PHOENIX — The Gila River Indian Community is threatening to blow up the drought contingency plan because of efforts it says will undermine its claim to water rights.
House Speaker Rusty Bowers is proposing changes to state laws in a way he said will protect the rights of farmers in the Safford Valley who have been "scratching it out” to water from the Gila River.
"If this bill were to be considered and enacted into law the community will withdraw its prior approval (of the drought contingency plan) and, more importantly, its water.”
” Pongrace, however, said the community doesn’t see it that way.
He said on one hand the state is seeking the tribe’s cooperation and its water for the drought contingency plan.
"You cannot take actions like this without consequences,” he said of the Bower legislation.
"There is no way the drought contingency plan can be done without the consent of the Gila River Indian Community,” Pongrace said, what with the amount of water needed to replace what the state can no longer withdraw from the Colorado River.
"We’ll go looking for water somewhere else” if that becomes necessary, he said.
And he said there’s no way the tribe could use all that water anyway.
Bowers said he doesn’t want the farmers to lose their rights in the interim simply because they are unable to take the water for some period.

s"Land subsidence is a destructive phenomenon," said Siavash Arabi, a measurement expert at Iran’s cartography department.
All those people have put incredible pressure on water resources on a semi-arid plateau in a country that saw only 171 millimeters (6.7 inches) of rain last year.
Over-reliance on ground aquifers has seen increasingly salty water pumped from below ground.
"Gradually, the pressure from above causes the soil particles to stick together and this leads to sinking of the ground and formation of cracks."
German scientists estimate that land under the airport is sinking by 5 centimeters (1.9 inches) a year.
"Rates (for subsidence) are very high and in many instances it’s happening in densely populated areas," said Shafiee.
Already, the drought and water crisis has fed into the sporadic unrest Iran has faced over the last year.
Iranian officials shrugged off the offer.
But solutions to the water crisis will be difficult to find.
Iranian authorities have begun to crack down on illegal water wells.

But the drought had less obvious effects on climate and the environment, too: Low river flows drastically hampered the amount of carbon-free electricity that could be produced by the thousands of hydroelectric power plants dotted along rivers and reservoirs across the West.
They figured out that an extra 100 megatons of carbon ended up in the atmosphere because utilities had to use carbon-emitting power sources instead of hydroelectric power during drought, added up over the 15 years they studied.
In a normal year, a little more than 20 percent of the electricity produced across the western U.S. comes from hydroelectric plants.
If energy utilities can’t get the power they need from hydroelectric sources, they have to fill that gap with something else.
“Under drought conditions, the priority is to use water for people and cities, and managers might prefer to burn gas for energy,” he says.
In California, for instance, the extra carbon dioxide emitted because of the drought added up to more than seven percent of its total carbon emissions.
Many of the western states have set out plans for how to aggressively reduce their emissions over the next few decades.
Future megadrought?
And forecasts for the future predict that dry places are likely to get even drier, stressing out the hydroelectric system even further.
It’s way beyond what you may think.” But Diffenbaugh points out that with this study and a slew of others from the past few years, we’ve learned more and more about when and why carbon-free energy sources struggle.

PHOENIX — The Gila River Indian Community is threatening to blow up the drought contingency plan because of efforts it says will undermine its claim to water rights.
House Speaker Rusty Bowers is proposing changes to state laws in a way he said will protect the rights of farmers in the Safford Valley who have been "scratching it out” to water from the Gila River.
"If this bill were to be considered and enacted into law the community will withdraw its prior approval (of the drought contingency plan) and, more importantly, its water.”
” Pongrace, however, said the community doesn’t see it that way.
He said on one hand the state is seeking the tribe’s cooperation and its water for the drought contingency plan.
"You cannot take actions like this without consequences,” he said of the Bower legislation.
"There is no way the drought contingency plan can be done without the consent of the Gila River Indian Community,” Pongrace said, what with the amount of water needed to replace what the state can no longer withdraw from the Colorado River.
"We’ll go looking for water somewhere else” if that becomes necessary, he said.
And he said there’s no way the tribe could use all that water anyway.
Bowers said he doesn’t want the farmers to lose their rights in the interim simply because they are unable to take the water for some period.

As eastern Australia’s drought gets drier, The Greens want level 1 water restrictions imposed to slow the fall of Sydney’s dam levels which are expected to hit 60 per cent this week.
A 60pc level the trigger point for switching on the Sydney Desalination Plant.
With the desal plant still eight months away from being fully operational, it made sense for water restrictions to start now.
“Water restrictions are the cheapest and most effective way to improve efficiency and improve water security for Greater Sydney,” he said.
“Across the state we are seeing more and more examples of the severe effects of drought and climate change, yet this government continues to turn a blind eye to the issue of a changing climate and the pressures that puts on water supply.
“Introducing water restrictions while investing in water efficiency and recycling, storm-water management and reducing leaks will save money in the long term and improve water security.
“Under the Liberal/National Government we have seen leakage rates explode, with the equivalent of 52 Olympic pools being lost every day to leakage across the Sydney Water network.
“The Government needs to get real about water.” He said the NSW Government should be investing the $690 million earmarked for the Warragamba Dam wall raising proposal into improving water efficiency.
The story Drought hits Sydney – Greens demand water restrictions first appeared on Farm Online.
Sponsored

