FLAGSTAFF – A Native American tribe with one of the largest and most secure water rights to the Colorado River now has approval to lease part of it in Arizona, a state that has been hardest hit by cuts to its water supply. water and is on a perpetual search for more.
President Joe Biden approved legislation Thursday authorizing water leases to the Colorado River Indian Tribes, whose reservation straddles the Arizona-California border.
Biden also approved a water rights agreement for the Hualapai tribe and authorized additional funding to complete water projects for the White Mountains Apache tribe.
The Indian tribes of the Colorado River passed a resolution in 2020 calling for federal legislation to help bolster the tribe’s economy and improve housing, health care and education on the reservation. Proceeds from the water leases will also help finance a nursing home, substance abuse treatment and improve an irrigation system, tribal leaders have said.
The tribe has the right to divert more than 662,000 acre-feet of water from the Colorado River in Arizona, but hasn’t taken full advantage of it because it lacks infrastructure. It is also entitled to nearly 57,000 acre-feet of water in California. One acre-foot is enough to supply approximately two to three homes a year.
The tribe’s leasing authority is limited to its rights to water in Arizona and even more so to what is already used for agriculture. Tribal chairwoman Amelia Flores said the legislation was designed to prevent further pressure on the river, which has been dwindling due to overuse, climate change and unrelenting drought.
The tribe has already committed to leaving water in Lake Mead, the largest man-made reservoir in the western US, to ensure the Hoover Dam can continue to generate power and supply water to Arizona, California, Nevada and Mexico in the lower river basin. Colorado. Flores said the tribe will work with its farm managers and speak with the community to determine the amount of water that can be leased, the price of the water and the length of the leases.
Flores suggested that the leases will not be as long as the 50-year terms that the US Bureau of Indian Affairs offered for agriculture on the tribal reservation.
“I don’t think, and I think I speak for other members of the Council, that we have the foresight to know what is best for our unborn members or their children,” he said.
The metropolitan cities of Phoenix and Tucson, as well as other Indian tribes who draw water from a series of canals managed by the Central Arizona Project, are among the potential customers for water leases with the Colorado River Indian Tribes.
Flores said the tribe is committed to helping its neighbors and maintaining habitat along the river as water becomes scarcer and others face further cutbacks.
The Colorado River supplies water to 40 million people in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Nevada. Mexico also receives a share. Mandatory shortages are affecting some states, and the US Bureau of Reclamation has called for broader cuts as key reservoirs are reduced.
