New rules for sharing water from the Colorado River are here, and Arizona stands to take the biggest hit. The Tohono O’odham Nation says the Trump administration is sending Border Patrol agents to their tribal lands where contractors are preparing to erect a border wall. The Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix has a special program helping people with memory loss recall happier times. Plus the latest education, business and science news.
Transcript
TIARA VIAN: This is KJZZ, your news and information station in Phoenix and across Arizona. I'm Tiara Vian, and here are this week's stories you don't want to miss.
It's the podcast that's designed to catch you up on some highlights from around the region. Thanks for listening. Here are a few of the stories for the week of Aug. 24, 2026.
New rules for sharing water from the Colorado River are here, and Arizona stands to take the biggest hit. The federal government wrote the rules for the seven states that use the river, but Arizona is the only state where lawmakers can vote to approve them. With the new Colorado River plan heading for the Statehouse, Alex Hager and Camryn Sanchez teamed up to find out how much power the legislature actually has.
ALEX HAGER: Big cuts are coming for the amount of Colorado River water that flows to Arizona, meaning less water for cities around Phoenix. The cuts are pretty much final. They come after years of negotiations, and Arizona sent a representative to those talks. So, why are state lawmakers getting involved now?
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Our search for the reason took us back decades, long before the river was shrinking due to drought and climate change and long before this round of talks about bringing down demand. This idea has roots in the '40s.
ALEX HAGER: It was officially written into law in 1980 and hasn't been changed since. And it's only one sentence long.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: It basically says the state's water negotiator can enter into an agreement with the federal government or another state, but it's not effective until the legislature signs off.
ALEX HAGER: When we reached out to experts for this story, nearly everyone — law researchers, former officials, and sitting representatives — was a little unsure of what exactly the legislature can do.
RITA MAGUIRE: No one has a clear understanding of what it means because it's never been tested.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Rita Maguire served as Arizona's top water official in the '90s and early 2000s. She was appointed by the governor to negotiate with other states. She says the law was written to provide some checks and balances in a system where one person, like her, negotiates for the state's water.
ALEX HAGER: But how exactly those checks get applied? That is where things get complicated. Rhett Larson is a water law professor at Arizona State University. He says once the federal government releases its plan for managing the river, there's not much Arizona lawmakers can do.
RHETT LARSON: The federal government couldn't care less if the state legislature approves or disapproves.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: But there are other deals the Legislature can weigh in on. In addition to the federal plan, there's an agreement between Arizona, California, and Nevada to conserve water. Larson says the Legislature can vote on that in a special session.
ALEX HAGER: And Larson says if the state has to figure out how to cut back on a big amount of water use within Arizona, it can do that in the special session.
RHETT LARSON: If there needs to be state-level legislative changes in order to implement an agreement, then the state legislature becomes important.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Larson predicts that session will open a whole can of worms, with lawmakers looking at overhauling other water policies to make up for the Colorado River cuts.
RHETT LARSON: But as long as we're all in the room, how about we make the following changes to groundwater management to respond to lower, to less Colorado River water? That's probably the more likely and the more interesting outcome.
ALEX HAGER: When it comes to water matters lawmakers can control, the question is: How will they vote?
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Senator Priya Sundareshan says divvying up water could create a divide between rural and urban representatives, since lawmakers won't want to vote for a proposal that makes their legislative district suffer.
PRIYA SUNDARESHAN: When we do have to figure out which users take more cuts than others, I think that's where we will start to see the controversy and the concerns and perhaps some, some increased fighting occur.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: If lawmakers end up rejecting whatever water proposal ultimately goes up for a vote, Senate Natural Resources Chairman T.J. Shope predicts the issue will end up in court.
T.J. SHOPE: The impact of what these negotiations are, it's probably the single, some of the biggest decisions that anybody will make in their entire, you know, legislative or gubernatorial career.
ALEX HAGER: But ask the current top water official in Arizona, and he'll tell you there won't be any curveballs when the Colorado River plans he helped write go to the legislature.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Tom Buschatzke says he's been doing a lot of work behind the scenes, and anything he agrees to is already the product of lots of meetings with people across Arizona, including lawmakers.
