Log in

Drought Contingency Plan deadline draws near

Posted 1/15/19

Water managers in Arizona have 15 days left to complete a Drought Contingency Plan (DCP) designed to preserve the water resources of the Colorado River, or the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Department …

You must be a member to read this story.

Join our family of readers for as little as $5 per month and support local, unbiased journalism.


Already have an account? Log in to continue.

Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here

Otherwise, follow the link below to join.

To Our Valued Readers –

Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.

For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.

Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.

Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.

Sincerely,
Charlene Bisson, Publisher, Independent Newsmedia

Please log in to continue

Log in
I am anchor

Drought Contingency Plan deadline draws near

Posted

Water managers in Arizona have 15 days left to complete a Drought Contingency Plan (DCP) designed to preserve the water resources of the Colorado River, or the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Department of Interior) may step in to complete a plan.

The Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) and the Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CAWCD) are the management entities working on the DCP. In December Governor Doug Ducey told the Colorado River Water Users Conference that Arizona was very close to a solution. The plan will need approval by the Arizona Legislature.

At the same conference Federal Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Bruman told Arizona and California they had until Jan. 31 to complete their drought contingency plans or the federal government would step in. She said it was imperative that steps be taken to prevent reservoirs, in particular Lake Mead, from falling to critically low levels.

Arizona, California and Nevada make up the Colorado River Lower Basin states. Nevada has completed its DCP. The Upper Basin states, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming have completed agreements.

Former ADWR employee Douglas Dunham is now water resources manager for EPCOR Water, the private water company that supplies the community of Fountain Hills. Dunham is also a Fountain Hills resident.

Dunham said the objective of a drought contingency plan is to minimize the risk of a widespread impact due to a water shortage.

“Everyone takes limits sooner to avoid larger cuts down the road,” Dunham said.

The goal is to keep water in Lake Mead so it does not drop to the critical levels. The current level is at elevation 1,079 feet. The lake’s capacity is at 1,220 feet which was reached a few years after the dam was completed in 1936.

The people who will feel the most impact from the conservation efforts are farmers in Pinal County, according to Dunham.

Background

Water management practices have been a key to survival in the desert dating back to the Hohokam people, whose efforts to irrigate their own farm lands outlined the infrastructure for the development of Phoenix in the Salt River basin.

As Arizona grew from a territory into a state in the early 20th century, the Colorado River was eyed as a source of water for the state. The original Colorado River Compact was agreed to by the seven basin states in 1922, about a decade before construction started on the Hoover (Boulder) Dam project which formed Lake Mead.

Around mid-century as Phoenix and Tucson began growing toward metro status, political leaders like U.S. Senator Carl Hayden and U.S. Representative John Rhodes began to push the idea of an aqueduct or canal to move water from the Colorado River into central Arizona to serve the cities as well as agriculture in Pinal County. Cotton and citrus are important components of the state’s economic five Cs. The Colorado River Basin Project Act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1968. This was the birth of the Central Arizona Project (CAP) as well as the CAWCD formed in 1971.

The agriculture activity in the state was having a severe impact on ground water supplies causing fissures and sinkholes surrounding the farming areas.

As the CAP canal crawled across the state from the river, lawmakers were looking at groundwater issues as cities grew along with farming operations.

In 1980 Arizona lawmakers passed the Groundwater Management Act. This was designed primarily to stop the drain on ground water and allow farmers and cities to tap into the CAP supplies as they became available. The act also requires new subdivision developments to demonstrate a guaranteed 100-year supply of water before building permits are issued.

The groundwater act, along with the CAP supply of water and the 1996 establishment of the Arizona Water Banking Authority (AWBA) was effective in restoring groundwater supplies.

The AWBA used surplus CAP water allotments along with other sources to recharge groundwater tables.

Circling back

The groundwater act called for agriculture users to return to using groundwater sources by 2030, which circles back to the current shortage situation.

The DCP being completed by the water managers to save Lake Mead is calling for farmers to revert back to groundwater use 10 years earlier than the groundwater act calls for.

According to Dunham, this will require providing the resources for agriculture to make the transition back to groundwater including updated technology for pumping and distribution equipment to maximize conservation practices.

What does all of this mean to the household water user living in Fountain Hills? There will probably be very little impact, according to Dunham. There is unused local CAP allocation that is stored with the banking authority and there are wells to provide groundwater as a backup supply for the town.

The cost of CAP water is expected to increase as a result of any DCP measures, but there are so many users in the CAP system that any increases will be spread out and would likely be very small, Dunham said.