Arizona Legislature votes to join Colorado River drought plan

PHOENIX — The Arizona Legislature voted Thursday to join a multi-state plan to reduce Colorado River water usage after months of negotiations.

The House and Senate voted overwhelmingly for the drought plan as the state faced a deadline to sign on or let the federal government impose its own restrictions, which would likely hit Arizona even harder.

Lawmakers approved two measures. One lets the state sign onto the drought plan. The other implements an agreement among Arizona water users to spread around the cuts in water.

Republican Gov. Doug Ducey is a strong supporter of the plan and signed both bills around 5:30 p.m.

“Today is historic for Arizona. The Drought Contingency Plan is the most significant water legislation passed in nearly 40 years – and it was done by putting party labels aside and putting Arizona first,” Ducey said in a statement.

SIGNED → Gov. @dougducey adds his signature to Arizona’s Drought Contingency Plan ✍️ #DCP #AZWater #ThingsThatMatterAZ pic.twitter.com/TJL8wbQh1L

— The 9th Floor (@9thFloorAZ) February 1, 2019

He also issued an executive order Thursday to create the Water Augmentation, Innovation, and Conservation Council, which will work toward long-term water conservation.

U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) said she supported the plan in a statement shortly after it was approved.

“This next step helps ensure Arizona has the clean, reliable water supply we need to thrive. Now I’ll work in the Senate to get this done for Arizona,” she said.

The Arizona cuts will fall primarily on farmers in Pinal County, who have the lowest-priority access to Colorado River water.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation director Brenda Burman has said she’s facing pressure from other states to limit Arizona’s water deliveries without a complete drought plan. Arizona has junior rights to river water and would be hit first and hardest if Lake Mead on its border with Nevada drops to shortage levels.

Burman set a Jan. 31 deadline for all parties to agree to voluntary cutbacks before she’ll begin proceedings to impose them.

The river serves 40 million people in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California.

In Arizona, most residents would not see an impact from cutbacks, which would primarily hit farmers in Pinal County – between Phoenix and Tucson – who have the lowest-priority access to Colorado River water and stand to lose the most.

The Arizona legislation is the product of months of negotiations between major water users in the state, who agreed to reduce their take in exchange for cash or access to groundwater in the future. The farmers, who reluctantly supported the agreement, said it would require them to fallow as much as 40 percent of the county’s farmland.

Arizona water officials say joining the agreement is critical to the state’s water future.

“The drought is real, and there’s less water in the river,” Dennis Patch, chairman of the Colorado River Indian Tribes, told lawmakers this week. “We can see it. We must all take a realistic view of this river and realize it does not have as much water as it used to.”

Gov. Doug Ducey, who pushed hard for the plan and deemed it the No. 1 priority for lawmakers this year, urged support Thursday for the plan.

“Today is the day,” he said on Twitter. “It’s time to ratify the Drought Contingency Plan.”

Opposition came from state Sen. Juan Mendez, who characterized the deal as a giveaway to interest groups that promotes unsustainable water policy, ignores climate change and doesn’t address the fact that Arizona will have less water in the future.

“It’s really hard to see this as anything other than an effort to keep the value in the land for development and special interests,” said Mendez, a Tempe Democrat who was the only lawmaker to vote against the plan during committee hearings this week. “We owe the environment a better plan.”

Lawmakers are considering two measures. One would allow Arizona to join the multi-state agreement. The other includes a variety of measures to help Pinal County farmers. Those include $9 million for the farmers to drill wells, dig ditches and build other infrastructure needed for them to change from the river to groundwater.

Tucson would get more groundwater credits for treated wastewater, allowing the city to pump more in the future in exchange for providing water to Pinal farmers.

The drought plan requires Arizona to find a way to reduce its use of Colorado River water by up to 700,000 acre-feet – more than twice Nevada’s yearly allocation under the drought plan. An acre-foot is enough for one to two households a year.

Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico had their plans done in December. If Arizona’s proposal collapses and the federal government steps in, those states could put some of their plans in motion to meet their obligation to other states, water managers said.

That includes sending water from reservoirs upstream of Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah line to keep it from dropping so low that water could not be delivered to Lake Mead.

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