Brenda Burman, manager Central Arizona Project
By Brandon Loomis || The Arizona Republic
Former U.S. Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman will take over as general manager of the Central Arizona Project in the new year, one that promises to include pivotal interstate negotiations over conserving the Colorado River water that supplies the CAP canal.
Burman led the Bureau of Reclamation during the Trump administration, a period in which the agency managing Colorado River water and dams helped broker a Drought Contingency Plan. In that plan, Arizona agreed to take less water from the system to prevent catastrophic losses later.
Continued poor weather and overuse have since set off new talks about conserving more in an attempt to halt Lake Mead’s slide toward the point that the river no longer flows past it.
CAP has so far taken the largest cuts in water from the river, which it delivers to the Phoenix and Tucson areas. Federal officials last week put states on alert that if they and their largest water users don’t soon reach an agreement on keeping more water in the reservoirs, the government may impose necessary additional cuts by next year.
The 336-mile CAP canal still transports about a third of the state’s reduced share of the river but has a lower legal priority than older diversions for farms and cities around Yuma and Southern California. More cuts loom.
“There is a lot to do and no time to waste,” Burman said in a CAP news release announcing her appointment on Thursday. “I will be focused on navigating the path for CAP through the next few years, which I believe will set the course for the next few decades.”
