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<br />..
<br />
<br />.
<br />
<br />other water projects.
<br />. Buy and sell property and exercise eminent domain
<br />rights.
<br />. Hire an executive director and staff,
<br />"It's landmark legislation for our basin," said
<br />Marybeth Carlile, director of the Southern Arizona
<br />Water Resources Association, "What it will do is make
<br />the best use of all the water we have in our basin. In
<br />1980, we didn't know each other. In 1990, we know who
<br />we all are and that we've got to work together."
<br />
<br />CAP AT THE END OF THE UNE-
<br />NOW WHAT?
<br />
<br />.
<br />
<br />In May, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation began the
<br />scoping process for an environmental impact state-
<br />ment (ElS) on terminal storage facilities for the
<br />Central Arizona Project (CAP).
<br />At a public meeting on May 7 in Tucson, Ariz., Dave
<br />Nelson, BuRec's study leader for the project, told the
<br />200 people in attendance that the objective of the study
<br />was to "assure that as reasonably reliable a supply of
<br />water is available to the Tucson area as is available to
<br />Phoenix." Currently, he said, "There is no backup supp-
<br />ly for times when the CAP system is down for routine
<br />maintenance, emergency repairs, or times when there is
<br />drought on the Colorado River and full entitlements
<br />may not be deliverable."
<br />Part of the reason the considerations were not ad-
<br />dressed sooner, he said, was that Tucson Water, the con-
<br />tracting entity for CAP water, had changed its mind
<br />about how much of the water it wanted. Prior to 1986,
<br />Tucson estimated that it would take about 30,000 acre-
<br />ft, or about 30% of its annual needs, from CAP water.
<br />After 1986, Tucson decided to meet about 90% of its an-
<br />nual demand with CAP supplies.
<br />BuRec estimates that the CAP will not be able to meet
<br />the projected demands consistently. Tucson currently
<br />depends on ground water to meet its entire demand,
<br />and no other dependable surface-water sources are
<br />available to the city.
<br />The CAP is expected to be completed next year.
<br />BuRec is considering any and all suggestions for storing
<br />excess supplies until they are needed by the city, includ-
<br />ing ground-water recharge.
<br />Tucson Water, which has spent several million dol-
<br />lars over the last few years learning about recharging
<br />CAP water and treated effiuent, is the leading agency in
<br />the state in its knowledge of recharge.
<br />Tucson Water wants to have a full-scale recharge
<br />
<br />.
<br />
<br />0215
<br />
<br />project in place when CAP supplies begin Rowing into
<br />the city late next year. Ground-water recharge is an espe-
<br />cially attractive idea in desert areas, which have very
<br />high evaporation rates associated with surface-water-
<br />storage impoundments.
<br />However, a lawsuit against the secretary of the inte-
<br />rior and the Central Arizona Water Conservancy Dis-
<br />trict (CA WCD), filed in U.S. District Court in March of
<br />last year by three Pinal County irrigation districts, could
<br />delay Tucson's ambitious recharge plans.
<br />The lawsuit, now being heard in Phoenix, attempts to
<br />force the CAP to offer excess water to farmers before let-
<br />ting Tucson Water use it for recharge. The suit hinges
<br />on language in an amendment to the master repayment
<br />contract between the Secretary of the Interior and the
<br />CAWCD, which determines priorities for CAP water (see
<br />WATER RIGHfS December 1988),
<br />In the past, the understanding was that whoever
<br />could use the water directly had first option to use it.
<br />The repayment contract, which was rewritten in 1988-
<br />1989, now says that water can be used for recharge.
<br />According to William D. Baker, attorney for the ir-
<br />rigation districts, the districts have played a major role
<br />in the CAP since the early 1960s. They include more than
<br />200,000 acres of farmland and have allocations for 50%
<br />of the non-Indian CAP agricultural water.
<br />State agricultural statistics show slightly under a mil-
<br />lion acres of land still under irrigation in Arizona.
<br />Tremendous population growth in the cities during the
<br />198Os, however, and eh.nging societal values about
<br />water use are ominous clouds on the horizon of irrigated
<br />agriculture in the Southwest. The right to use water is be-
<br />coming more precious as esca1ating demands for water
<br />pressure water users to begin looking at increasinglyex-
<br />pensive new supplies.
<br />
<br />LEGAL OPINION QUESTIONS
<br />SANCTITY OF TEXAS PRIVATE LAKE
<br />
<br />A preliminary report issued by the Texas attorney
<br />general's office limits the exclusive use to which
<br />water rights can be put, by declaring that a private
<br />lake may in fact be open to the public.
<br />Aquarena Springs, a theme park in San Marcos, Tex.,
<br />holds the rights to about 66,000 acre-ft of water in
<br />Spring Lake, a small, man-made impoundment on the
<br />San Marcos River in central Texas. According to
<br />Aquarena Springs' water-rights certificate, the vast
<br />majority of the water will be used to generate
<br />hydropower. The theme park also owns most of the land
<br />
<br />WATER RIGHTS 7
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