KINGMAN - Citizens will have a chance to speak their minds on an Arizona House Bill that, if passed, would eliminate a major restriction on the county's use of Colorado River water.
Local advocacy group Residents Against Irresponsible Development will hold its monthly town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Mohave County Library at 3269 N. Burbank St. This month's discussion topic is HB 2142, a bill to remove a requirement that the Mohave County Water Authority set aside roughly a fifth of its Colorado River water allocation exclusively for industrial uses.
The requirement's history dates back to 1922, when the Colorado River Compact granted Kingman an 18,500 acre-feet allocation of river water. In the mid-1990s, however, the Department of Interior informed Kingman that it would lose the allocation if it did not find a productive use for it. The city, however, was too far away from the river to justify the cost of constructing a pipeline long enough to reach it.
When the Mohave County Water Authority was created in 1996, it was tasked with selling the rights to Kingman's Colorado River allocation. Only 15,000 acre-feet were made available for municipal and consumer use, however, with the remaining 3,500 acre-feet set aside.
That requirement came following a decision by the Department of Interior that specified the 3,500 acre-feet could only be made available on a short-term basis. But the department later changed its stance on that decision, allowing the water to be used for longer-term projects, and freeing the legislature to consider HB 2142.
If signed into law, HB 2142 would allow the water authority to sell the rights for the 3,500 acre-feet to Bullhead City or Lake Havasu City, which could then allocate the water for new residential, commercial or industrial use. Kingman would receive 90 percent of the sale revenues to develop of new local water sources.
The mayors of Bullhead City, Lake Havasu City and Kingman all voiced their support of the bill at a Mohave County Board of Supervisors meeting Feb. 2. The board subsequently voted 2-1 to lend its support as well, with District III Supervisor Buster Johnson opposed.
An attorney for the water authority, Maureen George, will be on hand Wednesday to give an in-depth presentation on HB 2142 and to field questions from the audience. Kingman Mayor John Salem will moderate the question and answer session.
Reader Comments
Posted: Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Article comment by:
mike
Take water from our pacific ocean and alantic ocean and give our colorado rivver a break,plus this plan would serve serval purposes,dureing a drout our colorado river can start riseing again and we would have plenty of water for a growing population,there's sure ,ore water than land.
Posted: Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Article comment by:
Helen
Who are the members? Members of what group?
Posted: Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
If this bill passes the only ones getting this water will be LHC and BHC. There wont be any left to be available to anyone else.
Posted: Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
If this bill passes the water would be available to all our members with Colorado River contracts not just LHC and BHC.
