Op-E: Vote Zubia and Only Zubia – Your Vote Will Decide Scottsdale’s Water Future

By Linda Milhaven

Raoul Zubia has the facts about our water and understands the importance of moving forward with water investments without delay. We will be safer with Raoul on City Council.

Barry Graham and Michelle Ugenti-Rita, the other two candidates vying for City Council seats, are compromising our water security by denying reality and/or outright lying about our water options.

Graham claims that water concerns are “alarmist”. He says we should not worry about cuts to our Colorado River allocation because “we don’t use our full allotment from the Colorado River.”

Ugenti-Rita aligns with Graham and doubles down to falsely say that recycled water is unproven and unsafe.

Both of them are wrong and dangerous. We need new renewable sources and our recycled water is cleaner than most bottled water.

Even the Associated Press noted, in a recent article about Scottsdale, that claims that recycled water is not safe are “unproven”.

The article also quotes several experts. One asks “Are you really going to play political games with the one thing that makes it possible to live in the desert?”. Another says, “there are politicians scoring a cheap, fast point. I hope over time the facts will bear out.”

We have been embarrassed nationally by Graham and Ugenti-Rita’s ignorance and political shenanigans.

The Facts

Former Councilmember Betty Janik (a retired scientist) put together a video to explain this complex issue.

Here are some of her key points.

Cuts to our Colorado River allocation will eliminate our previous surplus and create a deficit.

It is true that we were not using our entire allocation. We delivered water to our residents and then we recharged the rest into the ground and created a water savings account in the aquifer.

The new cuts will eat up our surplus, and we will need to pump water out of the aquifer to make up the difference. The water in the aquifer is not renewable so it is a stop gap solution, not a viable long-term solution.

Two projects that would have provided viable long-term solutions were taken out of the budget by Graham and his cohorts: The Bartlet Dam Expansion and Advanced Purified Water.

Both of these projects will provide safe renewable water sources into the future.

The Solution

Raoul Zubia will be a Councilmember who will protect us by facing our water challenges head on, relying on the facts and science and making the investments needed to develop renewable sources of water.

Vote for one and one: Raoul Zubia!