Rep. Andy Biggs says ‘water’s No. 1’ as he hears from Arizonans during run for governor

U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, the Republican nominee for Arizona governor, said Monday that water is the issue he is asked about the most on the campaign trail.

“You can pick the most staid business group and go in and they’ll say, ‘What are you going to do to fix water?’ because they all want to know that. So, water’s No. 1,” Biggs told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show.

Arizona will lose roughly half of the Colorado River water allotment delivered through the Central Arizona Project after the federal government ordered the largest mandatory cuts in the river’s history in August.

Gov. Katie Hobbs, Biggs’ Democratic opponent in the November general election, framed the outcome as a painful but necessary win, saying Arizona avoided a far worse scenario that federal officials had considered earlier this year.

Andy Biggs says Arizona has ‘incredible amount of water’ stored underground

Biggs said resource management is key to securing Arizona’s water future.

“You’re not going to conserve your way out of this,” he said. “And we have to fight for every drop of water that we’re entitled to off the river by compact or contract. That’s what we will do. But you also have to manage this incredible amount of water we have stored underground.”

Biggs said Arizona has enough water stored underground to last for two centuries.

“A lot of people freak out about that. They say, ‘Well, how do we know we have water?’ Because we’ve been putting it there,” he said. “We’ve been putting it there to the tune of over 660 million acre-feet. That’s enough for 12 million people with normal growth for well over 200 years to live here. That’s management.”

Andy Biggs says he’s the better candidate for planning and leadership

That water needs to be drawn out, treated and transported before it can be used. Biggs said he could do a better job of managing the situation than Hobbs.

“We’re going to have to build some more infrastructure, and that will take planning and leadership and know-how,” he said. “And I’m just not confident that the current governor and anybody on her team knows how to do that. But that’s how we’ll do it.”

Biggs asserted that his experience in Congress, including a bill he introduced last month that would pour $19 billion in federal funding into new water infrastructure, and the relationships he developed in the federal government make him the right person for the job.

“You’re going to have to work with the Bureau of Reclamation. … And besides the Bureau of Reclamation, you have to be able to work with the Department of Interior. And I happen to know these people at the Department of Interior. And I’ve met with the Bureau of Reclamation. It’s a constant fight, and it’s a battle, but we can lead on this thing.”

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s David Iversen contributed to this report.

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