TOM BUSCHATZKE: I'm not going to really end up at the legislature if I don't already know, from all the, laying all the groundwork, that there's a very, very good chance that they're going to approve what we're putting in front of them.
ALEX HAGER: He says even though lawmakers technically have a check on his work, it doesn't feel like a burden, because he won't sign anything that people in Arizona refuse to go along with.
TOM BUSCHATZKE: If your deal is not implementable, and the people who are impacted by it or have to implement won't, then your deal's going to fall apart.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Buschatzke says if he agrees to a Colorado River plan that Arizonans refuse to comply with, then it's just a piece of paper. From the KJZZ newsroom, I'm Camryn Sanchez.
ALEX HAGER: And I'm Alex Hager.
TIARA VIAN: In science news: A beloved crested saguaro named Gumby died at a botanical garden in Tucson last month. The cactus was estimated to be well over 100 years old and was a favorite among visitors. Bridget Dowd tells us his story.
BRIDGET DOWD: Crested saguaros get their name from the fan-shaped growths that form at the top of them as the result of a mutation.
JACK DASH: Cells that are normally dividing upward start dividing outward.
BRIDGET DOWD: That's Jack Dash. He's the gardens and facilities manager at Tohono Chul in Tucson. It was there in 1997 that a 20-foot, multi-armed crested saguaro was transplanted, and it had very distinct features, like —
JACK DASH: Birds' nests bored into his skin that resembled eyes. So, he had these very like human characteristics that made him really noticeable and also, I would say, really loveable.
BRIDGET DOWD: So loveable that he was named Gumby, after the famous green claymation character who made his TV debut in the 1950s.
SINGERS: Here is Gumby, green little Gumby!
JACK DASH: People have come to know and love and appreciate Gumby over the course of, you know, in some cases, a decades-long relationship with this plant.
BRIDGET DOWD: But this summer, at over 100 years old, Gumby developed bacterial necrosis and collapsed.
JACK DASH: And when he collapsed, like within a day, I was receiving like messages of condolences, you know, emails, text, phone calls from both staff and volunteers, but also from, you know, our wider network of visitors.
BRIDGET DOWD: But Gumby's story doesn't end here. As Dash puts it, though Gumby has moved on to cactus heaven.
JACK DASH: As his sort of body decomposes, it's going to generate new life.
BRIDGET DOWD: Gumby will form what scientists call a rot pocket, allowing fungi and insects to feed off moisture stored in its cells. Snakes and lizards might also take shelter under the fallen cactus, and the seedlings of future cacti could use the remaining nutrients to germinate and grow.
JACK DASH: There is a hyperactive, localized ecosystem that exists just around this one fallen cactus.
BRIDGET DOWD: Under Arizona law, it's illegal to dig up protected native plants like saguaros without a permit, so the garden doesn't expect to get another one anytime soon. In fact, part of what makes crested saguaros so treasured is their rarity.
NOEMI HERNANDEZ CASTRO: One in every 10,000 saguaros will be crested.
BRIDGET DOWD: That's Noemi Hernandez Castro. She's the cactus specialist at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, which is home to about 15,000 cacti and just one crested saguaro.
NOEMI HERNANDEZ CASTRO: We have tons of visitors that come specifically asking for this monstrous cactus or this monstrous plant that we have, and we instantly know that they're referring to the crested saguaro.
BRIDGET DOWD: This one is about 18 feet tall and about 60 years old. It doesn't have a special name, but throughout the garden's history, Hernandez says they've had at least five others, usually salvaged from construction sites or seized from plant poachers.
NOEMI HERNANDEZ CASTRO: I mean, people go out there and you would not believe it, but they do take large saguaros.
BRIDGET DOWD: And transplanted saguaros have lower survival rates. That's part of why a group of crested saguaro fans has taken it upon themselves to document all the ones they find in the wild. Pat Hammerschmidt is a founding member of the Crested Saguaro Society. She says it started when she and her friend were hiking in 2005.
