Arizona a step closer to Colorado River deal
Arizona’s water agencies, cities, farmers and tribes haven’t quite sealed a Colorado River deal. But they’re getting closer.
The outline of a new compromise proposal emerged this week and was presented at a meeting on Thursday. The plan would help Arizona join in a proposed three-state Drought Contingency Plan by spreading the impacts of the water cutbacks, providing “mitigation” water to farmers in central Arizona
while paying compensation to other entities that would contribute water.
The deal, if it’s finalized, will help boost the levels of Lake Mead, which has fallen to near-record lows and is approaching a threshold that would trigger a first-ever declaration of a shortage by the federal government.
The latest proposal has yet to be endorsed by all sides in the negotiations. And not everyone at Thursday’s meeting voiced support for the plan. But many members of a state-convened steering committee said they think the new compromise proposal looks viable and, with some additional tinkering, can serve as the framework for finishing an agreement.
“We are on the cusp. This is a great framework. There’s a lot of good in it. There are some necessary tweaks,” said Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources. “We are going to have to reconvene this group a number of times before we can get a final proposal.”
Buschatzke said although finishing the deal will take a lot more work in the coming weeks, it needs to be done.
“We’re getting close,” he said. “It is very important that we find our way to that conclusion so that we can significantly reduce the risks of Lake Mead falling to levels where the lake is extremely unhealthy.
“This is about our future,” he continued. “This is about being proactive. And this is about finding collaborative solutions. I’m very encouraged by what I heard from all of the discussion here today.”
Ted Cooke, general manager of the agency that manages the Central Arizona Project, agreed that the latest proposal represents major progress in the talks, which have been taking place parallel to a series of meetings since July.
“I do think there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and we’re getting near,” Cooke said. “We need to have some more meetings soon to finish up.”
Helping give a boost to the proposal was an announcement that Gov. Doug Ducey is seeking $30 million in his budget proposal to support the plan. That funding would add to a $60 million pledge by the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, and would help cover payments to entities that would kick in some of their water to make the plan work.
The disagreements in the negotiations have largely centered on how the cutbacks should be spread around, and on how much water should be freed from other parts of the state to help farmers in Pinal County who have the lowest priority and face the biggest cuts.
Paul Orme, a lawyer representing four agricultural irrigation districts that include about 200 farms, said the districts aren’t ready to take a position on the latest proposal, but they preferred an earlier outline floated by the CAP board.
“There still needs to be quite a bit of internal discussion,” Orme said. “I think we are getting very close.”
But he said Pinal County farmers are concerned about how much they would see their water diversions drop under a more severe second-tier shortage. He said their biggest concern is a lack of clarity on funding for wells and other infrastructure to help them pump groundwater instead of Colorado River water.
“We think the plan is very creative and probably meets the needs of many, but it can be improved upon,” Orme said.
Cynthia Campbell, Phoenix’s water resource management adviser, said the proposal seems like a good compromise and a framework that could work to get the deal done.
“I would argue that not meeting everybody’s perfect criteria is the definition of a compromise,” Campbell said. “It needs to have little fixes, but ultimately gets us to a finished product: a DCP that will allow Arizona to take the cuts that we’re going to have to take under the three-state plan in a way that, while not perfect, and difficult for everybody, (is) at least equitable.”
Lake Mead is now just 38 percent full. Under the current rules, if the reservoir’s water level reaches elevation 1,075 feet above sea level at the end of any year, the federal government will declare a shortage and supplies to Arizona and Nevada will be cut back.
Federal officials now project that Lake Mead will likely be below that threshold in 2020, triggering the declaration of a shortage.
The Colorado River has long been overallocated, with the demands of farms and cities exceeding the available water supply, and the strains are being compounded by climate change. Since 2000, the amount of water flowing in the Colorado River has dropped 19 percent below the average of the past century. Scientific research has found that a significant portion of that trend is a result of global warming.
Water managers in Arizona, California and Nevada have been discussing the proposed Drought Contingency Plan in an effort to boost the levels of Lake Mead and prevent it from falling even further.
Talks on the plan have been inching along for the past few years, and federal Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman has urged the states and local agencies to finish up their negotiations.