PHOENIX \u2014 The board overseeing the state agency charged with finding new water supplies for Arizona is poised to approve as many as five imported water proposals for startup funding from taxpayers this week, but at least one potential project reignites decades of controversy. <\/p>\n
A conservation group and an Indian tribe warned the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority committee screening the projects behind closed doors last week that EPCOR\u2019s apparent proposal is fraught with risk and can\u2019t deliver the stable water supply Arizona needs.<\/p>\n
Details of the five projects \u2014 two involving desalination plants and the others relying on wastewater treatment, surface water and an unidentified third source \u2014 remain secret until the full board of the agency known as WIFA meets Wednesday.<\/p>\n
But the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe and the National Parks Conservation Association say it\u2019s pretty clear EPCOR plans to rely on a controversial pumping project in the remote southeastern California desert that has been fought by environmentalists for decades.<\/p>\n
The conservation group believes EPCOR and the developer of the California desert project, Cadiz Inc., are relying on the ignorance of officials here about the Arizona project, which has faced vociferous opposition in California, to get some of the nearly $400 million in Arizona tax dollars WIFA has to give away to develop plans to import water.<\/p>\n
Canadian water provider EPCOR, which operates municipal water systems in several Arizona communities, including the Sun Cities, Anthem and San Tan Valley on the southeastern edge of metro Phoenix, signed a memorandum of understanding with Cadiz on Aug. 1.<\/p>\n
WIFA has not made public any plans it is considering that may also be controversial. And EPCOR, owned by the city of Edmonton in the Canadian province of Alberta, has made no public announcement of the deal to import the water into Arizona.<\/p>\n
But the reason there are details on this plan is that Cadiz is a publicly traded company. That enabled Capitol Media Services to access a notice it had to file with securities regulators about its memo of understanding with EPCOR.<\/p>\n
The deal, if finalized, gives EPCOR exclusive rights to market 25,000 acre-feet of water to Arizona annually from the project in a remote section of the California desert about 60 miles west of Parker. It also requires it to finance and build a section of pipeline to deliver the water.<\/p>\n
The Cadiz project, which it has named the Mojave Groundwater Bank, relies on ancient groundwater under an expansive desert valley. Cadiz plans to pump 50,000 acre-feet per year for 50 years from the project, and has tried for decades to get the needed approvals to sell water to southern California water providers.<\/p>\n
An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons \u2014 enough water to cover an acre of land one foot deep and typically enough to supply three homes for a year.<\/p>\n
Cadiz says its goal it to \u201csustainably deliver clean affordable water to people who need it.\u201d But the company\u2019s proposal has been fought for 30 years by California politicians, conservation and environmental groups and federal agencies \u2014 at least when Democrats controlled them. And it so far has not delivered any water.<\/p>\n
Its project has passed a series of environmental reviews, but California in 2019 passed a law requiring a state agency to add another layer of approvals.<\/p>\n
Because its pipelines would cross federal land, it also needs federal agency approval.<\/p>\n
The first Trump Administration green-lighted the proposal, but a federal judge blocked its approval of a pipeline across federal lands. The Biden Administration then pulled the federal approvals, but the company this year signed an agreement with the Department of Interior to support development of its groundwater bank. <\/p>\n
The tribe and conservation groups say the pumping will imperil springs that provide the only water within 1,000 square miles and nourish wildlife, including bighorn sheep. And they say that once the water is gone, the vast desert region won\u2019t be able to support people, either.<\/p>\n
Neal Desai, the regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, testified to the WIFA board panel last week. He said in an interview that his group and the tribe are trying to ensure WIFA knows about the controversial background of the pumping proposal and its opposition from California politicians like Gov. Gavin Newsom and its two U.S. senators.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been around for 40 years, and it doesn\u2019t have a shovel in the ground because it would be a complete disaster,\u201d Desai said about the Cadiz proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so it seems like now they\u2019re trying to find someone that might not know much about their project and target Arizona and see if they can get resources, because they\u2019re striking out politically in California,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re just letting (WIFA) know that this is a very toxic issue that stands no chance of moving forward and only is going to bring them into a controversy. (It) will not help Arizona at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
An EPCOR spokesperson said the company couldn\u2019t comment on the proposal because it\u2019s in the early stages. But the company provided a statement saying that as Arizona\u2019s water supplies dwindle it is focused in on \u201csustainable solutions that preserve and expand water resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe explore many possibilities but only speak about a project once an agreement is in place and the project is ready to move out of the exploratory phase,\u201d the statement said. \u201cUntil then we cannot speak to any proposed project details, aside from noting that we carefully evaluate each opportunity and that balancing environmental stewardship with community benefit is central to our process.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Cuts to Arizona\u2019s Colorado River supplies in recent years have forced the state to expand its search for new water and for housing developers to seek out innovative ways to secure more water. Earlier this year, the state approved tapping a desert aquifer about 40 miles west of Phoenix by two Phoenix-area municipalities.<\/p>\n
Cadiz didn\u2019t respond to an email seeking comment on its deal with EPCOR, which it revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. <\/p>\n
In addition to the EPCOR purchase deal, the company is ramping up its financing, announcing earlier this month a $51 million loan from a small California tribe to fund its groundwater banking investments and an additional $400 million commitment by private investors for the project. It also previously bought 180 miles of pipe originally intended for the canceled Keystone XL pipeline to use in its water delivery systems, touting the buy as avoiding new Trump Administration tariffs. It previously bought 220 miles of the abandoned El Paso Natural Gas pipeline for conversion to water delivery use. <\/p>\n
Of the five proposals considered by the WIFA board committee in executive session last week, four were from EPCOR. In addition to the apparent California groundwater proposal, it also proposed a desalination plant, developing wastewater into drinkable quality supplies and developing new surface water sources. <\/p>\n
Another desalination proposal being considered is from a group called the ACCIONA-Fengate Water Augmentation Alliance.
