Click the link to read the article on the AZCentral.com website (Brandon Loomis). Here’s an excerpt:
The Gila River Indian Community is the first Arizona water rights holder to publicly pursue the federal government’s new offer of compensation to leave Colorado River water in Lake Mead. Tribal Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis announced the plan on Monday at a gathering of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s water advisory council, which is reviewing ways to spend $4 billion of Inflation Reduction Act funds targeted at Colorado River drought relief, as well as funds approved in an infrastructure funding law.
While several participants in Sinema’s council praised the community’s proposal as a first step toward attracting others to rapidly conserve water, there were signs that getting significant buy-in from other Arizona farmers will be difficult. Yuma-area growers had sought $1,500 an acre-foot to forgo some irrigation, but the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation decided to offer $330, or up to $400 for multi-year deals. The Arizona Farm Bureau Federation’s president questioned the figure at the meeting, and a vice president later told The Arizona Republic it’s nowhere near enough to entice Yuma farmers.
“This is real water,” Farm Bureau President Stefanie Smallhouse said of what the farmers had offered. “It’s real value that is providing food for people.”
“The reality is we need a lot more than $4 billion,” Sinema conceded. But she said it’s important to spend the majority of the money now available on long-term efficiency gains and not primarily on emergency fallowing programs.