PHOENIX — The State of Arizona committed $1 billion in funding over the course of three years to the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona, or WIFA, to boost our water supply with alternative water projects.
Chelsea McGuire of WIFA says they're looking at what the state needs in terms of additional water along with where and how much they're willing to pay for it.
Ocean desalination and direct potable reuse are some of the options being considered.
$333 million was allocated to the authority in 2022 to boost those efforts but this year the state's new budget is scaling back.
"During these budget negotiations, when rather than depositing the $333 million into the Long-Term Water Augmentation Fund, the legislature chose to carve a portion of that out for what it deemed as other water projects," McGuire said.
Those projects include drilling new wells in the East Valley, reconstructing a levee in Winslow along with irrigation and xeriscaping improvements in Glendale to name a few.
The total for these water projects is nearly $144 million which is a little less than half what was intended for WIFA's augmented plans.
"There's nothing wrong with those projects but they don't contribute to that vision of how we find the next source of water for our state," McGuire stated. "I think there's a real fear and a real potential that signals to those folks who may have those good water augmentation ideas and want to be part of that investment that maybe this isn't as serious as we thought."
McGuire says she's optimistic about receiving the $1 billion in total that the legislature agreed to back in 2022.
Governor Katie Hobbs tells ABC15 that is still the intention, but the money allocated that year hasn't been spent yet.
"A decision was made to re-allocate those funds differently."