Acciona is a Spanish firm that develops those plants across the world. Fengate Capitol is a private equity firm that specializes in infrastructure investment.<\/p>\n
Acciona and a construction firm won a contract last December to design and build a desalination plant in Carlsbad, California. It already runs plants in Saudi Arabia, Australia and Florida, among others. <\/p>\n
The proposals and presentations to WIFA\u2019s Long Term Augmentation Committee by proponents were done in executive session with no public or press observers, with the board citing state procurement rules that require secrecy. The committee recommended projects to get taxpayer money, and four of the five are on Wednesday\u2019s board agenda, including the EPCOR project that appears to involve Cadiz.<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s meeting of the full board will finally see details of the proposals made public and decisions on which if any to fund done in a public meeting.<\/p>\n
The WIFA committee initially had a third desalination plant proposal from an Israeli attorney who sought a deal for a new plant from WIFA shortly after the agency\u2019s mission was expanded to include finding new water sources in 2022.
But the proposal by Erez Hoter-Ishay and the company he heads, ZARETAW LLC, didn\u2019t pass muster with WIFA\u2019s procurement officer and was not considered by the board committee last week.<\/p>\n
Hoter-Ishay in 2022 brought an unsolicited proposal for a desalination plant on the Sea of Cortez to be built by an Israeli company, IDE Technologies to the WIFA board. It came just months after then-Gov. Doug Ducey and the Legislature approved the 2022 law expanding WIFA\u2019s mission and promised to give WIFA $1 billion to fund new projects. <\/p>\n
The Legislature never came through with all that money, leaving WIFA with only about $375 million \u2014 and a quarter of it must be spent on in-state projects. <\/p>\n
Hoter-Ishay\u2019s unsolicited proposal prompted questions from some lawmakers about backroom dealings. That\u2019s because Ducey had visited Israel numerous times during his eight years as governor with an eye on new water technologies and called for the state to build a desalination plant in his 2022 state of the state address.<\/p>\n
Hoter-Ishay was at the time working for IDE, an Israeli firm that has developed desalination plants since the 1960s in Israel, China, the U.S. and other countries, and runs plants in several countries. <\/p>\n
Hoter-Ishay\u2019s latest proposal was rejected by WIFA\u2019s procurement officer because it failed to include required details in multiple areas. They include not identifying a construction manager or lead contractor, not identifying its investors even though it said IDE Water Assets Ltd. was an equity partner, and failing to provide any financial statements or proof it could obtain insurance.<\/p>\n
Hoter-Ishay didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment, nor did IDE Technologies.<\/p>\n
The WIFA committee that reviewed the proposals conducted its deliberations since receiving the proposals in August in secret under state procurement rules. But that will now change.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe board meeting coming up on the 19th will be very revealing,\u201d Chelsea McGuire, WIFA\u2019s executive director, said. \u201cObviously, we will know the results of these discussions in ways that I think the public and definitely our board are very anxious to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the confidentiality of the procurement process will end at Wednesday\u2019s meeting, with the public not only invited but encouraged to participate and provide comments on the proposals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks for your patience as we do a little bit more in this procurement process, and then open it up to the process we\u2019re all really excited for, which is the public sausage making,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 The board overseeing the state agency charged with finding new water supplies for Arizona is poised…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":399415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-400543","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-phoenix","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115602720652001589","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}