Latest / Arizona Unscripted / Episode 1: 🌵 Arizona Unscripted - It’s Getting Hot (and Thirsty) Out Here!
Transcript
- Arizona Unscripted: Hello, everybody. Welcome back. And I should say welcome back. Those that haven't heard the very first free pre pre podcast episode. This is the pilot episode. We're launching Arizona Unscripted today. And we're really happy to have you guys here from all over Arizona. This podcast is all about Arizona, all about the valleys, the Grand Canyon, everything, the deserts. And we're here to talk to you about local issues too, talk about what's happening in your in your areas. And you know, it's Arizona is a special state. It's one of those states that has so much diversity in terms of wildlife and all kinds of stuff in terms of people and activities. We got plenty to talk about. But we also have plenty of ways to help you too. So we're going to try to do our best to not only discuss issues, but bring those issues to help you where you live in every community. So with that, I am going to introduce my co-host for today. And this is Diane. Diane, how are you doing today? Hey, we're doing great. So glad to have you here and to be here with you and our friends at the state. Yeah. Well, let's let's start off with ⁓ first off, who do we have as guests today? ⁓ maybe you can introduce those people. I think you hang out with them a lot more than I do. Yeah, we have Jim here. ⁓ Jim is here in Mojave County with me and he is on our communications team. And we have Rain, who is coming in from La Paz County, and Xanthe Bullard, who is coming in from Yuma. We also have Carol and Rebecca who are also here on the Mojave team. ⁓ that's great. Nice, nice to meet you all and enjoy the conversation with us. And tell me, Diane, so what what are some of the things that what's coming up now in Arizona? This seems to be one of those things that kind of want to make people leave a little bit sometimes. What do you think? What is it? It is so with the temperatures rising, what we're seeing is people are leaving sooner. So, you know, people tease all the time about our snowbirds and they usually leave in May. So our communities are experiencing this ⁓ exodus early with the temperatures rising and also there's a lot of talk about water and a lot about what yes. ⁓ But you guys, but you guys really know. I mean, is I mean, there is some relief though, because Sedona's gotta be cooler, right? Up there in the mountains. That's gotta be up in the hills way up there. So do people like to migrate far away or do they like to head hang out, you know, in in those higher elevations when it gets w gets warm? Well, a lot of the people that ⁓ come here, they go back to other states. But I know we keep teasing we're gonna go and hit up the counties here in Arizona that are a little higher elevation and lower temperatures than what we have. It's like the exodus from what yeah, there's out of state when out of state is also going staying in state and trying to trying to crowd into those areas that are cooler. That's awesome. Well, ⁓ I'll tell you what, I have an idea. Why don't we go through and just ⁓ maybe ⁓ help me pick some people here to to talk a little bit about themselves, a little bit about their county and what they you know, what topic. And we'll talk about water today. Water's a good one. So let's go with that. Sure. Hey, Zant, would you like to ⁓ tell us a little bit about what are you seeing there in Yuma County? Sure. So I am Xanth Bullard. ⁓ I am I live here in Yuma County, Arizona. ⁓ I have been here since twenty fifteen. just a little personal background. I moved down here from Michigan to take care of my father who was disabled. ⁓ and that was a real big, I don't want to say culture shock, but definitely like environment shock. Michigan has a lot of water, a lot of trees, a lot of shade. things are green a lot of the year. And down here, everything especially when I first moved down here before I started to really understand the environment, everything was some form of beige. ⁓ my gosh. ⁓ my gosh. So yeah, it's taken me a few years, but I definitely feel like the desert is is my home now. and ⁓ and yeah, so ⁓ I'm happy to be here. So it sounds like you've d you've ⁓ developed a taste now for the desert blooms and all the wonderful things that go on now that are different than Michigan, I would imagine. Yes, absolutely. ⁓ you know, it's it's fun to watch the acateillos and the the cactus bloom in the spring. And we did have a decent amount of rain earlier. So ⁓ there was Quite a bit of vegetation this year. It's starting to die off though now with the the heat rising, but that's awesome. Yeah, I mean, I know what you mean. It's ⁓ continue. It's I I think Michigan's awesome, but I I imagine, yeah, moving here it must have been a such a culture shock. In addition to that, you must have learned a little bit more about the way that there's less snow here. Arizona. Well unless you live in ⁓ in Navajo or Apache County, I know they they definitely get snow ⁓ up there. I think that's the one thing about Arizona is that there's so many different types of ⁓ environment here. ⁓ you can pretty much find anything you're looking for. and so but but ⁓ southwest