1. Gila River Indian Community & System Conservation
December 14, 2017
Stephen Roe Lewis, Governor
Good morning everyone. I appreciate the opportunity to share the Community’s efforts with everyone today.

2. Water Settlement
Arizona Water Settlements Act of 2004 was signed into law, which included the Gila River Indian Community Water Settlement Act
Settlement provided infrastructure funding
Settlement provides for a total annual water entitlement of 653,500 AF
In 2004 Congress approved our settlement. Like all settlements it included a number of tradeoffs. But importantly, include a large entitlement and funding to ensure that our water could be used on Community lands.

3. Water Settlement continued
Although the settlement includes an entitlement to Gila River water, the natural flow of the river was not restored
Colorado River water through Central Arizona Project is supplemental water to Gila River water
The Community has the single largest entitlement to Colorado River within the CAP system – annual entitlement is 311,800 AF
One of the tradeoffs was that the natural flow of the Gila River was not restored. Instead, by the design of the Colorado River Basin Project Act the Community received Colorado River water as a supplement or in-lieu supply for Gila River water. This made the Community the single largest entitlement holder of Colorado River water served by the Central Arizona Project, but with this large amount of Colorado River water came risks associated with the rising costs of CAP delivery charges.

4. Proposed DCP
Under the proposed DCP, cuts to Arizona Colorado River supplies would limit the Community’s Non-Indian Ag CAP water, and reduce its ability to store water to generate revenue for its Permanent Water Fund
Community concerned that DCP did not include incentives needed to get Arizona stakeholder buy-in
Under our Settlement the Community has two types of Colorado River water with different priority’s within CAP. Our non-Indian ag, or NIA water, has lower priority than our Indian priority water. The Community has about 120,000 acre-feet of NIA CAP water and it’s this water that is put at risk. The Community currently uses this water to generate revenue to offset future costs related to its on-Reservation Colorado River water use, so a reduction in this supply interferes with our long term planning.

5. System Conservation & DCP+
DCP+ is an AZ stakeholder proposal to reduce the risk of Lake Mead falling below 1075’ through incentives:
Paid System Conservation
Intentionally Created Surplus
The purpose of DCP+ is to create incentives for Arizona water entitlement holders to leave water in Lake Mead to reduce the risk of the elevation falling below 1075’ and thereby reduce the likelihood that DCP cuts in Arizona will be required. The two incentives proposed under the DCP+ are paid system conservation and tribal ICS. Because tribes have large entitlements of Colorado River water they are naturally going to have to part of any program going forward. The Community in particular anticipates a major role because it has such a large entitlement and it has been putting that entitlement to use.

6. Community’s Role In Future System Conservation
We can make a portion of our Colorado River supplies available over short-term for System Conservation, and possibly ICS to help address regional drought
Developing recharge projects through partnerships with other AZ stakeholders makes the Community less reliant on Colorado River water for domestic needs
The Community’s role is simple. Over the short term we can make a large portion of its Colorado River water available to help keep Lake Mead above 1075, and we have already provided 90,000 acre-feet in system conservation through If needed and desired we can make more water available in 2018 and beyond. We can do this because the water planning efforts we have already began work on to address the rising cost of water deliveries also allowed us to pivot to address regional drought. We are accelerating efforts to increase our groundwater storage capacity and well infrastructure so we can rely on groundwater as a supplemental supply during the peak growing periods in the Summer, rather than relying on Colorado River water, as we did in the past.

7. Community’s Role In Future System Conservation
As part of a comprehensive approach that the Community is taking to water management, System Conservation, along with its other management efforts, also is proving to be a critical part of the Community’s efforts to return the Gila River to the Reservation through the further development of its riparian recharge areas.
The Community’s role is simple. Over the short term we can make a large portion of its Colorado River water available to help keep Lake Mead above 1075, and we have already provided 90,000 acre-feet in system conservation through If needed and desired we can make more water available in 2018 and beyond. We can do this because the water planning efforts we have already began work on to address the rising cost of water deliveries also allowed us to pivot to address regional drought. We are accelerating efforts to increase our groundwater storage capacity and well infrastructure so we can rely on groundwater as a supplemental supply during the peak growing periods in the Summer, rather than relying on Colorado River water, as we did in the past.