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<br />agreements, canal seepage recovery, <br />conjunctive use and desalination of <br />drainage water. <br />"There's going to be quite a few <br />drafts of this, but we're looking for <br />feedback," Kennedy said. "We're <br />sharing it with our friends from the <br />other states to get feedback to try <br />and put some meat on the bones <br />here. While our discussions have <br />been private discussions in one sense, <br />we're trying to make this as open as <br />we can. We know there's a lot of <br />people with an interest in what we're <br />doing, both within the state and in <br />the other states." <br /> <br />"Five years ago if I would <br />have wanted to talk about <br />an Arizona banking proposal, <br />I would have been run out of <br />the room with rifles and <br />shotguns." <br /> <br />- Pat Mulroy <br />Southern Nevada Water Authority <br /> <br />Although the budget identified <br />potential sources of conserved water, it <br />did not reveal who would benefit from <br />this transferred water, what the price <br />would be for the water or how the <br />water would be relocated from the <br />agricultural entities to the urban users. <br />These are all questions being discussed <br />in the regular meetings. <br />"In these discussions, it is recog- <br />nized that the rights of the individual <br />agencies must be protected and that <br />the transfer of water from the agricul- <br />tural areas to the urban areas must be <br />accomplished in concert with main- <br />taining a strong and viable agricultural <br />economy within southern California," <br />said Jerry Zimmerman, executive <br />director of the Colorado River Board <br />of California. <br /> <br />16 <br /> <br />Arizona Groundwater Bank <br />In 1996, Arizona began storing up to <br />400,000 acre-feet of its unused CAP <br />entitlement in underground aquifers. <br />The bank emerged as MWD and the <br />Southern Nevada Water Authority <br />discussed a controversial plan to use <br />the state's unused water. Today Ari- <br />zona is inviting Nevada and California <br />to participate in the bank in a limited <br />fashion. <br />"I think five years ago if I would <br />have wanted to talk about an Arizona <br />banking proposal, I would have been <br />run out of the roo~ with rifles and <br />shotguns," said Patricia Mulroy, <br />general manager of the Southern <br />Nevada Water Authority. "Today there <br />are open discussions about the state of <br />Nevada participating in a water bank <br />in Arizona - actually banking water <br />for Nevada's future use in the state of <br />Arizona. That is the kind of relation- <br />ship and interdependency that is going <br />to shape the future in the lower basin, <br />at least the way we view it." <br />According to Pearson, Arizona <br />developed a three-prong approach in <br />creating the bank. First, it passed a <br />state law to allow an interstate bank <br />to use its Colorado River entitlement. <br />Second, it created a state authority <br />that has contractio,g power to sign <br />long-term water subply contracts with <br />Nevada and California. Third, it <br />approached the federal government <br />I <br />to create a set of fd:leral regulations <br />endorsing the water bank so that water <br />could be delivered to the other states. <br />Interior supports the plan and is <br />now preparing draft regulations to <br />allow for the bank and the sharing <br />of water in the lower basin. <br />"The Arizona Water Banking <br />Authority is a classic example of <br />flexibility," Swan said. "They have <br />created something and the secretary's <br />saying, 'I will help you work on the <br />regulations to make that work for <br />interstate transfers.' Now that's <br />going to be a bit of an argument <br />among the three states there, but at <br />least the secretary is moving in the <br />direction of 'yeah, I think I've got <br />the flexibility.'" <br /> <br />Western Water <br />