Arizona, Yuma County is extremely ⁓ low level desert. I think we're only about a hundred feet above sea level. ⁓ and so we don't we don't even natively grow Swarrows that easily because it is such low desert. that ⁓ it's it's even different than say the deserts of Vapaz or Penal County. So wow, amazing. ⁓ and by the way for the audience we're gonna when these guests we're gonna come back in future episodes talking about you know kind of focus on the different counties and different areas. So Come back and and hang out with us some more. ⁓ Diane, you got some who else you have on the list here? ⁓ yeah. So actually I just wanted to pop in real quick and talk about ZM. So I think there's four or five county chairs that are actually from Michigan, ⁓ myself included. So it's always fun to talk about Michigan things, but came here via Washington and it also it was absolutely a shock for me going from all grain to all brown. And this year, as the green has come out, it has been absolutely beautiful. And of course, the all of the flowers that we have in the desert. So I noticed that we have Monica from La Paz County as well. She has joined us. And we have Rain also from La Paz County. So I would love to have you two speak to us a little bit about what is going on in La Paz. And are you seeing any water issues that are important? So for La Paz, ⁓ you know, I am also not from La Paz originally. I've been here about twenty years. I moved out here in two thousand and five. I have lived in Arizona most of my life. So I relocated from the valley. And ⁓ unlike Xanth, I'm I was used to the environment. It was a culture shock to go from city to small town. there are trade offs. I I I love quartzite. I love the community that I live in because it is a community. But, you know, when the grocery store closes at six o'clock and I'm coming from an area where I don't even know what I want to eat yet at six o'clock. ⁓ my god. What do you mean the stores are all closed? Right. It it was definitely a culture shock. ⁓ and I spent probably the first three or four months I was here trying to figure out how the heck I was gonna get out of here. And then I got involved with the community and that is what makes this place home is just the community. Everybody knows everybody. And you know, yes, we may have some infighting because, you know, that's what families do. But when things hit the fan, this community pulls together. And that is what I love about living in a rural area. ⁓ as far as water issues. We have been front and center with water issues. ⁓ we ⁓ in Salome, Winden area, they leased land or they entered into contracts with some foreign farms. ⁓ and they were growing alfalfa. So it stuck the groundwater, just absolutely decimated. ⁓ Wyndon, which is a very small town in La Paz County. they are actually having they are losing foundations in homes because the ground is no way. ⁓ yeah. Because of overpumping. Wells wells have had to been redrilled or drilled deeper to get to water. ⁓ and there's some really bad bills that are working their way through the legislature right now. Hopefully our governor will veto them. But they want to treat La Paz County as nothing more, they're these particular basins as nothing more than transfer basins. And they have basically told the residents there you knew what you were getting into. So like we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna take your water because we can. And they wanna use water from La Paz County so that they can keep building in the valley. So what's what's being done to to fight against that? Because that sounds like a pretty serious. I mean, you're basically that's water, it's like the life is the life essentially. What's going Well, Arizona happens to have just an absolutely amazing attorney general that is front and center in the fight. ⁓ and we are so grateful to have her. I will also say that when Governor Hobbes came in, one of the things that she did is any leases that these these foreign companies had on ⁓ state land, she terminated them. So that helped too to you know to kind of stop it. ⁓ They're working at turning that area into an AMA. ⁓ but that doesn't help if they just consider us a transfer basin and continue to take water from us. And what's a what's an AMA for those for those that may not know what AMA means? An AMA is an active management area. So when you have an active management area, if a new subdivision wants to come in or a new, you know, something that's going to be water heavy, they have to prove that there's a hundred year water supply. ⁓ and And so that there's enough water to accommodate them. ⁓ it it it puts regulations in, but you know, we look sometimes look at regulations like they're bad. ⁓ but you know, that we're human, like we don't want anybody to tell us what to do, but we sure don't want our neighbor taking a lot of home. That's right. So there's it's a balance, right? Yeah, it's a total balance. Right. And and so we need those guardrails because it's so important that we protect. You know, our our family farms that have been in these families for generations, we want to make sure they have water to continue to grow. We wanna make sure that, you know, again, when you turn