Oct. 31, 2004
Shaun McKinnon
The Arizona Republic
Gov. Janet Napolitano will unveil plans Monday to create a virtual water university that she hopes will make Arizona a world leader in sustaining vibrant communities in dry places and dry times.
Tapping resources from the state's three universities, Napolitano said the state could produce research aimed at better managing scarce water supplies and help desert-dwellers drought-proof themselves with more accurate long-range planning.
The governor will outline details of the water university initiative during a broader water policy speech at Monday's opening session of the 85th Arizona Town Hall. Arizona's water future is the topic of the three-day event at the Grand Canyon's South Rim, with more than 175 invited participants.
Water and drought will also be the focus of a series of public events around the state by year's end. Napolitano wants input on the draft drought plan that was delivered to her early this month by a task force she appointed in 2003. Water is also expected to figure prominently in her 2005 legislative blueprint.
The virtual water university would bring together resources from Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University. No new campus would be built. Instead, the Governor's Office would help coordinate research that draws on each university's strengths.
The goal, the governor said, is that by 2006, Arizona can claim a unique ability to explore water and drought issues, propose solutions and see the results used here and around the globe.
"It will allow us to have the best resource in the world, to think outside the box where water is concerned," Napolitano said in an interview Friday. "We can become a world example of how you sustain a dynamic economy in an area of aridity and an era of drought."
The virtual university could draw on several programs.
• The University of Arizona is world-renowned for its Water Resources Research Center, its Laboratory of Tree Ring Research and Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas.
• NAU's forestry programs have produced groundbreaking research about how drought affects forests and other ecosystems, focusing recently on the drought-induced invasion of bark beetles.
• ASU's Consortium for the Study of Rapidly Urbanizing Regions and its new Decision Center for a Desert City would likely play significant roles. The new $6.9 million decision center will focus specifically on helping cities in arid climates balance growth with limited water resources.
In her speech Monday, Napolitano plans to talk about water supply and demand and how to use long-range planning to better match the two.
Other topics: ongoing talks among Arizona and its neighbors to share shortages on the drought-stricken Colorado River, resolving water litigation to bring more certainty to water supplies, water quality on the Colorado and water conservation.
Although the state has long left water conservation programs to cities, Napolitano said the state could offer some help and she plans to discuss "what I think needs to be the appropriate balance between state mandates and local control."
She will also talk about long-range water resource planning, "what we need to do so we can sustain our growth. Planning becomes more acute and essential when you are in what we believe is a long-term drought."
Napolitano said she has read the draft drought plan submitted by her task force and she likes most of what she found, but she wants to hear more input from Arizonans before suggesting changes. She said the state should approach the drought with an array of ideas.
"The simplistic thing is to think when we have a drought, we just have to stop watering our lawns," she said.
The response should be as wide-ranging as the problem. Phoenix, for example, is reducing water consumption by finding and reducing leaks in water distribution systems, she said.
The draft plan proposes mandatory cutbacks for state agencies and universities as the drought worsens and would require cities and water providers to develop drought response plans.
It would create a monitoring system that task force members say would help cities and water users plan for shortages and aid farmers in decisions about crops and livestock.
"The task force has done a marvelous job of looking at all the areas, like agriculture and tourism, but now I want to hear from people directly," Napolitano said.
The governor's policy speech will provide just one backdrop for Arizona Town Hall. Also on the agenda:
• Assistant Interior Secretary Bennett Raley will open the event tonight with a speech expected to touch on regional issues, such as the talks on the Colorado River shortages. Raley recently praised Nevada and California for a water-banking agreement, similar to one between Nevada and Arizona, as a cooperative approach that he said is "where the hope of the river rests."
Raley could also address concerns recently voiced by Colorado, Utah and other states on the upper Colorado River about the progress of the shortage talks and Arizona's role.
Those other states have questioned Arizona's response to the drought, including a program that stashes unused Colorado River allotments in underground aquifers.
• Dennis Underwood, a vice president at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, will also discuss regional water issues in speeches to the Town Hall delegates. Both were involved in the water-banking deal.
• Gov. Richard Narcia of the Gila River Indian Community will speak and participate in the discussions. The U.S. Senate recently approved a landmark water settlement that would hand over billions of gallons of water to the Gila River community and that deal, along with other tribal claims, will likely come up during the three-day event.
Town Hall delegates will be asked to determine whether efforts made to manage Arizona's water supply are enough to sustain the state's future and, if not, offer recommendations to address the shortfalls.
Those recommendations will be debated and developed Wednesday morning after two full days of discussions.
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