Six candidates running for four seats on water board

The question of whether Arizona, the second-fastest-growing state in the nation, has enough natural resources — namely, water — to keep up with that growth while sustaining its current population, is constantly at the forefront of discussion.

The Central Arizona Project — the canal that delivers Colorado River water 336 miles from Lake Havasu to dozens of communities in Maricopa, Pima and Pinal counties — plays a major role in that discussion.

In the Nov 4 election, six candidates are running for four open seats representing Pima County on the Central Arizona Water Conservation District board of directors, a 15-member board that essentially runs CAP.

The board is nonpartisan and members serve six-year terms.

Members of this board are elected from the three counties CAP services. Maricopa County controls 10 seats on the board, while Pinal County has one seat.

CAWCD employs more than 400 people who are responsible for system maintenance and operations, repayment obligations and creating water resource programs for Arizona. The district’s day-to-day operations are run by a general manager and management team who report to the board of directors.

CAWCD also operates the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District, which allows property owners to get a 100-year assured water supply under Arizona law, in exchange for agreeing to have the CAGRD recharge groundwater. Currently, there is some controversy over whether to make it more difficult to join the district.

The following are brief profiles of the six candidates, run in alphabetical order.

Arturo Gabald—n

Arturo Gabald—n, Sahuarita resident and president of Community Water Co. of Green Valley, says he is “committed to sustainable water supplies for our area and the reliable delivery of drinking water.”

“As a CPA and water operator with over 20 years of water industry experience, I will be an effective representative for Pima County,” said Gabald—n. “Because of the weighted voting on the CAP board, the Southern Arizona ‘voice’ is heavily outweighed by Maricopa County. It is therefore critical that our community have knowledgeable, articulate representatives that actively participate in the board and its committees,” he said.

Gabald—n says issues of local growth should be decided locally and not by the CAP board. He believes water utilities should remain focused on quality, reliability, and affordability of water supply. He says the “growth question” should be left to elected leadership in the municipalities and the county.

Gabald—n has worked for the Community Water Co. for 18 years. He is currently serving as director of the Green Valley Sahuarita Chamber of Commerce and is the director and treasurer of the Southern Arizona Water Users Association.

Pat Jacobs

Pat Jacobs, a former administrator of Pima County Justice Courts and a current Northwest Fire District board member, has said he would bring a different perspective to the CAWCD board because he is not part of the “professional water community.”

Jacobs served for 30 years as a Court Administrator for the Pima County Consolidated Justice Courts and is the former administrative director of the courts for the State of Arizona.

He says he is proud of the accomplishments made by the Northwest Fire District while he was chairman of the board, which include building a new fire station, approving an $82 million budget and authorizing seven annexations.

Stephen Lenihan

With the CAP canal providing Arizona with its largest renewable source of water (approximately 1.5 million acre-feet per year), Stephen Lenihan says “Nothing can be more important to Arizona’s future than managing this resource properly.”

“I will use my advocacy and financial experience in ensuring that [...] the Central Arizona Project is managed in the interests of all Arizonans.”

Lenihan says one of his commitments, if elected to the CAWCD board, would be to pursue additional water supplies for the CAP system and “guarantee Southern Arizona receives its fair share.”

Lenihan, a resident of Oro Valley, is a land-use and real estate attorney at the Lenihan Law Firm, P.C., in Tucson and was previously the president of a private water company. He is treasurer of the board of directors of the Campus Research Corp. at the University of Arizona’s Science and Technology Park and is a past member of the board that run the Greater Tucson Economic Council.

Sharon Megdal

Sharon Megdal says if elected to the CAWCD board, she will “work hard with fairness and integrity, ask tough questions and contribute to developing long-term solutions.”

“As growth in Central Arizona and drought conditions continue, the CAWCD board will be facing some important policy decisions in the coming years, particularly related to the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District,” she said.

Megdal is a professor at the University of Arizona in the department of Agricultural and Resource Economics as well as the Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science. She is director of the University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center and director of the University’s Water Sustainability Program.

Megdal says she is very familiar with the Green Valley area as she is the former executive director of the Santa Cruz Valley Water District, a Tucson-based regional planning organization which operated for several years in the early 1990s and included the communities of Green Valley and Sahuarita. She also served on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ panel during a July Sahuarita Town Hall meeting called to discuss water issues facing the community.

Warren Tenney

Warren Tenney says his 15 years of experience in the water industry have shown him “the significance of the CAWCD board to Pima County and to Arizona.”

Tenney is the assistant general manager of the Metropolitan Domestic Water Improvement District, a public provider serving northwest Tucson. He is currently the chair of the Water Conservation Alliance of Southern Arizona, an countywide organization of which Community Water Co. of Green Valley and the Town of Sahuarita are both members.

He says if elected, his main priority would be “to protect our region’s renewable supply, pursue additional supplies if possible, secure reliability features for the CAP system and prepare for possible drought and climate change.”

Tenney says he has been attending CAWCD board meetings for more than three years.

“I’m very familiar with the issues. Part of the reason I’m running is that I saw how critical CAP is to Pima County as well as to the entire state. When it comes to water issues, they’re on the front lines.”

Carol Zimmerman

Carol Zimmerman, the only incumbent candidate, is seeking a second, six-year term on the board.

Zimmerman, who owns a political consulting firm in Tucson, says that if re-elected she will help CAP focus its efforts on finding and securing additional water sources.

One proposed method would be to remove large stretches of tamarisk trees along the Colorado River and replace them with cottonwoods, which require 25 percent less water to grow. Another would be to utilize a process known as “cloud seeding” to increase precipitation near the Colorado River.

While on the CAWCD board, Zimmerman worked on several specialized committees, including Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District and public policy sub committees.

During her term on the board, CAP initiated a statewide study group, ADD WATER, to determine where additional supplies can be found, how that water will be moved to the three-county area, who will pay for it and how it will be distributed. The nearly year-long process kicked off in late May and Tucson has a prominent seat at the table.

For more information on the Central Arizona Project and the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, visit http://www.cap-az.com.

jrichardson@gvnews.com | 547-9726