PAT HAMMERSCHMIDT: We had seen a few crested saguaros out in the desert, thinking they were really unique and special. So he said, "Oh, let's find as many as we can find."
BRIDGET DOWD: Now, 20 years later, she and her fellow crest-questers have documented nearly 3,000 plants, giving some of them names along the way, like the Menorah.
PAT HAMMERSCHMIDT: It had a large crest, and then it had eight arms coming out of the top of the crest.
BRIDGET DOWD: Hammerschmidt used to go out searching every weekend, holiday, and vacation. Now, at 81 years old, she goes out with the group just a few times a year, but still loves the hunt and the cacti just as much.
PAT HAMMERSCHMIDT: It's kind of like having any other long-term interest. I mean, if you have a pet, or you have kids, or you have a neighbor, or whatever it might be, that you really care about, you keep in contact with them.
BRIDGET DOWD: And if there's one thing these cactus aficionados want people to remember, it's that native desert plants like Gumby are best appreciated where they grow naturally, and not when moved illegally. Bridget Dowd, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
TIARA VIAN: And this is the Stories You Don't Want to Miss podcast. Thanks for listening.
Every Wednesday, KJZZ offers up Hotspots to spice up your weekend. It's delivered right to your phone. Try something new or step out of the routine. Just visit hotspots.kjzz.org to sign up.
In arts and culture news: Julia Child is considered the mother of television chefs and the original U.S. ambassador of fine dining. Taylor Griffith tagged along with two Valley chefs who were close with Child as they toured a local exhibit that's highlighting the culinary icon's life.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: The Julia Child exhibit at the Arizona Science Center opens with a quote from the chef that almost tells the whole story.
EXHIBIT AUDIO: All right, we are entering. First thing, we see a blue table. Julia Child: A Recipe for Life. "Find something you are passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it." That's the opening quote.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: Child was born in Pasadena in 1912 to a wealthy and very traditional East Coast family.
BARBARA FENZEL: Her father wanted her to grow up and marry a banker and be a housewife and do the traditional route. And Julia decided she didn't want to do that.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: That's Barbara Fenzel, cookbook author, founder of Phoenix's Les Gourmettes Cooking School, and host of the Savor the Southwest PBS series. Child was Fenzel's friend and mentor for over 30 years. Fenzel says Child was undeterred by any expectations or limits placed upon her. After the Navy turned her away for being too tall—she was 6 feet 2—Child enlisted as a spy during World War II.
BARBARA FENZEL: And that's where she met Paul.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: It was her husband, Paul Cushing Child, who introduced Julia to her love of cooking. Back at the exhibit, Fenzel and I are walking around an empty table set for two, lit by a soft, romantic light.
BARBARA FENZEL: They went to a fancy French restaurant, and the first meal Julia had just gave her a whole new life. She had sole meunière. I mean, you can see what they had up here. This is what they had. And she had — this is the same setup as the same restaurant.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: From then on, Child's passion was made. Determined to connect American diners to that experience, Child spent 12 years writing and testing recipes for the cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" with her cooking school partner, Simone Beck. The book was rejected by its first publisher because it was considered too complicated for Americans.
BARBARA FENZEL: By then, people were doing the TV dinners or, you know, using really simple recipes. And so they just didn't think it was going to go.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: The eventual publication, by a determined female editorial assistant, was the first stepping stone to Child's generational influence on how we cook and eat in the U.S. Her PBS show, The French Chef, solidified her as a beloved American icon.
JULIA CHILD: Today, on "The French Chef," Julia Child presents "The Chicken Sisterhood."
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: Here's the Science Center's Sari Custer.
SARI CUSTER: When we opened the exhibition, people came with—with photos! There's one, and I don't want to give away their stories, but at the same time, you know, "My father was so excited. He brought Julia Child roses at this event when he saw her, because she helped him learn how to cook."
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: Christopher Gross, head chef of Christopher's at Wrigley Mansion, was a friend and colleague of Child's. Along with Fenzel, he opened an Arizona chapter of the American Institute of Wine & Food, which was co-founded by Child. He told me why he thinks her impact has been timeless.
