Yuma attorney testifies in D.C. on water supply bill
Wade Noble is in favor of measure sponsored by McSally, Sinema
A Yuma water rights attorney testified in front of a U.S. Senate subcommittee Thursday in favor of a bill sponsored by Arizona’s two senators to make infrastructure repairs more affordable for irrigation districts.
The Water Supply Infrastructure Rehabilitation and Utilization Act, co-sponsored by Martha McSally and Democratic Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, was inspired by McSally’s visit with Yuma irrigation district leaders in January, according to a press release from McSally’s office.
Wade Noble, who represents four Yuma County irrigation districts, told the Sun on Friday the Imperial Dam diverts 6 million acrefeet of water annually to users in Yuma and Imperial counties, as well as northern Mexico.
It was built in 1938 and needs $50 million in repairs, he said.
“It’s not that the dam is in any way unsafe, but to keep it in good operating condition, we need to get some work done,” he told the Sun Friday.
All of the Yuma County irrigation districts, along with the Imperial, Bard and Coachella Valley districts in California, need to share the cost of the repairs.
“To do that, the districts have to use their reserves, or they have to increase their assessments. For us, in almost every case it’s not something we can go out and borrow money on, it’s not something we can bond on.”
McSally chairs the U.S. Senate Committee on
Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power, which held the Thursday hearing Noble testified at, where she explained why the districts have few financing options.
“Imperial Dam has upwards of $50 million in needed renovations,” McSally said. “Yet, because our water districts are just the operators, not the actual owners of this federal infrastructure, they don’t have access to many of the traditional financing tools needed to fund these critical repairs,” McSally said, according to a press release from her office.
The provisions of the bill (S.2044) include increasing U.S. Bureau of Reclamation funding for key dam safety projects by $550 million and streamlining the application process for BOR funding for “extraordinary maintenance projects” with extended repayment plans.
“Eighty percent of the Bureau of Reclamation’s facilities are more than 50 years old and are in dire need of major upgrades or replacement costs,” the press release said.
Noble said the repairs that need to be done at the dam include trunnions (a type of bearing used in the floodgates on the dam), concrete that needs to be reinforced or replaced and other problems.
He said these issues don’t directly affect the structure of the dam at this point, but could become factors in the future if not addressed. Imperial Dam does not have a large body of water behind it since it is a diversion dam, and water is only stored there temporarily.
Noble, who has testified before a Congressional panel once before, said he and the other two speakers were given five minutes each, and he felt like the senators on the panel were a receptive audience.
“In the subcommittee there was a good, overall, positive response from the senators who came and participated in the hearing,” Noble said. “We’ll wait to see what happens when it goes to the full committee, and on to the full Senate for a vote, and then on to the House.”