The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
After reading Mark Johnson’s editorial on Sept. 15, I learned from his profile on the Tortolita Alliance website that he retired in 2016 as engineering director for the Coachella Valley Water District and moved from California to Dove Mountain in mid-2019. I also am a retired water resource professional, with 35-plus years’ experience in Arizona water management. After 21 years with Tucson Water, I spent nine years with the Central Arizona Project, including six years as Manager of the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District before retiring in 2018.
While I respect Mr. Johnson’s interest in protecting the beauty and natural resources of the Tortolita Preserve, his understanding of Arizona groundwater management and the CAP is inadequate to support the conclusions and recommendations in his editorial.
Water management in Arizona is far from perfect. It also is not something that can be fully understood after a 14-month “comprehensive review of the water situation in Arizona” by any individual, however well-credentialed in their field. For example, Mr. Johnson states that the Colorado River is “the only real renewable source of non-groundwater” in Arizona.
In addition to several other flowing rivers in the state (most of which, to be sure, are under severe stress from human activity and climate change), the Salt River Project provides nearly as much water to the Phoenix area as the Colorado River provides to Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties through the CAP.
It is true that Lisa Atkins is both the president of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District Board of Directors and the commissioner of the State Land Department, but “control of water and state land development” is not “in the hands of one person and her cronies.” Atkins and the other CAWCD board members are unpaid, elected officials responsible for directing the operation of the CAP system for the benefit of all taxpayers within the CAP service area. They are to be commended for their public service, not spuriously accused of a conflict of interest as Johnson does.
Space does not allow for a comprehensive discussion of his mistaken views on safe yield, the Assured Water Supply Program, the CAP and CAGRD. I know from personal experience that, like all organizations, CAGRD should be continuously reviewed and improved, as it has been in the 27 years since it was created by the Arizona Legislature. I proposed and implemented several significant changes myself as manager. However, I can assure Johnson of one thing: The comfortable new homes in which he and many members of the alliance live most likely would not exist without CAGRD.
Without CAGRD, not a single water provider in the Tucson Active Management Area (AMA) could have complied with the Assured Water Supply rules when they became fully effective in 1997. All new residential construction would have halted in the entire Tucson metropolitan area. Home-building is not the only or the most important component of this region’s economy.
The issue is the broad underpinnings of this area’s economy would have been immediately undermined by the perception that Tucson had no water future. New businesses would not have located in this area and many existing businesses and residents would have relocated rather than continuing to invest in a “failing” community. The impact to the region’s economy would have been devastating.
I am confident Tucson now has a secure water future and, at the same time, can provide employment and other opportunities for our children, friends and neighbors, at least in part due to the existence of CAGRD.
