Telephonic Procedural Conference - W-03528A-25-0056, et al. - Picacho Water Company

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Arizona Corporation Commission 13 min 8 agenda items transcribed 3 days ago official recording ↗

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What is the purpose of this procedural conference and who are the parties involved?

Sarah Harping 0:00

Okay, excellent then let's go on the record. Good morning. I'm administrative law judge Sarah harping and I've been assigned to preside over this matter. This procedural conference is being held for the following dockets involving water companies, rate and financing applications. and picacho sewer companies rate and financing applications docket number w zero three five two eight a twenty five zero zero five six and w zero three five two eight a twenty five zero zero nine six and docket number SW03709A250057 and SW03709A250097. And I will now take the appearances of the parties formally. Because this proceeding is telephonic, please remember to state your name when you speak and to make sure you don't speak until you're certain the person

Sarah Harping 1:01

before you has finished or I call on you. So first, for Picacho Water Company and Picacho Sewer Company.

Gage Shapiro 1:10

Gage Shapiro on behalf of the applicants, Picacho Water and Picacho Sewer. Thank you.

Sarah Harping 1:16

Thank you. And for Mr. McBeth and Mr. Salmon.

Court Ridge 1:23

Good morning, Your Honor. Court Ridge with the Rose Law Group on behalf of the interveners, Mr. Salmon and Mr. McBeth.

Sarah Harping 1:30

Great. Thank you. And for the Utilities Division.

Bridget Humphrey 1:35

Good morning, Your Honor.

How does Picacho Water explain the status of the storage‑tank installation and permitting delays?

Bridget Humphrey 1:36

Bridget Humphrey and Rob Ridenour on behalf of staff.

Sarah Harping 1:39

Thank you. So, this procedural conference was called at the request of Picacho and was scheduled to allow Picacho to provide an update on the status of the storage tank that staff agreed to have included in post-test year plant. So, Mr. Shapiro, please explain what's going on.

Gage Shapiro 2:02

Thank you. This is Mr. Shapiro. The fittings are in. But they cannot be installed until the city of Eloy is finished with its issuance of the building permits. And then, of course, once they're in, then ADQ has to do its process of providing the approval. To put it real simply, if the commission were to take up this matter on the next open meeting, then we would need to file schedules with staff promptly that did not include the storage tank. If the commission apparently will take this matter up at the March open meeting, then we probably need to set a date in February, which I think would probably be about February 15th or 16th to follow those same schedules. And because we simply looked at the calendar and recognize where we're at, again, no intent to try to urge you or anything, simply understand

Gage Shapiro 3:03

that there's a change if that's not ready, and we wanted to be in a position to make sure that we facilitated that change if needed, and that was the reason for the request for the call.

Sarah Harping 3:14

Okay. I'm not entirely sure. I understood what you said about the City of Eloy needing to give it building permits, and ADEQ then would have to go through its process to issue an AOC, right? Correct. okay what i didn't understand was what you said about the february versus march open meeting because it sounded to me like you said that either of those open meetings would result in the storage tank having to come out of post-test your plant pursuant to your agreement with staff is that what you're saying

Gage Shapiro 3:52

um if If we if the AOC is not issued by, you know, I guess let me say it this way, Your Honor. We assume, obviously, that an order needs to come out roughly 10 days before an open meeting. What we want to do is make sure that if when that clock starts, the tank isn't ready, that we have the rates that don't include the storage tank in hearings hands. So they don't have to call us. They were ready to issue an order once with the rates. So at this point, I can't say that by roughly February 17th, which is I think 10 days before the March open meeting, that we'll have the AOC. So we're in a position where we're obviously waiting for folks to do their job and they can't tell us when that will be complete.

Why is the February versus March open‑meeting timeline critical for the rate filing?

Gage Shapiro 4:48

So I just want to make sure that Your Honor is in a position when she's ready to do her job that she has what she needs to issue a RU and that we don't have to then convene a procedural conference and then scramble to get you the schedules, et cetera, potentially lose a date. So we're really just trying to facilitate that procedural process so