CHRISTOPHER GROSS: She's just—makes you want to cook whatever she's cooking. And she's so interesting, funny, educational, and um, she really is cooking the best food in the world.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: What Fenzel and Gross made evident was that Child, who died in 2004 at age 91, was exactly the same on screen as she was off screen. Fenzel says Child encouraged her to become a trained chef and entrepreneur and would answer all of Fenzel's letters seeking help.
BARBARA FENZEL: I spent a whole week with her in 1982 for this art museum project. And when she left, she said, "Dearie" — she called everyone "Dearie" so she didn't have to remember your name she said, "Dearie, I want you to do two things. I want you to join the International Association of Culinary Professionals, and I want you to start your own cooking school."
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: Although other chefs were intimidated by her skills, she was unpretentious in every way, says Gross.
CHRISTOPHER GROSS: I just love people that are like her, that they're unbelievably happy where they are and doing what they want to do.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: She also had a habit of saying whatever was on her mind, which is what made her so enthralling to watch.
CHRISTOPHER GROSS: She was a character. One time at the James Beard Awards, I mean, they were honoring her, and, you know, she's in the front row, and they put like uh, it was maybe only five minutes, but clips of all the funny things that she did, you know, on her TV shows, one right after another. And I swear, everyone was laughing and tears coming out of their eyes.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: It's rare for someone to be as respected for their talents as for how they made others feel. Fenzel says that was one of the best parts of knowing Julia.
BARBARA FENZEL: The other thing I just loved about Julia was she always put it on you. If—if I met you for the first time, Taylor, she—she would say, "Taylor, what do you do? And tell me about your life." It's not about me. And she's always done that, and made everyone very comfortable.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: "Julia Child: A Recipe for Life" is showing at the Arizona Science Center through Sept. 20.
JULIA CHILD: This is not a tent caterpillar! It's a salmon in a skin! It's a salmonisé au porto! And you don't need a restaurant stove to do it in, either.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: Taylor Griffith, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
TIARA VIAN: In health news: As populations age, cases of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias are rising. For some, music is proving to be the best medicine. Phil Latzman recently visited the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix to hear about a special program helping people with memory loss recall happier times.
PHIL LATZMAN: It's called the Memory Care and Music Series, and Marvin Perry wouldn't miss it for the world.
MARVIN PERRY: We love MIM. It's my second home, sort of like, and we love the drumming. But you know, they say that that's supposed to be good for your health-wise. Mm-hmm. You know, I think mentally and physically, you know, connected there.
PHIL LATZMAN: Kind of music therapy.
MARVIN PERRY: It very much is, you know, particularly when I hear a song from the times when I was a teenager.
PHIL LATZMAN: Like this one.
MUSIC/BAND: Working for the man every night and day...
PHIL LATZMAN: Marvin's wife, Roberta, got the idea from his doctor, but was skeptical at first.
ROBERTA PERRY: We found out about it at Marvin's neurologist's appointment, and I thought, "Ah, we'll see." Um, and he loves it. A lot of times he's not feeling well. Um, he's like, "Oh, I'm an old man. I'm close to dying." And I'm like, "Okay, well, we don't have to go to drumming today." That guy is up. He's outside.
PHIL LATZMAN: And he's not alone. Each year, hundreds of memory-challenged music lovers come to MIM from across the Valley for the music therapy. Master instructor Frank Thompson leads the drum circle.
FRANK THOMPSON: What amazes me is that science is now proving what we've all intuitively known, that music is a part of us, and we're hardwired for it. And when you see people who can't remember maybe just a word or two, but then you put on a song, and they remember it all, and it transports them back to where they were and also to where they are in memory, so that's the joy of what we do.
PHIL LATZMAN: The session also includes a 45-minute tour of the museum's exhibits. Today, we're in the U.S. Canada room with tour guide Rob Fletcher.
ROB FLETCHER: Are you ready to rock and roll?
CROWD: Yeah!
