After Thursday’s deal, developers seemed to be on board as well.
The proposal was "a very creative endeavor," Suzanne Ticknor, a senior attorney for the Central Arizona Project, said in summarizing it for the board during its monthly meeting on Thursday.
After several hours of discussion on the drought proposal, the board voted unanimously on a motion to support the key provisions of the November 29 plan, while "recognizing the need for additional discussions to address remaining issues."
The board put forward a bare-bones proposal during a special meeting in mid-November and authorized $60 million in funding to go toward a Drought Contingency Plan.
That deal, the final passage of which is contingent upon the signing of a Drought Contingency Plan, helped alleviate some of developers’ concerns about access to water for future economic development, should a shortage be declared.
"We now have a confirmed source of water to meet the needs of the development community for the next 25 years," Governor Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community said during Thursday’s meeting.
"I am now authorized to sign the CAGRD deal as soon as the Arizona Legislature approves Governor Ducey’s DCP program."
Like Buschatzke, Lewis hinted at the fragility of this proposal as stakeholders continue to sort out details.
"This plan is a very delicate compromise," – Governor Stephen Roe Lewis, Gila River Indian Community He said he had "concerns" about another major component of the proposal, which was that, in lieu of using Colorado River water, agricultural districts would develop infrastructure to access groundwater.
Buschatzke, the ADWR director, who has the legal authority to sign the drought contingency plan, responded vaguely, if positively.