The Gila River Indian Community has reversed course and said it will offer to conserve a portion of its water allocation over the next three years to preserve levels in Lake Mead. Additionally, California water agencies have also offered to voluntarily reduce their water consumption from the Colorado River starting in 2023.
Speaking at Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s (D-AZ) Water Advisory Council meeting, Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis announced the Tribe is able to offer 250,000 acre-feet of water a year (an acre-foot is 325,851 gallons), totaling 750,000 acre-feet over three years for conservation and to increase water supplies for Arizona municipalities.
In August, the Tribe said it would store its water supplies underground rather than contribute to Lake Mead’s conservation program.
Water levels in Lake Mead continue to be a concern as the lake serves 25 million people and provides hydroelectric power for an estimated 1.3 million households. In August, the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) announced Tier 2a restrictions, cutting 592,000 acre-feet of Arizona’s apportionment from Lake Mead.
The Tribe’s announcement comes after BOR detailed steps for new funding opportunities from the $4 billion investment in drought mitigation in the Inflation Reduction Act. BOR will pay farmers, Tribes and irrigation districts $330 per acre-foot for a one-year agreement, $365 per acre-foot for a two-year agreement and $400 per acre-foot for a three-year commitment. The potential windfall by the Gila River Indian Community could be as much as $300 million.
According to public radio station KUNC, Jason Hauter, a lawyer representing the Gila River Indian Community, said the Tribe was motivated by BOR’s commitment to long-term infrastructure projects and the announcement of a new conservation program by Southern California water agencies to reduce diverting Colorado River water.
California
Water agencies in Southern California sent a letter to federal agencies offering to conserve up to 400,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mead each year, beginning in 2023 and running through 2026.
“In order to enable this water conservation, our agencies will need to utilize funding opportunities provided by the Inflation Reduction Act and other federal programs,” the letter read. “Each of the California agencies involved in developing this package of proposed conserved water supplies will also require your support in developing agreements for funding, potential intra- and interstate coordination, water use accounting, and in obtaining necessary board and agency approvals over the coming weeks and months.”
The Imperial Irrigation District (IID)—the largest irrigation district in the nation, serving nearly half a million acres of farmland in the southeast corner of the state—offered to reduce usage by 250,000 acre-feet contingent on federal funding. IID said it allocates 97% of water for farmers and has reduced usage by 16%, from 3.1 million acre-feet to 2.6 million acre-feet since 2003.
“This commitment is contingent upon appropriate funding, voluntary participation from the Imperial Irrigation District’s water users, and necessary environmental permitting, in part,” IID General Manager Henry Martinez said in an emailed statement to Cal Matters, a nonprofit state news agency.
Other letter signatories include the Coachella Valley Water District and Palo Verde Irrigation District—who, along with IID, have senior water rights—and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which services 19 million households.
Chris Scheuring, senior counsel for the California Farm Bureau, said it’s historically significant that California water agencies holding senior rights to the river “agreed to share the pain.”
“It’s a big announcement,” Scheuring said. “The alternative, of course, would’ve been to continue to stand pat while other states were withering and risk a major federal intervention, which could have definitely upset the order of things.”
In June, BOR Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton warned during a Senate hearing that states must come up with a plan to conserve between 2-4 million acre-feet in 2023. The deadline passed without a deal from the Lower Basin states of California, Arizona and Nevada. However, according to Politico, Department of Interior officials are discussing the option of subtracting the amount of water lost to evaporation or canal leaks from the total amount of deliveries to the Lower Basin states. Currently, the states are not dinged for evaporative loss, estimated to be 1.2 million acre-feet. Politico states California does not back that option.
Chuck Cullom, executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission, told Politico that accounting for the evaporative losses, along with California’s conservation offer, appears to be the only way the states can get close to the amount of water savings BOR is seeking. —Charles Wallace,WLJeditor
