By Melissa St. Aude | Casa Grande Dispatch
A five-year delay of an Arizona Department of Water Resources plan to phase out agricultural extinguishment credits should be in place by mid- September, members of a local water group learned Tuesday.
The agency’s temporary suspension of the phase- out is expected to end in September, but Jeff Tannler, statewide active management area director for the department, said the five-year delay should be enacted by then.
“We don’t anticipate any lapse in the delay,” Tannler told the group.
The five-year delay would ensure that an ADWR plan to gradually end agricultural extinguishment credits in Pinal County would not go into effect until at least 2019.
The Pinal Local Water Group members will use the time to analyze the plan and make alternative suggestions. They hope to have a replacement plan in place before the delay expires in 2019.
The group agreed earlier this month that they probably wouldn’t have an alternative plan to propose before the temporary delay runs out in September. They sought to have the temporary delay extended for five years so they could have more time.
Tannler said the process of making a five-year delay permanent is a public one. The first step in the process is approval from the Governor’s Office.
“We have tentative approval already, so we don’t anticipate a problem,” Tannler said.
A notice of proposed rulemaking could be filed with the Secretary of State’s Office by early next month and public hearings are likely to begin in May or June.
The five-year delay would also need approval from the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council, which will review the request and seek public comments, Tannler said.
That process could last until mid-September.
