TUCSON (KVOA) – Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, said the City of Tucson is ready to respond to the Tier 2a water shortage announced last Tuesday.
“The City of Tucson has been preparing for water supply challenges for decades,” said Tucson Mayor Regina Romero. “Our citizens have embraced a conservation ethic to support a sustainable and thriving community and protect our economy into the future,” said Romero.
The Bureau of Reclamation announced the cuts, which are part of the 2019 Drought Contingency Plan. The states which receive Colorado River water agreed to make the cuts if water levels in Lake Mead dropped.
But more cuts are needed. “Now, what we’re really talking about is the need to make even bigger, far deeper cuts to uses of the Colorado River. And the states have not been able to agree on those cuts,” said Kathleen Ferris, Senior Fellow at the Kyl Center for Water Policy.
In June, the Bureau of Reclamation ordered the seven basin states, including Arizona, to propose a plan to conserve an additional two to four million acre-feet of Colorado River water next year.
According to the Arizona Department of Water Resources, both Arizona and Nevada submitted a plan that would cut two million acre-feet of water — but it was rejected.
The bureau has said it will step in and make cuts if an agreement is not reached.
Saturday , Tucson Mayor Regina Romero announced the city is offering to leave up to 60,000 acre-feet of its Colorado River water in Lake Mead in 2022 and 2023.
Romero says Tucson has already contributed tens of thousands of acre feet of its Colorado River allocation to protect water levels in Lake Mead.
She is asking the Bureau of Reclamation to continue to working with Arizona to reach a compromise.
Arizona has to cut 592,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water starting in 2023.
Tucson water estimates it may have to cut four to six thousand acre feet of its CAP water.
But they say they can handle it.
“We’ve been anticipating that we may take cuts due to a lingering drought condition so we’ll be able to tap into some of those reserves that we as a community have invested in over the years to make up an shortfalls we might have from the canal in the future,” said Tucson Water Director, John Kmiec.
Ferris says the reduction in Colorado River water is likely to be permanent and encourages everyone join the conservation effort. ” Every water user in every state needs to somehow participate in this,” she said.
