Bipartisan bill aims to speed federal funding for Arizona water projects

PHOENIX — Two Arizona communities say federal environmental reviews are adding years and higher costs to local water projects. A new bipartisan bill could cut the wait.

Superior and Buckeye are both stuck in a lengthy federal review process for projects that would receive partial funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Community Water Project Acceleration Act, sponsored by Arizona U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly and Wyoming Republican U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, would allow smaller projects to bypass that review and speed up funding.

Proposed changes would apply to water projects using less than $6 million in federal funds or when federal funding makes up less than 15% of the total project cost.

Federal environmental assessments through the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, can take two years or longer to complete.

Superior is waiting to finish a $2.25 million water projects

The town of Superior is waiting on federal clearance to build a $2.25 million pipeline. The project is on hold until the environmental assessment can be completed.

“This is to build a pipeline that will allow us to use our effluent water, as well as move water in Queen Creek that is past this fissure zone,” Superior Mayor Mila Besich told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

Queen Creek is losing water in fissures that were formed hundreds of years ago when they were first opening the mine.

Besich said delays are driving up costs.

“These procedures at the federal government… oftentimes delays our projects, so then right now where you’re seeing high inflation and high costs, it’s eating into the federal dollars that you receive for these particular projects,” she said.

Buckeye needs to build a levee

Buckeye faces a similar bottleneck.

The city has plans to upgrade equipment at its Central Water Reclamation Facility and build a levee around the site that sits in a flood zone.

The total project cost is $25 million, broken into five phases over five fiscal years. The federal Section 595 program will reimburse the city for 75% of the cost.

The first phase is complete, but the city is waiting on authorization to begin the second phase.

“It’s sort of a catch-22 when you get federal funding. You get that and we’re grateful for it, but then there are environmental reviews, NEPA reviews, stuff that ends up taking a long time,” Buckeye Mayor Eric Orsborn told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

Orsborn said the environmental review holding up the project is unnecessary because the facility has already been reviewed several times in the past.

“If you have projects that are smaller like this on facilities that have already been reviewed, there is not this lengthy process to go through, and we can put that money to work a lot faster,” he said.

Under the proposed bill, the Army Corps would have six months to put the new rules in place.

Local governments would need to handle construction themselves rather than using federal contractors.

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