DEPARTMENT ol the INTERIOR
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY For Release 2:00 PM EST Oecernber 1, 1980
ANDRUS ANNOUNCES FINAL
news release
Beard
~lallace (202) 343(202) 343--3171 5676
CENTRAL ARIZONA PROJECT WATER ALLOCATIONS
_ _ _ ..._T...._g,dj a iLili in Central ~rizona will receive a maximum of 309,828 acre-feet of
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-water annually from the Central Arizona Project, based on decisions announced today by Secretary of the Interior Cecil 0. Andrus.
The decisions follow closely proposals made by the Secretary August 8, 1980, and include new provisions which will allow cities to receive more CAP water by entering
into arrangements with tribes to trade other water for some of the Indians' CAP 1t1ater.
"My decision today corrects historic inequities and assures the Central Arizona
tribes an opportunity to develop their lands, Secretary Andrus said. ''It also will
enahle the Phoenix and Tucson areas to use the CAP to meet the needs of anticipated
population increases. I made these decisions after careful study of information supplied to me by Arizonans during the public comment period, followed by extensive discussions with Governor Rabbitt, representatives of cities and Indian tribes, and
members of the Arizona Congressional delegation."
-The Federal lav1 aut orITing construcf1CJ11 of CAP makes"i-t c1eartffa most- o i1e
-water supplies from the project should be reserved for cities and industry, but the
Secretary of the Interior must also provide some project water to Central Arizona Indian tribes. In announcing the final allocations, Andrus noted that he had turned down requests from several Indian tribes which wanted even more water from the CAP.
Under his final allocations, only the Tonto Apache Tribe will receive more CAP water
than was proposed in August, an additional 18 acre-feet per year. Andrus noted that
this change corrects a technical error in •the original proposal.
"These v1ere tough decisions," he said, "but CAP Indian allocations had to be made nO\·:, so that the cities could plan their future water systems. Everybody knows
there's not going to be enough water from the project every year to satisfy all
demands, so the key part of this decision relates to the way CAP water will be shared during water short·years," he s.::id.
Under Andrus' announced allocations, cities, industry, and Indians will share any available CAP water whenever drought affects the project supply from the Colorado River. When a shortage is declared in the project supply from the Colorado River, Indian farming operations will be cut back 10% (from that portion of the Indian allocation intended solely for irrigatirin use, as opposed to tribal homeland use).
The municipal and industrial users and the tribal users will then share the shortage on a pro rata basis.
Andrus said he agreed with the State of Arizona's belief that the project should be planned for water-short years, even though they probably will not affect the project until sometime in the next century. He also said that irrigated agriculture - Indian and non-Indian alike - should bear the brunt of water shortages, so that a reliable supply can remain available for domestic purposes. ''If it ~omes down to a choice between watering a cotton field and watering a golf course, I'd choose the c-otto ," Andrus said. "But if the choice a-re between cotton fields and thirst-y residents in the cities, then irrigated agriculture should take the first shortage."
The final CAP water allocations mark the end of a long period of uncertainty within the State water community. Now that the amount of water available from the CAP for Indian and non-Indian purposes is known, the local sponsoring agency (the Central Arizona Water Conservation District) will know how much it will have to repay the Federal government for construction of its share of the project's benefits.
Total costs of the CAP, which will begin delivering water from the Colorado River to Central Arizona by 1985, are expected to exceed $2 billion. The District, under terms of a contract signed in 1972, must pay back certain costs of the project from revenues received from local taxes and water sales in the project's three county service area.
Because the final water allocations were uncertain until the Secretary's decisions, the District has not been able to have its contract with the government for repayment of the costs approved by a State court, as required by law. "The final allocations are an important step in removing a cloud which has hung over the CAP since construction began," Andrus said. "With the allocations in place, the District should move quickly to accept them by getting that contract validated."
Unless the contract is validated promptly, he warned, further construction of the project might be in danger, since the Federal government has no legal assurance that the huge investment ill be repaid as required by law.
"We've been moving forward with this project on good faith as we considered
adjustments to the 1976 allocations," Andrus added. "We've already spent hundreds of millions of federal tax dollars on this project, and there simply has to be a limit to anybody's good faith when you're talking about a total investment as big as the CAP. What we have in this project is essentially a very large unsecured loan. Now that all the cards are face up on the table, it's up to the District and the State to see that future construction funds from the Congress are not in danger because the repayment contract isn't tied down."
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Andrus' final allocations could also allow cities to use some of the CAP water allocated to Indians, as long as acceptable exchange conditions can be worked out. Andrus noted the idea of substituting other water from the cities in exchange for part of the Indians' CAP supply makes good water management sense. If lower quality water cannot easily be used by the cites economically, it might be useful for irriga-tion on Indian reservairriga-tions, or elsewhere, he pointed out. Regarding the substitute water provisions, Andrus said, "Allowing for substitutions between the cities and the tribes will give the State and the cities the flexibility they need to plan for
future water uses. If the Indian tribes can use water for agriculture which resi-dents in the cities can't drink, I'm all for it, as long as the tribes are not hurt by it. This way, more high quality water will be available for domestic uses."
Andrus said that as much as 100,000 acre-feet per year of additional higher qua~l'---ic__;t...__~ -~ ~-CA water might become available to the cities under this plan. -
--Andrus said that his final allocations should not come as a surprise to
Arizonans, since they are only slightly different from the proposals made in August. The only changes are:
The Indian tribes' CAF irrigation supply in shortage years will be 10% less than it was under the August proposals, leaving that water available for municipal and industrial uses. In normal water years, however, the tribes will still be able to use their full CAP allocation of up to 309,828
acre-feet;
The allocation to the Tonto Apache tribe has been increased by 18 acre-feet per year, from 110 acre-feet per year to 128 acre-feet per year. This is the only numerical adjustme~t to the August 8 proposals;
Contracts signed with Indian tribes for CAP water service under these alloca-tions will include language calling for water conservation practices to be employed on the reservations. The August proposals did not address this issue, but it was raised during the public comment period.
-Following the publication of the final allocations, the State of Arizona is eXQ~cted o bm:Lt its _r:ecorrunendatiOJls for non-Jndj an us of CAP w-0-t-e~~ These will affect municipal and industrial, agriculture, mining and power generation uses. They will be subject to review and approval by the Secretary in a manner similar to
today's decisions.
