REFERENCE TITLE: Central Arizona Project; debt forgiveness

State of Arizona

House of Representatives

Fifty-fifth Legislature

Second Regular Session

2022

HM 2002

Introduced by

Representative Burges

A Memorial

urging the United States Congress to forgive the outstanding debt owed for the construction of the central Arizona project.

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

To the Congress of the United States of America:

Your memorialist respectfully represents:

Whereas, the Central Arizona Project (CAP) is a 336-mile system that brings Colorado River water to central and southern Arizona. It is this state's single largest renewable water supply and serves 80% of Arizona's population; and

Whereas, in 1971, the Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CAWCD) was created to provide Arizona a means to repay the federal government for the reimbursable costs of the construction of CAP and to manage and operate the physical system.  The master repayment agreement requires CAWCD to make annual payments to the federal government over a 50-year period; and

Whereas, the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) was chartered by an act of the United States Congress and President Lyndon B. Johnson as a coal-fired electric generating station in northern Arizona on land leased from the Navajo Nation; and

Whereas, the NGS was built to provide power to the CAP pumps and was the only coal-fired electric generating station in the nation of which the United States government was a financial partner or owner; and

Whereas, the total cost to build CAP was over $4 billion, $350 million of which was spent on the NGS; and

Whereas, power from the NGS that was not needed for CAP pumping was sold to help repay the costs of constructing CAP; and

Whereas, the NGS ceased operations in December 2019 and is being decommissioned; and

Whereas, the total obligation to the federal government was originally set at over $1.6 billion, of which CAP pays approximately $55 million each year; and

Whereas, by the end of 2022, the balance is project to be $938 million and by the end of 2023, the balance is projected to be $897 million.  This represents the total CAWCD debt to the federal government; and

Whereas, before the closure of NGS in 2019, CAWCD used revenues from NGS to help pay its debt to the federal government. Between 2012 and 2017, net revenues from the NGS surplus that were used to pay down the debt were between $11 million and $24 million.

Wherefore your memorialist, the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona, prays:

1. That the federal government forgive the debt that is still owed for reimbursable construction costs of the Central Arizona Project.

2. That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona transmit copies of this Memorial to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and each Member of Congress from the State of Arizona.