By John Wright | Parker Live
With water levels continuing to drop toward a ‘shortage’ declaration at Lake Mead, the state has been meeting with stakeholders for months to forge a Drought Contingency Plan (DCP).
The offer, outlined in a November 9th letter to the Arizona Department of Water Resources and the Central Arizona Conservation District, would extend CRIT’s existing water fallowing agreements. CRIT would agree to set aside enough land to allow the state to save an additional 50,000 acre-feet of water per year, starting in January 2020. CRIT would get $250 per acre-foot.
The water would be stored in Lake Mead to help the state adopt the DCP, which has been developed by all the Colorado River Basin States in cooperation with Mexico to prevent the reservoirs Lake Mead and Lake Powell from dropping to such low levels that delivery of the water supply and power production are threatened. 50,000 acre-feet of water is enough to supply approximately 100,000 households for one year.
“This may actually be the most important news of the last few years as it relates to water. The Colorado River Indian Community has stepped up to save Pinal County farms.”