on your faucet in your home, you can take a shower or you can do the things that you need to do. And and I wanna be really clear because sometimes this gets lost. When when I reference foreign entities taking our water, yes, a lot of the water went over C you know, the the alfalfa was going over to Saudi Arabia. It is not just Saudi Arabia. I don't care if it is Minnesota that's coming in and taking our water or Queen Creek that's coming in and taking our water. If you are taking water from a Pods County descent somewhere else, it is going to a foreign entity and that should not be happening. So Monica, who can who can people contact? You want to just the attorney general, ⁓ the governor's office? Contact your attorney general, contact your state legislators. Okay. ⁓ keep our water. Keep it. ⁓ Yeah, keep our I think that Rain had ⁓ some encouraging information that Yeah, Ray Rain, do you know what that bill number was that Holly was working on? By any chance. Um, I don't know the bill. However, there is a new organization that a new nonprofit that Holly is serving on the board. Holly is one of La Paz County supervisors, Holly Irwin. Okay. She's a Republican and she is working with the governor and the A.G.'s office. And she is very frustrated at the Republican state reps that are not supporting this. And she's very frustrated. And that is called La Paz, no, ⁓ Water Alliance for La Paz County. Yeah, let's make sure yeah people so water let's call Water Alliance for La Paz County. Okay. Yes. And they have an incredible website. They've got some videos of their most recent meetings. ⁓ good. And w I think this is an opportunity for ⁓ the Democrats to have a say because the Republicans are are not ⁓ supporting this. So the the ⁓ the AMA ⁓ has been approved it's called Rainey Grass Basin I believe and ⁓ I attended one of ⁓ their meetings at the ⁓ water alliance and they brought in experts from both of the w water they've got the water district, they've got the universities involved, and they are pulling together the experts. Right. So it sounds like people should get involved with their the the local rep and whatever the whatever the party is, find out why they're rep you they rep for something for the water or what's happening with that because You if if the rep says, No, I'm not interested in having you have water, well that's not very good. You know, that's that's terrible. So we need so they need to talk to their rep and really find out no matter what they are and you know, who yeah, all of them and find out what's going on and how they can 'cause really the community has to come together. It sounded it sounds like in the ⁓ Anthony, your community it might be a pretty or also in your ⁓ Monica, your community sounds like that might be a great time to get together and really pull together and kind of go in force, right? Get get on the ground. Maybe ⁓ maybe send some some pe ⁓ whole group over to talk to the reps and sh so that you're really concerned about it. My gosh. I think one of the important things is that water affects all of us. Yeah. All across Arizona and the states around us. I know Jim has been following the water issue. ⁓ Jim, did you want to share a little bit of side there? Hi Jim. Hello. Yeah, the water issue is tough ⁓ for all of Arizona, but it's also tough in Colorado and places like that where they haven't had snow. They s they closed a lot of ski resorts up there because they didn't have snow enough. So that snow melts and comes down to Colorado through the river. And ⁓ both Lake Powell and Lake Mead are are getting close to Deadpool, they call it with not enough water going through the generators. I think they've already shut down the generators in Lake Powell or Glen Canyon Dam because there's isn't enough water to go through there and they also had problems from it. So Jim before we get back, well so where are you from and and what in what county? Well I moved here from Chicago, Illinois. Another very dry place. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. We left there for for the Because of the cold and came here for the heat and now now we wanna in the summertime we always want to go back to when all our family left there. So we're Chicago has the coolest museum, science museum there. If you've been there to that science and they actually have a U boat that they they they captured. It's called ⁓ what's called the Little Mermaid. Awesome thing. Really? ⁓ my god, it's fantastic. Yeah, this is all about Arizona, but we have to have a little fan fanfare for some of the Yeah. But go ahead. So you yeah. Yeah, we used to go ahead, dude. We used to go all the way up to Montana and stuff in the summertime. And that's that's one of the things about it getting too hot down here. And then you you run up there too early and it's cold up there. Yeah. So you might run up the storm. Yeah, you got a pair of shorts in the suitcase all the way to to a parka. Yeah, I think we hit a hundred ⁓ the first week in February. So We normally are trying to decide which day in May is gonna be our first hundred plus day. But yeah, we're definitely ⁓ early this year. The other important thing is our groundwater fed springs in the desert, they're sacred to our tribes and they give life year round to animals and plants and you know, sheep and mountain lines and bobcats. and they're all part of a connected landscape, right? And It's important for us to be supporting our local tribes as well and not forget about those voices. