By Melissa St. Aude | Casa Grande Dispatch
Casa Grande City Councilman Dick Powell and Tiffany Shedd, an Eloy farmer and spokeswoman for the Farmers Against State Takings (FAST) advocacy group, have been appointed to a new water users committee, state Rep. T.J. Shope announced Friday morning at a Pinal Partnership meeting.
The new 15-member committee is to evaluate an Arizona Department of Water Resources plan to gradually phase out agricultural extinguishment credits and identify potential alternatives.
Shope, Powell, Shedd and ADWR Director Sandy Fabritz-Whitney were at Friday’s meeting in Casa Grande to speak to the Pinal Partnership about the phase-out.
Shope and fellow District 8 Rep. Frank Pratt in August began an effort to establish a committee to examine the phase-out plan.
“The fact that people are talking about water is good,” Shope said. “The more we talk about it the better, so we can discuss where we’re going as a county.”
Throughout the Pinal Active Management Area, there are nearly 2 million extinguishment credits held by farmers, Fabritz-Whitney said.
(Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents FAST.)
