Attorney General Kris Mayes calls for the feds to step in amid repeated power failures at the San Carlos Irrigation Project (SCIP), which supplies electricity to approximately 13,000 customers. A letter sent by Mayes to key officials at the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs—Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland, BIA Director Darryl LaCounte, and BIA Regional Director Jessie Durham—demanded immediate action to address what is being labeled serious service reliability problems.
In the letter, details of which were shared on the official website of the Arizona Attorney General, the August 13, 2024 disruption was highlighted as a particularly glaring example of the ongoing issues that Mayes insists could put lives at risk, particularly during times of extreme summer heat. “Reliable electricity is critical, not just for comfort but for the health and safety of SCIP’s customers during extreme summer heat,” Mayes stated, expressing concerns over the potentially deadly risks posed by such outages.
Mayes didn't stop at laying out the problem; the Attorney General provided a list of immediate solutions for the federal authorities to consider. These include setting up funding for cooling centers and ice giveaways, bill credits to help prevent service disconnections for affected customers, and accelerating funding to improve the reliability of the electric service. The Attorney General has given the BIA a two-week deadline to respond with a plan of action to mitigate the power interruptions that seem to plague the San Carlos Irrigation Project.
The letter also serves as a critique of SCIP’s operational management, at a time when SCIP's responsibilities might be transferred to another electric utility. This adds a layer of complexity to SCIP's already fraught situation with frequent power outages and high electricity bills being deemed unacceptable by the Attorney General. Highlighting the urgency, Mayes requested rapid intervention with the hope of bringing some relief to the SCIP customers facing these ongoing issues.
.jpg){kind=link}