By Arizona Department of Water Resources and Central Arizona Project

Arizona has worked over the course of several years with the other States in the Colorado River Basin and the United States to develop an interstate Drought Contingency Plan to protect Colorado River supplies. Within Arizona, stakeholders have been working to develop an Implementation Plan, a series of agreements that will govern the way that certain terms of the DCP will be implemented within Arizona once the DCP is effective.

The next step in the reinvigorated effort to bring a Drought Contingency Plan in Arizona to closure is scheduled for Tuesday, July 10, at the Heard Museum in central Phoenix.

Co-hosted once again by the Arizona Department of Water Resources and the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, the public meeting is set for 1-4 pm at the museum auditorium, located at 2301 N. Central Ave.

The Governor’s Office has released “Securing Arizona’s Water Future,” an illustrated outline of Governor Ducey’s plan for taking action to help secure the State’s water supplies.

The “water book,” as it is known, is available on the Governor’s website.

One of the last pieces of legislation sponsored by Sen. Jeff Flake prior to his announcement that he will not seek re-election in 2018 was, predictably, about water.

The federal Bureau of Reclamation has completed its crucial August 2017 24-Month Study, which is part of a study of hydrology and projected operations of the Colorado River system. Results depict water flows slightly improved from recent years, enough to assure that Lake Mead will avoid a “shortage declaration” for 2018, at least.

The sensational news about record-setting snowpack in the Sierra Nevada of California and “atmospheric rivers” delivering over 1,000 percent of normal winter rainfall to Big Sur has disguised a much less-than-sensational record of winter moisture elsewhere in the West.

The winter snowpack on the western slopes of the Rockies – the source moisture for the Colorado River – is producing much less runoff than had been anticipated.

If recent climatic experience has taught Arizonans anything, it is that the specter of drought is an ever-present proposition.

Droughts of 30- or even 50-year durations are not unknown phenomena.

So, even when Mother Nature blesses us with a wet year, like this year, water in the Southwest remains a scarce resource that must be managed cooperatively with a long-term view if we are to assure it remains available and abundant for the millions of people relying on it.

It’s amazing how a few dry weeks can mess up things.

A very dry and warm early March has scuttled the federal Bureau of Reclamation’s much-anticipated plan to release over 11 million acre-feet of Colorado River water from Lake Powell downstream into Lake Mead – a so-called “equalization” release.

“We are the people of the river.”

With a sweep of his hand toward vast, new wetlands blossoming at the southernmost corner of the Gila River Indian Community, Tribal Governor Stephen Lewis explained the dual purpose behind the tribe’s investment in the fast-rushing waters flowing near the site known as the Olberg Bridge.

Whether we are talking about draining all of its water or just most of it, reducing  Lake Powell to a secondary status behind Lake Mead would fail in two of the plan’s most important goals, according to a technical assessment released last fall by Utah State University researchers.

Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, who in July won assurances that water stored in Lake Mead would be retained by Arizona, has been named chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power.

The new chairman’s subcommittee is responsible for overseeing federal involvement in a wide swath of water matters of substantial importance to Arizona and the Southwest.

The snarky slogan that “whiskey is for drinkin’ and water’s for fightin’” gets bandied about a lot in drought years.

Even after nearly 17 years of drought, there has not been a lot of fightin’ among the Southwestern states over the dwindling supplies of water in Lake Mead.

In fact, the level of cooperation among Arizona, Nevada and California, as well as the federal government, is a big part of why the federal Bureau of Reclamation likely will not issue a “shortfall” declaration in 2017 to protect water levels in Lake Mead.

Over the years, the Department of Interior and the Bureau of Reclamation famously use the annual December meetings of Colorado River water-users to announce big policy changes.

That didn’t happen this time at the annual Colorado River Water Users Association meetings in Las Vegas. Despite a yeoman effort to push through an agreement on a drought contingency plan among the Lower Basin states, the many moving parts of the complex “DCP” agreement did not come together before CRWUA members parted ways. 

An overflow crowd, in four separate locations around Arizona, heard the long-anticipated news on Wednesday about the likely near-term future for Colorado River flows. Full length video from the briefing is available here.   (Presentations given at the briefing are available here)

With a few exceptions, the outlook presented was sobering.

Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake toured the Colorado River system’s drought-threatened Lake Mead area on August 31, meeting with federal and state water officials, including the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

“I was pleased to discuss with Sen. Flake the proactive response by Arizona to challenges associated with the Colorado River system,” said Water Resources Assistant Director Clint Chandler.

“Our conversation (at Hoover Dam) included references to our State’s contributions, and those of other states and Mexico, to the system."