ROB FLETCHER: Are you sure?
CROWD: Yeah!
ROB FLETCHER: All right! Let's roll. We're going to go to Woodstock over this way.
NICOLE ELGIN: That's wonderful because they can see instruments that they recognize, hear music that they recognize.
PHIL LATZMAN: Nicole Elgin is MIM's museum educator.
NICOLE ELGIN: They'll sing some words, or even sometimes, you can just tell that they're thinking about a memory. They'll tear up, um, they'll laugh. You can kind of see the light in their eyes. You can see, um, the movement in their body, like the joy.
PHIL LATZMAN: Danielle Pappas is here with her mom.
DANIELLE PAPPAS: Oh, this is wonderful. It just gives me an opportunity to spend time with her, being able to listen and look and, and take it all in. She's a big Elvis fan.
PHIL LATZMAN: Yeah.
DANIELLE PAPPAS: And believe me, she, she can really put on a smile and enjoy the music of her day.
PHIL LATZMAN: What happens when she hears Elvis?
DANIELLE PAPPAS: Oh, she starts to sing the songs. Sometimes she dances to them. Last time we were here, she actually got up and danced, and so I had to get up and dance with her so that I could, I could hold on to her.
PHIL LATZMAN: Recent studies do find music therapy effective in treating Alzheimer's and dementia, helping to ease anxiety and agitation while aiding long-term memory recall and improving social interaction. But you didn't have to tell that to Marvin Perry after he finished banging on those drums. How's—how's it feel?
MARVIN PERRY: Feels great. Yeah, feels great. Yes, it does, indeed. Oh, it's enriching.
FRANK THOMPSON: I'm drumming and talking at the same time...
PHIL LATZMAN: In Phoenix, Phil Latzman, KJZZ News.
FRANK THOMPSON: Keep going and say, "I am drumming. I am drumming."
CROWD: I am drumming.
FRANK THOMPSON: "I am drumming. I am drumming."
CROWD: I am drumming.
FRANK THOMPSON: "And I'm talking."
TIARA VIAN: In business news: When a woman is released from prison, the roadmap back is complicated. But to really start over, she needs a job, and that can be a tough task. As part of the series Beyond the Gates, Kathy Ritchie follows one woman as she leaves prison and begins the search for a better future.
MARY CLIFTON: I was on drugs a lot of my life, so I didn't really have like a goal or a plan. But now that I'm here, I have like more focus.
KATHY RITCHIE: I first met Mary Clifton at Perryville Prison in February. Her hair was tied back in two braids, and she was wearing a bright orange long-sleeved shirt and matching pants.
MARY CLIFTON: So being here in the career paths and learning all the things that I've been learning, business development and emotional intelligence, it's just opened my eyes.
KATHY RITCHIE: At that time, Mary was part of the Televerde Foundation's Career Paths program, a six-month workforce development and re-entry program that helps incarcerated women build personal and professional skills leading up to their release. She had about three months left in her three-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
MARY CLIFTON: Yeah, I'm really excited about it. I have a lot of support, and I feel like I'm going to be really well taken care of.
KATHY RITCHIE: Ray Bandon is the re-entry coordinator with the Arizona Department of Economic Security. He says for the last decade, the state has made career readiness and employment a focal point. They also collaborate with potential employers, encouraging them to consider hiring people leaving prison.
RAY BANDON: Most employers, once they give an opportunity to our clients that have been justice-involved, actually start opening up more doors because they soon realize that our clients tend to be more reliable.
KATHY RITCHIE: And more importantly, he says, people are less likely to recidivate when they have stable employment, and reducing recidivism means fewer taxpayer dollars are spent on incarceration. Bandon says upwards of 500 companies in Arizona identify themselves as second-chance employers, those that are willing to hire people with criminal records.
MARY CLIFTON: Fire away. You know I get like kind of nervous.
KATHY RITCHIE: I caught up with Mary again in May, just 48 hours after she was released from Perryville, and almost walked right past her. Her hair is down, she's wearing a light pink top and jean shorts. She's shining.
