’t work, then it comes down to better using what the state already has.
Put another way, today’s sewage becomes tomorrow’s drinking water.
Buschatzke acknowledged the “ick factor’’ that may conjure up. So it comes down to rebranding.
“We don’t call it ‘toilet to tap,’ ‘’ he said. “We call it ‘direct potable reuse.’ ‘’
Bowers said it comes down to convincing people that this is not something unusual.
“We do it now,’’ he said.
“We stick toilet water, A-plus water, in the ground at Granite Reef Underground Storage Project and pull it out in Tempe,’’ Bowers said. “I mean, it’s the same water.’’
What happens in between, he said, is a chemical and physical reaction.
“There’s stuff in the ground that eats bad stuff,’’ Bowers said. And he said it’s no different whether you use a natural filter like the earth or one that’s made by humans.
In fact, he noted, it’s how the astronauts keep their water supply.
Buschatzke said there is a plan for Arizona and Nevada to pay California to start using its own sewage, now dumped into the Pacific Ocean, for drinking water. In turn, California would leave more of its allocation in the Colorado River, helping to stabilize the level of Lake Mead.
There are other water-related issues for lawmakers to consider, like forcing those in rural areas to actually monitor and report how much they are pumping out of the ground.
That, in turn, leads to another controversial issue: Out-of-state and foreign interests effectively exporting Arizona water. That most visibly has taken the form of a Saudi Arabian dairy buying a farm and pumping water to grow alfalfa which is then exported to feed cows in that country.
But Bowers said it would be wrong to think of that as somehow stealing Arizona’s water. He said it’s no different than farmers here growing cotton to be exported to the rest of the country. Or, looking at it another way, Arizonans eating tomatoes that were grown with water from Mexico. ■