You can’t irrigate the lands because the dams have no water" "All my tractors are standing in the garage.
You can’t irrigate the lands because the dams have no water," Potgieter said.
One year of drought, okay, or even two.
Added to the drought was the blow in March last year when the EU, South Africa’s largest importer of ostrich meat, banned ostrich meat imports from here after an EU audit found that the national government testing laboratories were not up to standard.
Kleyn said the local industry did not use growth hormones or other chemicals banned by the EU.
Getting back into the EU "It was not an industry problem, it was the national laboratory in South Africa that failed the audit.
Since then the ostrich industry, working with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, has sent ostrich blood samples for chemical testing to a laboratory in the UK and all have been negative.
A state of crisis Carl Opperman, CEO of Agri Western Cape, said the Gouritz River catchment area, which included the Little Karoo, was in a state of crisis.
While the Little Karoo irrigation dams are very low or empty, Oudtshoorn Municipality spokesperson Ntobeko Mangqwengqwe said the town’s Raubenheimer supply dams, which had dropped to 31% last year, summer rains had filled it to 54% by the end of December.
Herman Pieters, spokesperson for Garden Route District Municipality, said Calitzdorp’s main supply dam had sunk to 11% of storage capacity, leaving the town with about five months of water.

AN ONGOING heatwave is fuelling a boilover in the Murray Darling Basin’s irrigation markets.
In the Murrumbidgee prices surged from $520 to $700 a megalitre, after a week of scorching temperatures exceeding 40C.
“Last Wednesday prices were sitting at $430/ML, which irrigators didn’t like, but they dealt with,” Mr Paul Smith said.
“They’re not buying water for any other reason,” Mr McCloskey said.
“A parcel of 100ML (Murrumbidgee water) sold for $700 on Monday.” H2OX brokers attributed part of the surge to last week’s announcement that there would be no further increases in NSW seasonal allocations, with many of the state’s valleys facing significant deficits.
While Victorian Murray irrigators have gained 100 per cent of their allocations and those on the Goulburn 94 per cent, NSW Murray general security users have received nothing.
Demand from almond growers is expected to remain strong, with Mr Smith saying forward contracted water was being offered for next season at $600-$700/ML on the Murray.
As previously reported in The Weekly Times the MD Basin’s largest almond and olive operations are running high-risk strategies, shunning owning water entitlements and instead opting to buy or lease other irrigators’ water each season in the hope prices stay low.
Meanwhile Japanese climate scientists have revised their forecasts for southeast Australia returning to normal conditions this winter, with conditions remaining slightly drier than average until spring.
H2OX broker Lex Batters said the long-term outlooks were looking grim, combined with the heatwave and NSW shortages, all pushing some larger players into buying carryover before the situation got worse.

A convoy of almost 50 trucks is on its way to drought stricken Australian farmers delivering much needed hay.
The trucks are packed with 3000 bales of donated hay and fodder from Norseman in Western Australia, driving 2500 kilometres to New South Wales.
Farmers in the region have been devastated by drought, and the dry conditions are expected to continue this year.
The hay run has been organised by ‘Farmers Across Borders’ which is a not for profit group set up by farmers Anne Bell and Sam Starcevich.
Ms Starcevich told ABC News having experienced drought herself as a farmer she wanted to bring fellow primary producers hope and much-needed stock feed.
"If this does something to ease a little bit of pain for someone, then we’ve done what we wanted to achieve," said Ms Starcevich.
Among farmers who have contributed is Ross Stone, who personally pressed thousands of bales of hay and straw for the donation.
He lost his farm to drought almost a decade ago and told the ABC he wanted farmers who were struggling to know that the nation was behind them.
"All of us together as a group decided that Australia Day was a good day just to show that Australians are out there to help other Australians," he said.
"This will just buy those farmers a bit more time, maybe get a smile on their face."

The drought situation around uThukela District Municipality is not getting any better.
Some households that rely on the piped water system have been affected.
As a result, water restrictions will now be intensified in all areas.
New water-shedding schedules have been implemented.
Once a day, for a maximum of six hours, water is pumped to the main reservoirs in the district.
It will happen that in some areas, people receive water supply at least once in two days.
There are areas that are without normal water supply across the district.
Click to receive news links via WhatsApp.
Join us there!
Journalist

Water Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui has warned Kenyans to brace themselves for a biting drought until April.
Mr Chelugui said the government has set aside Sh10 billion to expand water, sanitation and sewerage coverage in in 28 major towns.
It is working with Africa Development Bank.
"Considering that drought and floods are natural phenomena, we are already putting in place measures in liaison with other government agencies and stakeholders to mitigate its effects," he said.
Some 2.1 million people will get water while another 1.3 million will receive sewerage services.
Mr Chelugui was speaking during a water and sanitation county executive committee caucus in Nyahururu, Laikipia County, between January 16 and 18.
He said the national water coverage is 60 percent while basic sanitation stands at 35 percent.
To achieve universal water coverage by 2030, the sector needs to connect 200,000 Kenyans to potable water and 350,000 to sewerage systems yearly.
He said the government has embarked on implementation of projects such as Itare dam in Nakuru, which will provide 100,000 cubic metres of water while Mombasa residents would receive 186,000 cubic metres per day once Mwache dam is completed.
Mr Chelugui said Makueni, Konza city and Nairobi residents will benefit from additional water supplies once the construction of Thwake dam and Northern Collector Tunnel are completed.