By Melissa St. Aude | Casa Grande Dispatch
Members of an area water group wondered Tuesday if they have enough time to properly examine and suggest alternatives to an Arizona Department of Water Resources plan to phase out extinguishment credits.
“Right now we need to have time,” Dick Powell, a Casa Grande businessman, city councilman and chairman of the Pinal Local Water Group, said during a Tuesday meeting. “Without enough time, this is already moot.”
By February or March, the group will be asked to either suggest acceptable alternatives to the phase-out plan or continue a five- year delay of its implementation.
A five-year delay of the phase- out was enacted in August, but it will automatically expire in September if an alternative plan is produced and accepted by then. If not, the five-year delay continues.
Powell said the delay would likely be necessary because he doesn’t believe the group will have its suggestions in place this spring when the state water agency begins the process for adopting a new plan.
“Without that extension, we’re all wasting our time,” Powell said.
