By Joshua Bowling |The Republic
Farmers, business owners and elected officials overwhelmingly oppose a pair of water management bills that are before the state Legislature.
Crowded into a standing-room only Yuma City Hall, Sen. Gail Griffin, R-Hereford, and Rep. Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa, listened to public comment on Friday on a pair of bills that some critics feared could let the Central Arizona Project draw water away from rural Yuma and Cochise counties and transfer it to more populous Maricopa County.
Griffin and Bowers both chair natural resource committees.
Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed similar legislation in 2016, saying at the time that provisions allowing more groundwater pumping threatened the future of Arizona’s water.
The public comment, which at times looked like a who’s-who of Yuma farming and rural politics, was overwhelmingly opposed to the legislation.
