House passes bill adding $1 million to Colorado River litigation fund as negotiation deadline looms
by Caitlin Sievers, Arizona Mirror
Arizona is working to build up its legal fund ahead of a possible fight for the state’s fair share of Colorado River water.
On Monday, the Arizona House of Representatives voted unanimously to pass House Bill 2116 and put another $1 million in the state’s Colorado River Litigation Fund.
The proposal was sponsored by Hereford Republican Rep. Gail Griffin, who chairs the House’s Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee.
“Arizona does not get to wish its way out of a water fight,” Griffin said in a statement. “Other states have been positioning themselves for court long before this fund was created. Hopefully, the fund will not be needed, but if it is — this bill makes sure that Arizona is ready to defend the water that millions of people and billions of dollars of economic activity, depend on.”
The Colorado River Litigation Fund was created with bipartisan support last year and stocked with an initial $3 million.
The seven states that depend on water from the Colorado River — Arizona, Nevada and California — in the Lower Basin and — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming — in the Upper Basin have already missed a Nov. 11 deadline to reach a new water use agreement.
A new deadline of Feb. 14 is looming, and it’s unclear if a meeting of six of the seven state governors in Washington, D.C., last week will break a stalemate between the Upper and Lower Basin states.
Upper Basin states, which aren’t subject to mandatory cuts in times of drought, have so far refused to agree to such cuts going forward, even though they’re on track to break obligations to the Lower Basin in 2027. The Lower Basin states already face mandatory cuts during dry periods.
The Colorado River Compact dates back to 1922, when the seven states made their initial agreement, allocating 7.5 million acre-feet of water each year to be shared by the Upper Basin states and another 7.5 million to be used among the Lower Basin states. The states have updated their water usage guidelines several times since then, but those apportionments remain the same.
The updated guidelines expire in October, and if states don’t come to an agreement before that, the federal government will implement one of its draft plans, all of which place an outsized burden on Arizona.
That’s because the Central Arizona Project, a series of canals that supplies Colorado River water to the Phoenix and Tucson areaa, is one of the newest users of the river water, making it legally one of the first to be cut.
Arizona and the Lower Basin states have argued that the Upper Basin needs to do its part to conserve water in an increasingly difficult environment, during an ongoing drought spurred by climate change. The Colorado River’s water volume has decreased by 20% over the past 25 years.
Upper Basin states say that they already face cuts imposed by mother nature. Most of Colorado’s water comes from melted snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, which can vary greatly from year to year. The snowpack this year is historically low.
The 1922 agreement included a requirement that the Upper Basin states would release a 10-year rolling average of at least 75 million acre-feet of water to the Lower Basin, in addition to one-half of the annual allotment owed to Mexico, for a total of about 80.2 million acre-feet.
So far, the Upper Basin states have met that requirement, but as water levels in the two major reservoirs on the river, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, continue to decline, it’s expected that the Upper Basin states will be unable to do so by 2027.
Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources and the state’s main Colorado River water negotiator, insists that the Upper Basin must agree to cuts if it wants the Lower Basin to agree to ease the 80.2 million acre-feet requirement.
The federal government hasn’t said what will happen if the states miss the Feb. 14 deadline, but a plan will have to be in place by late summer to be implemented in October.
If one of the federal government’s draft plans is implemented, Arizona plans to challenge it in court.
“We must ensure a safe and reliable water supply for our residents,” Rep. Pamela Carter said in a statement. “If other states refuse to honor the Compact, we have to be ready to defend our rights in court. HB 2116 ensures Arizona is not caught flat-footed if negotiations fail and litigation becomes unavoidable. I voted yes to protect our water supply, families, jobs, and future.”
House Minority Leader Oscar De Los Santos praised the bipartisan effort to prepare the Grand Canyon State to go to court.
“We continued to urge the Upper Basin states to come to the table and negotiate a sensible deal,” he said on the House floor on Monday. “But Arizona will not give up the fight for our water. We will not surrender, and we will not be bullied. We will continue to fight for our Colorado River water.”
HB2116 will next head to the Arizona Senate for consideration.
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