down the river into Lake Mead, the 28 million acre-feet capacity reservoir behind Hoover Dam located just outside Las Vegas. Mead takes on water through late fall and winter with releases from upstream and drops during the late spring and summer when the water de- mand is the highest. While Lake Mead has regularly received normal releases from Lake Powell, the drought’s impact on Lake Powell means fewer equalizing releases that are part of the shortage guidelines.


“Rather than one [equalizing release]


every three or four years we’ve had one in this whole 16-year stretch and it’s not enough to keep replenishing Lake Mead,” Cooke said. Under the first tier of shortage reduc- tions in the 2007 Guidelines, Arizona would lose 320,000 acre-feet of water. Worsening conditions could mean a reduction of 480,000 acre-feet of water. Nevada would lose 12,000 acre-feet and, through a separate agreement, Mexico’s supply would be reduced by 45,000 acre-feet until 2017 when that provision of Minute 319 expires. A proposed CAP System Use Agree- ment aims to put the finishing touches on the groundwater banking program the state has used since the mid-1990s.


Phoenix skyline.


About 4 million acre-feet of CAP water is stored in the aquifers of central and southern Arizona for later recovery and delivery during a shortage. Te agree- ment would allow CAP to transport non-project water through its system for its use or to be used by a third party. It would delineate a priority order for use of CAP system capacity and the ability of long-term contract holders to ex- change portions of the water allocation with CAP or other users. “It’s like traffic lights or speed limits


to govern multiple uses of this infra- structure that we have,” Cooke said of the Agreement. According to CAP, “the newly defined


flexibility” would assist water agencies in Tucson and Phoenix through “a clear legal path” for them to conduct a water exchange partnership that’s been in the works for more than a year. At the White House Water Summit


in March, the cities of Tucson, Phoe- nix, and the Metropolitan Domestic Water Improvement District in Tucson announced their partnership, which will annually store more than 1 billion gallons of water. A pilot program begun in 2014 allowed Phoenix to store some of its unused Colorado River water in Tucson aquifers, water the city and the


district could draw upon. In exchange, both Tucson water providers will order a part of their Colorado River water for delivery to Phoenix.


The Drought Contingency Proposal


Te priority system of rights to the Colorado River is well-known to its adherents.


“California is not required under the Law of the River to take a shortage reduction and boy, don’t they know it,” ADWR’s Chandler said at the briefing. Te existing rules notwithstanding, Chandler said the Drought Contingency Proposal “is basically an insurance poli- cy” that would leave water in Lake Mead in the face of the continually downward- trending projections about its future. “We are attempting to bend the


curve,” he said. Chandler called it a “major de-


parture” and “precedent-setting” that California could consider voluntarily reducing its take under certain circum- stances. He speculated that such an action would be driven by a sense of practicality.


“Te one thing that unites [California water agencies] is the loathing of uncer- tainty,” he said. “Tey are thoroughly


6 • Colorado river ProjeCt • river rePort • Summer 2016


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