The Colorado River Indian Tribes and the Central Arizona Water Conservation District reached an agreement on Colorado River, CRIT officials announced.
The CRIT and CAWCD agreement will deliver more than 9,000 acre-feet of CRIT Intentionally Created Surplus, or ICS, water to the district.
An acre-foot of water is the volume of water required to cover one acre to a depth of one foot and is equal to 325,851 gallons, according to the Arizona Department of Water Resources. In Arizona, one acre-foot is typically enough water to serve three single-family homes for a year.
CRIT officials said the afreement with the CAWCD represents the last remaining water CRIT made available as part of a Drought Contingency Plan that was agreed to in 2019.
The surplus water was previously conserved between 2020 and 2022 after requests from the federal government. CRIT leaders conserved water to help stabilize Lake Mead. The tribes conserved about 160,000 acre-feet and were compensated $38 million for 150,000 acre-feet of conservation. There was additional conserved water of more than 10,000 acre-feet for which CRIT was never compensated.
KAWC left several messages seeking comment from CRIT officials but did not hear back as of late Thursday.
Under the agreement, the CAWC District will compensate the CRIT at $590 per acre-foot, for a total of $5.3 million in two payments.
The district is the public agency that operates and maintains the physical infrastructure of the Central Arizona Project.
In a released statement, CRIT Chairwoman Amelia Flores said “This agreement reflects Tribal Council’s continued leadership in advocating for responsible and sustainable use of Colorado River water supplies. Under the ICS agreements, it became clear that if we did not act now, this water would soon be lost to CRIT. Instead, by entering into this Agreement, we can provide economic value to CRIT while also taking steps to protect the Colorado River through the sustainable use of its resources.”
CRIT officials say the tribes' water rights date back to the creation of the reservation in 1865 and are the most senior tribal water rights in the Lower Colorado River basin.
The Colorado River Indian Tribes include four distinct Tribes - the Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi and Navajo. There are currently more than 4,600 Tribal members.
The CRIT Reservation stretches along the Colorado River on both the Arizona and California side. It includes about 300,000 acres of land including in and around Parker, Ariz.
