MOHAVE COUNTY – State Attorney General Kris Mayes spent the weekend visiting constituents in northwest Arizona. Mayes said she enjoys getting out of the city to network with the people.
“I have had a love affair with rural Arizona since I was a little girl. I was born and raised in Yavapai County,” Mayes said. She noted the oddity of her political reality in serving the Arizona Corporation Commission long ago as a Republican while currently working as Attorney General as a Democrat.
Mayes led a veteran-focused town hall in Kingman Saturday night to warn of the growing industry of fraudulent actors trying to take advantage of them to swindle them of their benefits. She also met with leaders of the Hualapai Nation regarding their ongoing legal battle to protect their sacred spring from threat of lithium mining.
Secretary of State Adrian Fontes accompanied Mayes for portions of her visit, including a stop at the Bullhead Belle in Bullhead City.
Mayes said her office is trying to help Mohave County and the City of Kingman gain reinstatement of the Hualapai Valley Ground Water Basin protection Irrigation Non Attainment (INA) mechanism that was struck down by a Maricopa County Superior Court judge.
“We actually just filed an amicus brief in support of the INA. We don’t think it should be eliminated and we’re very worried about the precedent that that would set,” Mayes said. “I will use every tool available to me, including potentially Nuisance Law as I did in La Paz County against the Saudis, to protect water supplies in Kingman.”
Mayes noted some Kingman constituents have indicated support for an Active Management Area rather than an INA over the Hualapai Valley Ground Water Basin.
Mayes also addressed growing urgency in deciding how the seven Colorado River basin states will share allocation reduction as the resource dwindles. She believes litigation is likely, if not inevitable.
“We are definitely going to have to fight like hell and litigate like hell against Colorado and the upper basin states if they try to destroy our future as a state,” she said. “I think we’re looking at litigation this summer … Arizona has already hired high-powered outside counsel to help us. My team stands ready to help fight and federal court and this may ultimately end up at the Supreme Court.”
Mayes expressed great concern that the river level behind Hoover Dam is closing in on “dead pool status,” a stage where there is insufficient water to generate power.
“That is very cheap power coming off of Hoover and coming out of the dam,” she said. “If we are to lose that it would be devastating.”
