Election 2024 is getting nearer, and while all of the talk might seem to be about the top of the ticket, there are down-ballot races that will be influential in all of our lives here in Arizona. One of them is The Central Arizona Water Conservation District.
Never heard of it? You're probably not alone. There are five sets open on the little-known board this November, which is charged with overseeing the Central Arizona Project, that 336-mile canal that bring the Colorado River Water to all of us here in the Valley, as well as Pinal County and Tucson.
Joanna Allhands, who covers water issues on the opinion pages of The Arizona Republic, joined The Show to discuss.
Conversation highlights
What does the CAWCD do?
JOANNA ALLHANDS: So they are, are really charged with making sure that the water goes from where we get it out of the Colorado River. All the way down that 336-mile stretch to the cities and the tribes that rely on this water.
So they are responsible for maintenance. They are responsible for, you know, charging for the fees, all of the things that you have to do to get water to a city for processing and to your tap.
So there are five seats up for election, out of a 15-seat board. How many people are running?
ALLHANDS: So there's six candidates for five seats, which actually is less than we've had in previous elections. In some, actually the last two elections, we've had more than a dozen candidates vying for seats. So this is actually relatively less than we've had.
Since this board is tasked with Colorado River water, tell us about the broader picture there.
ALLHANDS: Right. Well, yeah, and you haven't seen the horrible, you know, “oh, my goodness, Lake Mead is running out of water” stories because in addition to the fact that we had a wet winter, a couple of winters ago, there are billions of dollars of federal money right now that are helping to pay people to temporarily not use water, which has really helped prop up Lake Mead and has kept it stable. It's not going back down like it historically has. So that's why we're in better shape right now.
But the rules that operate Lake Mead and Lake Powell are going to be expiring in 2026. And so basically, all of the things that we've been doing for the last 20 years, we're kind of at a point where you can hit reset and say like, “OK, so, but what are we going to do now for the next 20, maybe 30, who knows, you know, ever long past now?”
And so it really is kind of a turning point where we're at, of trying to figure out, how do we really stabilize the lakes? Because we tried to do that with the rules that we have now and it didn't work. So we're trying to figure out how do we make that work now.
While the CAWCD board isn’t going to make big picture decisions about the river, what is their connection and their stake in this?
ALLHANDS: Well, so, right, they're not going to be the ones who, you know, necessarily are signing on the dotted line. You know, the, the state negotiators, CAP is actually involved in that process, but they're not necessarily like the end, all be all final, you know, voice in it.
What is at stake for them is that just because of how the water was prioritized, the different, you know, seniority of water rights that we have around the Colorado River, CAP is the least senior. And so, you know, historically, when we've had to have cuts, guess who's first in line for those? It's typically been the Central Arizona project. So if we are expecting probably deeper and potentially permanent cuts to the amount of water that we get from the Colorado River, it could fall more heavily on CAP or not.
I mean, right now, that's the big discussion is how do we figure out how we're going to do this in the future? And who's going to have to basically pay quote unquote to level out the lake?
So if there are Colorado River cuts, this board will be the ones who have to decide what to do with it and who gets less water essentially?
ALLHANDS: Right. Right.
Talk a little bit about the candidates here. Tell us about who they might be and if we've heard of some of them before.
ALLHANDS: Right. So, of the six candidates that we have, there are four incumbents who are running again. And it's true, probably they're not household names. One of them actually, though, if you've been around politics for a while, you, you may know, would be Terry Goddard, who was the former mayor of Phoenix and former attorney general for the state.
So, you know, one of the challengers that is not an incumbent but who is running is Brian Biesemeyer, who is the head of the Scottsdale City Water Department. So there are people who are involved, long time involved people. Lisa Atkins is another one of the incumbents. She's been on the board for a very long time. So there's people who have been in water and around water for a really long time who are running for these seats this time makes sense.
Talk a little bit about how folks should think about this non-partisan race and decide who to vote for.
ALLHANDS: Right. Well, in this, yeah, this is a nonpartisan race. So I know in our politics today we tend to really think about, like, OK, well, are you on the left or the right? But really, that's always sort of been the way with water and thank goodness, it's been that way with water, where it's not necessarily cleanly broken down on partisan lines.
So, you know, things that are important to think about in this race are just, where do you see the CAP in the future? You know, what their plans are listening to them about like how they would deal with some of the challenges that are happening on the river. It's more policy driven.
This is really much more of a board where, if you're going to suss out differences between candidates, it's really going to be in the policy, not necessarily like, are you pro-life or, you know, pro-choice.
