They addressed nearly all elements on a list of legislation that drought negotiation leaders said early in January would be necessary for Arizona to implement its plan.
That list included limited changes to how water users receive credit for storing water underground.
It also called for funding to build pumps and other infrastructure to draw groundwater in Pinal County.
The package of drafts was sent Wednesday afternoon to members of the steering committee, a group of 40 or so stakeholders who, over many months, bargained and negotiated to develop Arizona’s plan.
Matt Specht, a spokesperson for the House Republican caucus, confirmed Wednesday that House leadership had received copies of the draft package, but he could not say whether all legislators had.
Drought negotiators in Arizona, which holds the lowest-priority rights to this water, fear that federally imposed cuts would be far worse than those spelled out in the Drought Contingency Plan.
Lawmakers must authorize the director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources to sign a multistate plan on behalf of Arizona, and they must also approve of Arizona’s internal plan, which spells out how its own cities, tribes, industries, and farmers will share cuts to their supply of Colorado River water.
Part of the draft package sent out Wednesday appropriated $30 million, which Governor Doug Ducey promised in November, from the state general fund to create a fund for system conservation.
This unusually poetic acronym stands for "Water that cannot reasonably Be Used Directly," and it is a statutory definition that dictates how water users can receive or exchange credits for storing water underground.
Irrigation districts have previously said they would contribute $5 million, as has the Central Arizona Water Conservation District.

PHOENIX — House Speaker Rusty Bowers warned Tuesday he won’t be pressured by Gov.
Doug Ducey into approving a drought contingency plan, which lawmakers have yet to see, by a Jan. 31 deadline.
Bowers told Capitol Media Services that the governor made a big show of announcing on Monday and again Tuesday the number of days that remain ahead of the deadline set by Brenda Burman, Reclamation Bureau commissioner, for Arizona to adopt its plan for dealing with the shortage of Lake Mead water.
Bottom line, Bowers said, is if he does not get actual language of the agreement by Wednesday, “I’m adding a day.” And if there’s no language on Thursday, add another day to that.
“I have an obligation, as the speaker of the House, to my membership and to our constituents,” the Mesa Republican said.
“We are not going to act without knowing what we do.” It’s not just Bowers who is balking.
Senate Minority Leader David Bradley, a Tucson Democrat, made it clear lawmakers won’t be stampeded into adopting something just to meet the Jan. 31 deadline.
“The Jan. 31st deadline is crystal clear,” he said.
Rep. David Cook, R-Globe, said the Pinal County farmers he represents have no problem with reaching a deal, even with a sharp cut in Colorado River water deliveries and being forced to let 30 percent to 40 percent of their land go fallow.
“We need the assurances of the agricultural community that we’re just not entering into an agreement that can be changed or altered later on and the water not delivered,” he said Tuesday.

to Arizona and California: ‘We are quickly running out of time.’
Arizona and California have blown this week’s federal deadline to approve their strategies, jeopardizing progress for Colorado and the four others.
Water bosses from Arizona and California said publicly at a water conference here Wednesday that they’re close to striking deals, but privately admitted that negotiations have been stalling.
And Lake Powell serves the same purpose for the Upper Basin states of Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah, which must deliver a certain amount of water to the Lower Basin each year under the terms of a 1922 interstate compact known as the Law of the River.
The deal they reached in November sets up a “demand management” program that, among other things, is designed to prod farmers and ranchers – who consume nearly 90 percent of the state’s river water – to cut their use in exchange for money at times of shortage.
The pickle The plan can’t be implemented without the three Lower Basin states having first approved their own statewide water shortage approaches and also signed off on a collective Lower Basin strategy.
Ted Cooke, CAP’s general manager, said negotiations are taking so long “not because we’re slow, but because it’s difficult.” Under Burman’s deadline, Arizona not only needs to strike a deal with Pinal County farmers, but also persuade its legislature to approve the shortage plan by the end of January.
Although the Interior Department traditionally has let states set their own policies, it could after January swoop in and dictate which water users in Arizona and California would take the hit in case of a water shortage.
Burman told reporters Thursday that the “incredible history of (states) coming together” on Colorado River policy makes her confident there will be unity moving forward.
Though nobody questions Burman’s own commitment to easing the effects of climate change on already parched western water users, they wonder if she would have the support she’d need to impose cutbacks, if necessary, on states or water agencies unwilling to make the tough choices managing their shares of river water.

