Lake Mead

After five long years of discussion and negotiation, the Colorado River states and the federal government agreed in May 2019 to a Drought Contingency Plan to help protect the river system from the worsening effects of drought and over-use.

Is it so wrong to want to revel in good water news a bit?

After enduring more than 19 years of lingering drought in the Southwest and its implications for the Colorado River system, we think not. 

This month, Congress has passed, and the President has signed into law, the Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan Authorization Act, which permits the Secretary of the Interior to sign a DCP agreement with the Seven Basin States. 

In the end, it was the bipartisan sense of urgency among lawmakers – the fast-building recognition on both sides of the aisle that this legislation needed the support of Congress -- that proved most stunning to observers.

As the New Year approaches, compiling a list of the top stories in the Arizona water industry is always a challenge because there’s always a lot to choose from. But 2018 truly was more eventful than other years in recent memory.

From the increased efforts of Drought Contingency Planning, to a wildfire season unlike any other, to the ongoing drought declarations within the Southwest, take a look back at some of the key moments in 2018, as they were reported by Arizona Water News.

While Arizona water managers and affected stakeholders have been meeting almost daily over the past several months to finalize the state’s Drought Contingency Plan (DCP), plans have been underway on a parallel track for several years to ensure the framework is in place for the entire Colorado River Basin DCP.

By Tom Buschatzke, Arizona Department of Water Resources Director, and Ted Cooke, Central Arizona Project General Manager

By clear consensus, the most important issue currently facing the Colorado River system is the as-yet unresolved question of what the states will do to lessen the risks of draconian shortages on the Colorado River.

The challenge facing the Arizona Department of Water Resources right now, said Department policy adviser and legislative liaison Doug Dunham, is to balance 17 years of on-going drought in the Southwest with healthy economic growth in Arizona.

ASU’s Decision Center for a Desert City to host discussion of traveling exhibition

DCDC’s WaterSim Arizona exhibit to share stage with Water/Ways

A traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street program entitled Water/Ways will tour Arizona communities over a nearly two-year period starting in June.

Part Two of the federal government’s annual August analysis of conditions on the Colorado River system are out, and – just like Part One –  the results depict a mixed bag of decreasing risk in the short-term and rapidly increasing risk in the longer-term. 

The five participants in a historic effort to help stabilize Lake Mead water levels made their agreement formal at a signing ceremony on July 14 hosted by the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

The formal consummation of the five-party agreement opened the door for the Gila River Indian Community to conserve a portion of its Colorado River entitlement for the benefit of Lake Mead. 

The Phoenix City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved an agreement with tribal, state, federal and philanthropic leaders to help protect the Colorado River and preserve water levels in Lake Mead. 

On the Opinion pages of Monday’s Arizona Republic, the director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, Tom Buschatzke, explains in detail why Arizona is not about to take risks with the state’s vital allocation of Colorado River water.

Buschatzke’s views on the issue also appeared Friday in the Arizona Capitol Times.

Arizona Department of Water Resources director Tom Buschatzke detailed in an oped in Saturday's Arizona Republic the on-going, highly sensitive efforts to strike a three-state deal to leave a portion of the states’ Colorado River allocations in Lake Mead in order to keep the lake above critical levels.

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."