(File photo by Joshua Bowling/Cronkite News) PHOENIX – Water managers in Arizona again are trying to strike a deal that would help prepare the state for future cuts to its water supply if Lake Mead drops below specific levels, which could come as early as 2020.
And as Arizona tries again, the six other states in the vast Colorado River Basin – Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California, Wyoming and New Mexico – are watching intently.
In 2017, the United States and Mexico agreed to a new strategy that would lead to increased savings of water by Mexico, but that agreement will only go into effect if Arizona, California and Nevada finalize internal agreements that will allow its agencies to join the drought plan for the Lower Basin.
Doug Ducey held a series of water meetings last year that ended in a stalemate between the Arizona Department of Water Resources and the Central Arizona Project, which pumps Colorado River water to Phoenix and Tucson.
Progress on Arizona’s drought plan had stalled.
“On the one hand, I don’t want to say that the only reason that Tom and I are (embarking on) this initiative is because we’ve been pressured to do so by folks,” Cooke said of the renewed effort to finish the plan.
“On the other hand, I don’t want to say it’s a complete coincidence of timing.” Buschatzke said having Burman kick off a public process will remind people that Arizona has been better off when it avoided lawsuits.
Eyes on Arizona Fights and litigation would only delay a coordinated response to rising temperatures and falling water levels in Lakes Mead and Powell, the largest reservoirs on the Colorado.
“It puts pressure on Denver Water as a municipal utility, taking water out of the Colorado River,” he said, “and it exacerbates historic animosities and relationships between western Colorado and Denver Water.” Lochhead sent a letter to the CAP in April threatening to pull out of a program to conserve water unless the Lower Basin made real progress on its drought plan.
Arizona issues But before it can sign a Lower Basin plan, Arizona needs its own deal.