LAS VEGAS — With drought entering a second decade and reservoirs continuing to shrink, seven Southwestern U.S. states that depend on the overtaxed Colorado River for crop irrigation and drinking water had been expected to ink a crucial share-the-pain contingency plan by the end of 2018.
Federal water managers wanted a deal to sign at the annual Colorado River Water Users Association conference beginning Wednesday in Las Vegas, and threatened earlier this year to impose unspecified measures from Washington if a voluntary drought contingency plan wasn’t reached.
“Reclamation remains cautiously optimistic that the parties will find a path forward,” the bureau said in a statement on Friday, “because finding a consensus deal recognizing the risks of continuing drought and the benefits of a drought contingency plan is in each state’s best interest.” Colorado River water supports about 40 million people and millions of acres of farmland in the U.S. and Mexico.
After 19 years of drought and increasing demand, federal water managers project a 52 percent chance that the river’s biggest reservoir, Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam, will fall low enough to trigger cutbacks under agreements governing the system.
Lake Powell upstream from of the Grand Canyon is currently at 43 percent capacity; Lake Mead, downstream, is at 38 percent.
The Lower Basin states of California, Arizona and Nevada aim to keep Lake Mead above a shortage declaration trigger point by using less water than they’re legally entitled to.
If Lake Mead falls below that level, Arizona will face a 9 percent reduction in water supply, Nevada a 3 percent cut and California up to 8 percent.
Water officials in most states — from the Southern Nevada Water Authority in Las Vegas to the Colorado River Water Conservation District in Glenwood Springs, Colorado — have signed off on plans in recent weeks.
In Arizona, the board governing the Central Arizona Project irrigation system approved the Lower Basin plan on Thursday.
According to a board briefing, the Bureau of Reclamation, seven basin states and water contractors will begin negotiating again beginning no later than 2020.

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.

Arizona water officials came to an agreement on a plan that deals with water shortages as the Colorado River water supply continues to decline.
The Drought Contingency Plan had already been signed off on by Nevada and California, but had stalled in Arizona as officials struggled to deal with how to take the most cutbacks should Lake Mead hit shortage levels.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has said a shortage is all but inevitable and could hit as soon as next year.
Arizona’s plan lays out $100 million – including $30 million in state tax revenue – that would pay to have water previously stored underground pumped out to meet some of the needs of farmers and others who would otherwise find themselves going without.
It also involves paying some cash to tribes and others to buy water rights.
The Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources says the plan primarily deals with finding ways to leave more water in Lake Mead.
The plan still requires approval by lawmakers.

The Central Arizona Project holds its monthly board meeting at its headquarters in north Phoenix, beginning at 8:30 a.m. “The board of CAP is still concerned about the issue of signature,” Terry Goddard, a board member, said on Wednesday.
The Central Arizona Project operates a 336-mile canal that transports water from the Colorado River to Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal Counties, and it has an elected, 15-member board representing those central Arizona counties.
“We still need to have our place at the table,” Goddard said.
The board is authorized to levy one property tax on the three counties of up to 10 cents per $100 of assessed value, and another property tax of up to 4 cents per $100.
In the most recent public clash over this issue, in mid-November, the Department of Water Resources argued that only the department has the legal authority to represent the entire state of Arizona.
“The state’s authority is not up for sale,” Nicole Klobas, an attorney with the Arizona Department of Water Resources At the latest DCP Steering Committee meeting, which took place on November 29, board member Karen Cesare presented a “Friendly Amendment” that drew criticism from State Senator Lisa Otondo and ADWR Director and Steering Committee co-chair Tom Buschatzke.
Both of them penned letters to DCP Steering Committee members on Monday, pointedly criticizing an offer by the Central Arizona Project in the amendment to pay for water from the Colorado River Indian Tribes.
Then, last Friday — three days before Otondo and Buschatzke sent their letters — Margaret Vick, special counsel for water resources to the Colorado River Indian Tribes, wrote an email to Ted Cooke, general manager of the Central Arizona Project and co-chair of the Steering Committee.
Since the Friendly Amendment was presented the day before, she wrote, some stakeholders were “concerned” that the Colorado River Indian Tribes’ water would not remain in Lake Mead.
The following day, after Otondo’s and Buschatzke’s letters had been made public, Cooke wrote an email to Buschatzke, copying the entire CAP board and steering committee.

