Republican Congressman Juan Ciscomani and other members of Arizona’s House delegation sent a letter Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, asking for the withdrawal of proposed Colorado River operating guidelines.
The letter states that strategies from the Bureau of Reclamation that were published in January, would impose “drastic reductions” on Arizona’s water supplies.
Ciscomani says the seven basin states must share the weight of cuts and that current strategies put more pressure on Arizona than other states.
“What we’re advocating for is to have that shared responsibility with all the others involved as well and [in] this case, the upper basin has the advantage but also the other states are not taking the hit that we are,” he said.
The letter also said that this plan would also undermine the economic and strategic gains that have been advanced by the Trump Administration.
“When we don’t have the water to sustain our population or our growth, that impacts economic development and that may impact projects that are considering coming to Arizona or companies or people moving here,” Ciscomani said.
According to the Central Arizona Project, the Colorado River has supported an economic benefit of more than $100 billion annually in Arizona.
Ciscomani along with Republican representatives David Schweikert, Andy Biggs, Abe Hamadeh, Eli Crane and Paul Gosar are asking to meet with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to talk about how Arizona could be affected.
“This is the survival of Arizona basically, and we need to make sure that we’re in the position where we need to be to not only sustain our growth but provide water for our current population,” Ciscomani said.
Last week, the seven Colorado River basin states failed to come up with new operating deadlines for a second time.
In a joint statement the governors of the Lower Basin states stated that about 75% of the population, employment and agricultural crop sales of the Colorado River Basin are in the Lower Basin: Arizona, California and Nevada.
Secretary Burgum had said that he believes that a compromise between the states is within reach in hopes of reducing the risk of litigation.
Current operating guidelines for the Colorado River are set to expire at the end of this year.
