Board opposes district water plan
The Yuma County Board of Supervisors on Monday approved a letter to be sent to the Central Arizona Water Conservation District opposing efforts by the district which oversees the Central Arizona Project to obtain 5,508 acre-feet of water annually through purchasing farmland in Mohave County.
The proposal, currently under consideration by the the board of the Mohave Valley Irrigation and Drainage District, has drawn heavy opposition by the Mohave County Board of Supervisors, and objection statements similar to what the Yuma board approved have already been sent by the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and the County Supervisors’ Association.
The CAWCD has approved the purchase of 2,125 acres from multiple owners in the Mohave Valley district, which has not yet approved the transfer of water rights which go with those properties.
“To our knowledge, the Central Arizona Water Conservation District Board did not consult with county officials, seek public input from residents of the impacted area or consider the economic consequences to the local economy prior to approving the $34 million transaction,” the letter said.
District 5 County Supervisor Lynne Pancrazi strongly urged adoption of the statement to the board, which appeared inclined to do so anyway. The Central Arizona Project brings water to the Phoenix and Tucson areas, and many fear the metropolitan agency’s efforts to draw water from a rural area.
She said the CAP agencies “are requesting water from everybody. They’re trying to pass legislation giving them sovereign immunity so they can go after water all up and down the Colorado River, and that would really, severely impact the ability of rural Arizona to grow in any way, shape or form.”
She added, “they’re not just going after Mohave, they’re also in the process of trying to buy up land in Yuma County and the Wellton-Mohawk area.”
Giving the CAP agencies sovereign immunity would declare them “an arm of the state” and
give them immunity from lawsuits filed by water users, a status opposed by Gov. Doug Ducey and the Arizona Department of Water Resources.
The board voted 3-0 to send the letter, with two of the five members absent from the meeting. Martin Porchas from District 1 and chairman Tony Reyes from District 4 are at the National Association of Counties’ annual legislative summit, where county leaders meet with each others and their congressional delegations. The board also approved: • A request from Mohawk Valley School District to incur liabilities in excess of budget by no more than $100,000 to repair plumbing issues at district-owned apartments in Roll rented to its employees.
District Superintendent Shanna Johnson said the plumbing has failed at a six-unit apartment complex, and “it’s very important that we fix this, we need these to attract employees for our school. At this point we have two employees that are displaced, including one teacher from India who teaches at the high school.”
“We have no choice but to pass this on to the taxpayers. It is an extraordinary expense, and there is no way we could have budgeted for this,” she said, adding the move was supported by landowners in the district.
Johnson told the Yuma Sun the teacherage also includes four houses, and when unused by employees, units are leased to others in the community to generate revenue.
Carolyn Marquez, deputy superintendent of Yuma County schools, said the funding would come out of the county schools’ budget and possibly the county treasury, and would be paid back through a onetime tax increase in the district next year. The county tried to get funding from the state School Facilities Board, she added.
“The School Facilities Board says yes, it’s an emergency, but we have no funding. Therefore, they suggested they come to the county schools superintendent and petition the Board of Supervisors for an increased budget for this year,” Marcus said.
Housing provided for employees of remote school districts, or “teacherages,” is used to attract new hires who otherwise would have difficulty finding housing. Hyder Elementary School District, which operates Dateland Elementary School, is the only other district in the county maintaining such housing.
• Recommended Arizona Liquor Board approval of an extension of premises/ patio permit for Fisher’s Landing, 10882 N. Fisher’s Landing Road, in the Martinez Lake area.
• Approval of a $325,000 construction contract for a traffic signal at Foothills Boulevard and 48th Street with DPE Construction Inc. of Yuma, as well as another $151,000 contract with the company for a pedestrian traffic signal at Avenue B and 5th Street.
• Authorizing the transfer of $600,000 in the Capital Improvement Program from a project at County 11th Street and Somerton Avenue to the relocation of irrigation stand boxes along Avenue B. The transfer was needed after bids came in much higher than expected for the project, at about $1.8 million.
County Engineer Roger Patterson said the additional costs appears to be related to the scheduling of the work to minimize irrigation water outages to affected customers. The boxes need to be moved for an upcoming widening of Avenue B between County 16th and 14th streets.