Tucson will order its full allotment of Central Arizona Project water next year despite previously indicating it would cut back on its annual water purchase as part of a collaborative effort to keep more water in Lake Mead amid dire conditions facing the reservoir.
The city previously indicated it would leave more than 20% of its annual CAP water supply in Lake Mead next year — or 30,000 acre-feet of its annual 144,191 acre-feet allotment — but the indication was contingent on other Lower Colorado River Basin water users’ willingness to do the same.
A lack of buy-in on Tucson’s plan led the City Council to vote 6-1 Tuesday to order its full CAP allocation in 2023.
On July 12, the City Council authorized the mayor and city manager to seek system conservation agreements with the federal government and the CAP with contingencies for the city to cut back on its CAP purchase. Those included that Tucson would be compensated at market rates for the water it saved, the savings would act as a credit against future reductions of the city’s CAP allocations and that the city wouldn’t incur increased operation and maintenance costs from the CAP cutbacks.
While Tucson Water received “assurances of collaboration” from some parties, the CAP has not yet agreed to the city’s terms for a conservation agreement. Possibilities of future agreements on cutting down the city’s CAP water intake are not completely off the table, however.
Chris Avery, the city’s chief water counsel, told council members the city’s requirement to avoid any increased operation and maintenance costs could hinder potential agreements with the CAP. The City Council made this a requirement for any conservation agreements so Tucson would not lose money it wishes to save by reducing its CAP allocation.
The council voted unanimously to allow city officials to negotiate a 50-50 split of those operating costs, which may make the CAP more agreeable to the city’s other terms, Avery indicated. He will have a better idea of what the cost to the city would be after the CAP’s Sept. 1 board meeting.
The overall consensus among the mayor and council members is that Tucson cannot bear the brunt of responsibility for the region’s declining water supply without more buy-in from other basin states to use less CAP water.
“We have put our chips on the table. We’ve said we are willing to put 30,000 acre-feet this year and 30,000 acre-feet next year. But we can’t do it alone,” Mayor Regina Romero said.
Kozachik, the sole dissenting vote, took a stance that the city should reduce its CAP water intake even without assurances from other states and let the Bureau of Reclamation handle mandatory cuts for other Colorado River water users.
“I get negotiations, I get that we don’t want to tip our hand. But someone’s got to be first,” he said. “I don’t want us to keep standing up and saying we’re gonna take our full allocation come hell or high water.”
Tucson Water must submit its water delivery schedule to the CAP by Oct. 1, which indicates the amount of Colorado River water the city will receive for each month in 2023. The entire 144,191 acre-feet order will cost Tucson $31.3 million.
The Gila River Indian Community also reversed course on its intentions to leave more water in Lake Mead and announced it would instead store its CAP allocation underground, according to an Aug. 16 news release from tribal Governor Stephen Roe Lewis.
“We are aware that this approach will have a very significant impact on the ability of the state of Arizona to make any meaningful commitment to water reductions in the basin state discussions, but we cannot continue to put the interests of all others above our own when no other parties seem committed to the common goal of a cooperative basin-wide agreement,” Lewis said in the news release.
The City Council’s decision comes after the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced Aug. 16 that Arizona will have to reduce its Colorado River water usage by 21% next year.
The seven states who rely on the river’s water passed the Aug. 16 deadline given by the bureau to come up with a plan to reduce their river water use by up to 28% by 2023. The bureau held off on any larger, longer-term cuts in water deliveries while it and the Colorado River Basin states continue to negotiate in future months.
Next year, the bureau will reduce the amount of Central Arizona Project water it delivers by 80,000 acre-feet compared to this year’s delivery. That brings the total shortfall for the CAP to 592,000 acre-feet — more than one-third of the project’s supply of 1.5 million acre-feet before the shortages kicked in, and 21% of the state’s total Colorado River supply of 2.8 million acre-feet.
The loss of CAP water will fall largely on Phoenix-area cities and on tribes. Tucson will be left with less CAP water to recharge and store in basins in the Avra Valley; it is not expected to affect the CAP water delivered to Tucson Water customers.
Tucson has historically ordered its full CAP allocation since 2010, with the exception of 2017 and 2018 when the city entered into agreements to assist statewide efforts to shore up Lake Mead’s water elevation. Amid Arizona’s drought contingency planning efforts, the city returned to buying its full CAP allocation in 2019.
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