MARY CLIFTON: Oh yeah, yeah, it's different. In prison, you're just like plain and dull, and you have to have your hair up, and there's the orange color.
KATHY RITCHIE: Mary is staying at a small home run by the Televerde Foundation in downtown Phoenix, and for the next 45 days, she'll live there, rent-free, while she gets her bearings. She's applied for several jobs already while balancing all the other tasks on her re-entry to-do list.
MARY CLIFTON: I must get a phone, and then I must pay my fines, and then after that, I want to get like a car so I can—I mean, I need to get a car so I can go here and there, you know.
KATHY RITCHIE: And she has to check in regularly with her probation officer.
MARY CLIFTON: So I have to have like a weekly schedule for her. I have to have everything like planned out, which is kind of hard to do because I don't—I don't know this area.
KATHY RITCHIE: She says it's overwhelming, and the clock is ticking. Alison Rapping is the CEO of Arouet, a Phoenix nonprofit that supports women before and after incarceration. Arouet also works with second-chance employers.
ALISON RAPPING: 95% of all people are going to come out and they're going to live in our communities, they're going to be our neighbors. So we want very much to get people ready to enter society in the most positive way.
KATHY RITCHIE: Still, many employers that are second chance are not always upfront about it. From their perspective, hiring someone with a criminal record can feel risky. But for people who've served their sentences, there's another question: If you do the crime and you do the time, shouldn't that be enough? Kim Thomas says in her experience, no. She was 24 years old when she was sentenced to 30 years at Perryville Prison for second-degree murder.
KIM THOMAS: I have spent every moment since that moment, every moment after that, has been in service, making amends, making atonement, doing good work.
KATHY RITCHIE: Thomas got out in 2021. She's now the director of community impact at Arouet.
KIM THOMAS: The fact that I paid my debt, and it's still not paid in most people's eyes, the fact that I can never in my life vote, never in my life serve on a jury, never in my life get a fingerprint clearance card—all these nevers over 37 seconds that happened in 1991.
KATHY RITCHIE: Rapping says there's an economic cost to shutting out roughly a quarter of the U.S. population, people with a criminal record, from the workforce.
ALISON RAPPING: We can't afford to have everybody who comes out with a felony unable to get a job that moves into a livable wage job, because then we also create intergenerational crisis. This affects their children, then it affects their children's children.
KATHY RITCHIE: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates the nation's economy loses up to $87 billion per year by excluding formally incarcerated individuals from the workforce. As for Mary Clifton, she got a job, and she says she's doing well. She's saving money and plans to reunite with her husband and kids. Kathy Ritchie, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
TIARA VIAN: And this is the Stories You Don't Want to Miss podcast.
In Fronteras news: The Tohono O'odham Nation says the Trump administration is sending Border Patrol agents to their tribal lands where contractors are preparing to erect a border wall. The tribe says a Border Patrol SWAT team and other personnel entered the Tohono O'odham Nation early Tuesday morning. From the Fronteras desk in Tucson, Alisa Reznick has more.
ALISA REZNICK: The tribe says masked, armed federal agents guarded wall contractors as they drilled and did other pre-construction work. The news comes just one day after tribal leaders and Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva gathered in the border town of Ajo to call for a stop to the wall project on tribal lands and sacred sites. Tohono O'odham Chairman Verlon Jose told reporters the tribe allows construction work on other border projects, like a forward operating base and surveillance towers, but wall contractors haven't been approved.
VERLON JOSE: Our Tohono O'odham police, our rangers, have been stopping contractors. If they didn't have the necessary permits, they were letting them know, "You are trespassing. Please leave the nation."
ALISA REZNICK: The tribe says a vehicle blockade set up by Customs and Border Protection is now preventing tribal police from issuing trespassing citations and removing contractors. Alisa Reznick, KJZZ News, Tucson.
