AZ Governor Looks Ahead Toward Desalination Plant

Photo credit: Silvia Fang on Unsplash

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s announcement this week that he would work with the legislature to provide $1 billion to “secure Arizona’s water future for the next 100 years” focused entirely on a new desalination plant in Mexico.

But a funding plan for the plant that was a key part of Ducey’s final state of the state address isn’t on the table right now. In fact there’s no clear plan for when such a plant might come to be.

“What we’re looking at is an investment in a structure that could leverage, in the long-term, big augmentation projects like a desal plant,” said Katie Ratlief, one of Ducey’s senior advisors. “There are shorter, quicker wins. And so really, the vision is diversifying the state’s water portfolio by a massive investment … that has the capacity to do big, long-term projects and smaller but significant short-term projects.”

This all comes as Colorado River deliveries have diminished due to long-term drought in the West. Read the full AP story here.