While Arizona hasn’t said it would meet that deadline, a committee meeting on the issue announced Thursday it is making progress.
There’s lots of work to do on detail.” Arizona — long seen as the holdout among the river’s lower basin states — has been at a stalemate as it wrestled with how to compensate water users that are expected to face the deepest cuts when Lake Mead falls to a certain level or find water to replace those cuts.
Mexico also has agreed to cutbacks.
The proposal would help lessen the blow for Pinal County farmers, cities and tribes.
The Gila River Indian Community, which is entitled to a fourth of the Colorado River water that flows through the Central Arizona Project canals, said it won’t support any plan that undermines a water settlement it reached with the federal government in 2004.
The cost to fund the proposal is expected to top $100 million.
Funding an issue Gov.
Other drought proposals have been criticized for wanting to take water stored from Lake Mead to soften the blow of losing water around the state.
Funding also is available from the federal government.
Cooke and Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, said the committee will meet until members reach consensus.

Doug Ducey will ask for significant state dollars — $30 million — in his upcoming budget proposal to help make the Drought Contingency Plan a reality.
The news came as the heads of two big water agencies, the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) and the Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CAWCD), presented a plan to water stakeholders in hopes of pushing the group closer to a resolution.
Buschatzke also acknowledged several items still need to be worked out.
The plan builds on an earlier, three-year proposal from the CAWCD board put forward in case something longer could not garner support.
The plan now on the table provides specific amounts of water and money to “mitigate” Pinal County farmers, cities, and Native American tribes for water they will lose under the DCP, although the mitigation volumes will decrease as the plan goes on.
But Thursday’s framework creates a “Lake Mead Offset” component to make up for those drawdowns.
$30 million state appropriation proposed in Gov.
$20 million to $30 million in federal money already required under existing programs.
An unspecified amount of money, from both federal coffers and Central Arizona irrigation districts, for a groundwater infrastructure program for Pinal County farmers.
“I think this is the hallmark of the way we’ve done business in the past in Arizona water.” But Rob Anderson, with the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona, said, “we think that economic development is an important message and that having nothing in there for developer mitigation is an issue.” He noted a separate but related water agreement between CAWCD’s groundwater replenishment arm and the Gila River Indian Community appears stalled without approval from the Gila River council.

In recent years, cities, municipalities, tribes, and industries have been upping their orders from the Central Arizona Project, which is responsible for transporting water through 336 miles of pipelines and canals from Lake Mead on the Colorado River to Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal counties.
Arizona cities are using the larger orders to stockpile water ahead of potential future cuts, which are being negotiated as part of Arizona’s Drought Contingency Plan (DCP).
In 2016, CAP delivered about 511,000 acre-feet of water, for example.
The year before, it delivered about 600 acre-feet more than ordered.
For the third year in a row, Phoenix has ordered its full allocation of Colorado River water — 186,557 acre-feet per year, according to Campbell.
The Colorado River is not Phoenix’s sole supply of water.
Water banking, as the process is known, can be done by actively injecting water through wells and into aquifers underground.
Recently, the city has inked deals with the city of Tucson and the Salt River Project to store water in facilities owned by those entities.
In late September, SRP and Phoenix announced a deal that would allow Phoenix to store additional unused Colorado River water in the Granite Reef Underground Storage Project, which sits on Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community land.
That includes being able to store it for the future.” Patrick Dent, water control manager for the Central Arizona Project, said that the city of Tucson was responsible for the single largest change in the additional 23,500 acre-feet of water that cities and industries ordered in 2019 from CAP.