TIARA VIAN: In education news: In 1991, a rural Arizona school district built an indoor sports stadium funded almost entirely by one of the state's largest utility companies. But decades later, the cost of keeping that stadium up and running is draining district coffers. Wayne Schutsky reports.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: The Round Valley Unified School District's Tim W. Dome seats thousands at sporting events in the eastern Arizona community of Eager. The facility was built using an $11 million voter-approved bond, which was mostly paid by Tucson Electric Power because it was the largest property taxpayer in the district at the time. State auditors found Round Valley lost nearly $400,000 operating the dome in 2024. That led to above-average facility costs for the district, which auditors said may have contributed to recent budget cuts. District officials said the dome is an important asset used by the community, and its value goes beyond the district's bottom line, but agreed to reevaluate its rental rates regularly to ensure they remain competitive. Wayne Schutsky, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
TIARA VIAN: And finally, from KJZZ's The Show, here's co-host Mark Brodie with a conversation about Arizona's ideas to import more water.
MARK BRODIE: As Arizona prepares to get less water from the Colorado River under recently announced plans from the federal government, the state is moving forward on plans to bring in more water from elsewhere. The Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona, or WIFA, has approved what are called scopes of work for two water augmentation projects. There are a handful more that will follow. One of the initial projects involves recovering excess runoff in California. The other deals with treating wastewater, again, out of state. Chelsea McGuire is WIFA's director. She joins me to talk more about these projects and what might come next. And Chelsea, you've sort of whittled down these augmentation proposals, and now you have two that WIFA is pursuing more seriously. Is that right?
CHELSEA MCGUIRE: Sort of. We still have seven overall water importation proposals that we are going to look at more closely as an entity, but we have two that we have finalized the scope of work for what that looks like, for what kind of information we need to know about the project to allow the board to continue to make those go or no-go decisions as we learn more. So we have two that are ready, they're starting the work. We have five that are getting ready, and I think uh will we anticipate we'll be able to start that work by the end of September, but these two are ready to go.
MARK BRODIE: OK, so let's talk about these two projects, and let's start with the California Groundwater Storage and Recharge. What exactly would this entail?
CHELSEA MCGUIRE: Absolutely. And it's a little bit of a misnomer in the name. Um, there is going to be water stored in the ground, but it's not ground water um as that is actually defined. This is a project that would take excess runoff from California in a series of to-be-determined sites. That's some of the information that we're asking these teams to work on providing to us. It would take that excess water, it would store it underground, allow California to utilize that water however it sees fit, in exchange for a portion of California's Colorado River water flowing instead to Arizona.
MARK BRODIE: So is it safe to say that those two numbers would be roughly equal, like the amount of water from uh California's allocation of the Colorado River Arizona gets is equivalent to the amount of excess water that California gets under this deal?
CHELSEA MCGUIRE: I wouldn't say equal, I would say equitable. So what we're really looking for in this project, and and any of the projects that are before us, is a win-win situation. California, we are hoping, you know, wants this groundwater storage, or they want this excess water storage. So if there's a reason that they would need to take a higher cut of that and it would be more of a ratio of exchange, that's something that we would work out with them. We're not going into any of these projects assuming that we know what the needs of the state are in terms of the needs of California. We're not going into any of these projects assuming that we know what California is or isn't willing to do. We're going in saying, "We believe this is a possibility. We'd like to investigate this possibility with you, sort of a what would it take to get you in this water storage project today?"
MARK BRODIE: Got it. OK, so the other uh proposal that is moving forward at this point is called the South Bay Potable Water Reuse. What does that one entail?
