Photo: Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community. Gage Skidmore/Flickr
In a major step forward for Arizona’s Drought Contingency Plan negotiations, the Gila River Indian Community Council voted unanimously Wednesday in favor of a deal to supply water to the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District.
Under the deal, the Gila River Indian Community would supply the district, often referred to as CAGRD, with up to 830,000 acre-feet of desperately needed water over the next 25 years, starting in 2020. The board of the Central Arizona Project, which governs CAGRD, approved the deal in a meeting at the beginning of November [2018 —ed.].
The deal would help ensure that developers in Arizona can continue to build well into the future. (The question of whether that should happen is a debate for another day.)
“We believe our action today helps build momentum to have Arizona approve DCP and protect Lake Mead, but at the same time ensure that water supplies are available for an important sector of Arizona’s economy," Gila River Indian Community Governor Stephen Roe Lewis said in a statement Wednesday.
But, in a strategic move as DCP negotiations continue, Lewis has not yet signed the deal between the Gila River Indian Community and CAGRD.
That moment will have to wait until Arizona’s DCP is passed by the Arizona Legislature and signed by the state. In other words, if the DCP doesn’t happen, neither does the CAGRD deal.
Lewis alluded to this contingency in his statement Wednesday, as he explained how the negotiations for the CAGRD deal had proceeded in recent months.
"The Community had been very concerned that DCP might not happen and was re-examining whether these agreements were the best use of our water supplies in times of shortage," he […]
Full article: Gila River Indian Community Approves Major Deal to Provide Water to CAP
More about policy and water in Arizona:
‘If there’s no water, what’s the point?’ Female farmers in Arizona
What you don’t know about the water law that saved Arizona
Who controls the water? Arizona agencies slug it out
