AZ CDC Takes on EPA over Water Standards

Arizona's Constitutional Defense Council has targeted surface water quality standards as an issue over which to challenge federal primacy. The three-member council, created to challenge federal regulatory power within Arizona, will challenge efforts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and non-governmental organizations to set surface water standards.

Arizona's water quality standards have been approved by the EPA, but the Center for Law in the Public Interest sued in 1992, claiming the standards were insufficient to protect the environment and asking a judge to require EPA to impose stricter standards. States traditionally have the authority to pass their own standards, so long as they meet or exceed federal guidelines.

The CDC is seeking partners to join with it in pursuing the lawsuit.

Tribal Water Rights Settlement Reached

In what has become an increasingly rare event, an Arizona tribe has reached an agreement on its water claims with local and federal officials. The Yavapai-Prescott tribe settlement, which took four years to negotiate, was hailed by participants as "a model of fairness" which other negotiators should emulate. No other indian water rights settlements have occurred in the U.S. since 1992.

The agreement, which clarifies the water supply situation in the Prescott-Chino Valley area, allows the tribe to divert up to half of Granite Creek, drill groundwater wells, and use or sell effluent generated on the reservation. In exchange, the tribe relinquishes its water claims, which amounted to most of the water in the area.

Prospects for future negotiated settlements of tribal water claims appear bleak. Proposed cuts in U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs budget of up to one-third likely would affect federal participation in settlement negotiations. In addition, two aborted state-federal water accords in Arizona have cast a pall over prospects for settling Arizona tribes' water claims. The sudden collapse of the state's Central Arizona Project repayment compact has been blamed in part on tribal water issues (see cover story).

The last-minute collapse of another water agreement between Arizona and the Department of Interior last March due to tribal water settlement issues further complicates the situation. Kingman received a Colorado River allocation in 1968, at a time when it was the only incorporated place in Mohave County, despite the apparent impracticality of transporting the water to the city. In the interim, Lake Havasu City and Bullhead City grew tremendously, nearly exhausting their water supplies. Arizona's legislature passed a law creating the Mohave Valley Water Authority, allowing Kingman's allocation to be used by Lake Havasu and Bullhead in exchange for funds to develop groundwater supplies for Kingman. The agreement was halted by an Interior Department official who reasoned that if Kingman failed to use its allocation by December 31, it would revert to Interior and could be used to settle tribal claims.

PB Pipe Suit Heads to Alabama

A class-action lawsuit seeking up to $7 billion in damages for owners of 6 million low-cost houses containing polybutylene plumbing is gearing up in Greene County, Alabama. Poverty-plagued rural Alabama is becoming a popular place for plaintiff attorneys shopping for jurors willing to hang big settlements on large corporations. Defendants include Shell Oil and Hoechst Celanese, makers of PB pipes that have proven leak-prone in some installations (see Nov-Dec AWR, p. 1).