CHELSEA MCGUIRE: So that one entails something that many of uh Arizona's uh San Diego expats, at least during the summer, um may be familiar with. So there's a water treatment plant that treats wastewater uh from Tijuana, and a lot of us know that sometimes there's some real issues with that plant. Uh, the effluent from that plant ultimately discharges into the Tijuana River and therefore into the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, that plant is kind of fraught with issues in terms of the the infrastructure that's there, there are pipes that break weak frequently. And so often there are uh water quality issues in the Pacific, and so we're unable to swim uh in San Diego or in Coronado Island. And there's also real water quantity and quality issues in Tijuana. So again, speaking of win-win issues, or win-win projects, this project would expand the existing treatment in South Bay for that wastewater coming from Mexico, expand the treatment in terms of instead of treating that water to effluent standards, treating it to potable standards so that it's actually usable by humans. Then that treated water would flow back to Tijuana for their use, to to help that community and to make sure that they have adequate water, again, in exchange for a portion of Mexico's Colorado River water coming into Arizona. One of the things that the board also uh talked quite a bit about in its meeting, and that the the team that's developing that project talked quite a bit about, is that there are options to uh change the way that this project is designed to either facilitate that exchange or to facilitate delivery of that water to a point perhaps um above Morelos Dam. So there's some flexibility with this, so we're very optimistic about something like this being the exact structure that we're looking for. How do we solve multiple problems with one project, hopefully getting as much buy-in as we possibly can from all the impacted communities?
MARK BRODIE: So I'm curious about some of that flexibility, because I was going to ask like if most of the projects or some number of the projects, these two anyway, seem like the water the additional water would not be made in Arizona, that it could potentially be brought here or it would be used somewhere else in exchange for that other place's allocation of Colorado River water. Does that seem to be maybe one of the easier ways to do this, that like if you're going to create more water, that it happens somewhere else, and we just take their allocation of Colorado River water in exchange for that?
CHELSEA MCGUIRE: Well, I certainly wouldn't call any of these easy, [LAUGHTER] but uh, but what I would say is that uh yes, that if you're looking at, I guess I'll answer this question in two ways. Um, the first is that WIFA's mission, our mandate, is actually that process of going out and developing those water sources outside of Arizona. That's what our statute requires us to spend 75% of our augmentation funds doing. And so part of it is that that's where more water is. We don't have a lot of excess water to develop in Arizona, and so we're looking to our sister states, our sister nations that either have access to an ocean or maybe have different water supplies available. So that's part of why we're looking there. But to your point, part of why we are looking at so many of these as exchange options is that that's most likely going to be the most economical way to make more water available in Arizona, as opposed to building the infrastructure to physically move a molecule of water from one place to another. It would be building the infrastructure to make that water available locally, and then facilitating some sort of exchange on the river. That may not always be possible, though, and we are at a point right now where I think everyone has a quite a bit of attention on the Colorado River for very good reasons, so we do want to keep our options open.
MARK BRODIE: OK, so you mentioned economics, and I'm wondering what WIFA's financial situation is at the moment, because I know that you've had concerns with money not being allocated, or money potentially being swept for other purposes. Like, what is your situation um financially now to get some of these these pilots off the ground?
CHELSEA MCGUIRE: What I will say is that uh financially, we are in a very good position to get to the end decision-making side of the road, right? To get to the point where our board can say, "We know which of these projects or project or projects is the best for Arizona to invest in." Apart from that, though, when it actually comes to building that project, to investing in that project, to making it so that the water coming from that project is reasonably affordable, we're definitely going to need to come back to the state and come back to others to say, "How do we make this happen?" Now, there's no uh, we're under absolutely no impression that this water is not going to be significantly more expensive than any other water source that Arizona is used to, but that's going to be the way of the future. When there isn't a lot of water and when there's not enough water to go around, expensive water becomes sort of the the name of the game. It's the thing that's going to keep our portfolios afloat, and so we highly anticipate or fully anticipate the need to go back to the state legislature and say, "Look, there was a promise of $1 billion to WIFA. We have about a third of that. We are in a water crisis. Let's figure out ways to make state resources available to continue to make these projects not just possible, but also palatable for the rest of the state."
MARK BRODIE: All right. That is Chelsea McGuire, director of the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona, otherwise known as WIFA. Chelsea, thanks as always. I appreciate it.
CHELSEA MCGUIRE: Thank you, Mark.
TIARA VIAN: And this has been the Stories You Don't Want to Miss podcast, made possible in part by the Kitchell Foundation, BASIS Charter Schools, Palo Verde Generating Station, SRP, and the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust. Thank you for listening and for your generous support. I'm Tiara Vian. This is KJZZ. Listen more, learn more online and on the KJZZ mobile app.