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't forget about them. Also. Yes. I mean, they're they're ⁓ they're doing good work out there trying to s you know keep take care of these precious these precious I mean, water is precious. We ⁓ we know that. I mean, this is our first episode, pilot episode, but in reality, you know, it's a good discussion going forward to figure out I think for the for the group here, we can go out and even look up. Maybe get come back with some more re when you come to individual areas, ⁓ bring in some more resources to help people out, figure out how they can save water. Yes. I mean, I don't care, it doesn't matter what what party you belong to, whatever, we all need it and we gotta have it. And to have someone walk into your door and say, Hey, you gotta leave because you're we're taking your water from you, I think that's not a good thing. Right. Well, and I think civic engagement is extremely important. And so We know that we've got people across the state that are on the front lines fighting this. And we can all get involved and support their efforts. I think that's important. That's wonderful. Wait, did we miss anybody? I think we got everybody that we talked to on the all the different areas at the moment. And those are this is just preview of what's up upcoming episodes. So I want to think ⁓ yeah. Go ahead. Sorry. I was gonna say I found just a little bit more information on twenty twenty three alone. Fondamani Farms extracted over thirty-one thousand acre feet of groundwater ⁓ in one year. ⁓ they've put they put they put the AMAs, the active management areas in our population centers. They have them in Phoenix, they have them in Tucson, but in the rural areas that did not happen. So in twenty twenty five, they were able to get the one basin as an active management area, which will at least protect that one. But so ⁓ the the bill that was running through the legislature and it did pass ⁓ the house ⁓ it is to allow a hedge fund ⁓ and I found the name of it it's a hold on just a second take over like take over the Yeah well so in the when they when they they held public meetings you know because when you do an AMA it it's it's a process, right? And three quarters of the comments were in favor of having this AMA because residents there realize what happens if they if we don't protect coming in that's trying to do more and they're advanced, hey, you know. Right. So just days after that was designated as an AMA, Arizona's legislature introduced a bill that would allow a New York City hedge fund called water asset management. They purchased thirteen thousand acres in La Paz County in twenty twenty four. They could pump the water out from underneath of it. Does your community I mean I know the podcast is going up, but does your community know this pre I'm ⁓ well well I think like with always there's gonna be people in the dark, right? 'Cause it's a big county. You know, not not compared to some, but you know, there's there's people here. So if you're what is that? So if you're not actually connected and having the conversations, you're not gonna you're not gonna know. Yes. If you're well at the if you don't if it's not your problem, a lot of times you won't know that it's a problem. So we should ask the audience, pass this around this podcast around and you know it's a new podcast, but pass it around and and also ⁓ talk to your f your friends and family about it in the area. All the all the community. Get involved. If you don't get involved, you may be moving unexpectedly. Right. And that's and and and I mean it's yeah. I mean that sounds bad because they couldn't afford to drill a new well. It was e it was cheaper than exactly right. I mean it's like suddenly there's yeah, this is a real so yeah, so don't don't lay back and expect it to take be taken care of itself. Get get involved with your community and And reach out to the you can you send a ⁓ send us a comment in the comment section as well when you if you want and we can see what we can do to give you more information. Yep. We can ⁓ come back and revisit this issue because we know that it's super important as we move towards summer, it's going to be affecting more and more people. So we look forward to having the community join us for these conversations and let us hear your voices. Yeah, absolutely. We'll head off to the till the next episode to have a couple of disclaimers. One, this is all of our own personal, you know, observations and discussion. ⁓ we're not endorsing anybody or any c situation at this moment, but we are planning on bringing in people from all over the walks of our Arizona. So so plan for some fun in the future. Any and that's all I have for today. Don, anything else you want to bring up? Right. I think that's it. But we look forward to having people join us and having these community conversations. Thanks, Bart. Thanks so Dan. Have a great one. Bye, everybody. Bye.