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Mark Henle, The Republic
Irrigation districts in Central Arizona could receive up to $15 million in federal grants to save water while keeping farmland active.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture designated Central Arizona and the Maricopa-Stanfield irrigation and drainage districts as two of 18 selected recipients across the west for the $400 million investment.
The national Farm Service Agency, which provides disaster relief, loans and conservation program funding, will work with the districts on individual agreements to be signed later this year.
Funding criteria is still in the works, but the focus of the program will be on irrigation improvements, shifts in farming practices and crop systems, and other strategies for water conservation. FSA will work with districts to establish projects that match producer conditions and to establish how they account for water conservation.
“I think they realize each district is unique and different, and different approaches might make sense in one area and maybe not in another,” said Brian Yerges, general manager of the Maricopa Stanfield irrigation district.
Producers could switch to more water-saving crops and find new markets, switch to drip irrigation or reducing irrigation to a point that stresses plants but doesn’t have affect on yield, for example.
The program “is not prescriptive in saying ‘this is the only way you can do it,'” confirmed Gloria Montaño Greene, USDA’s deputy undersecretary for farm production and conservation and the former director of Arizona’s FSA.
“We’re trying to meet districts where they are and have them come forward with some changes.”
Surface water only
The funding is expected to result in savings of up to 50,000 acre-feet of water across 250,000 acres of irrigated land in production. How much each district will contribute will be established in the individual agreements.
The caveat is that the program focuses on the reduction of surface water only, which the irrigation districts selected for the program in Arizona lost almost entirely two years ago.
Water declines in Lake Mead forced water cutbacks on some of the “youngest” water users in the Colorado River basin. Under the Drought Contingency Plan, wide areas of farmland in Pinal County faced hard cuts in 2022 and, in 2023, lost all allotment of Central Arizona Project water.
Central Arizona and Maricopa Stanfield Irrigation and Drainage Districts, known as CAIDD and MSIDD, still have some surface water through agreements with the Arizona Water Company and Freeport-McMoRan. The rest of their water comes from groundwater pumping.
This year, MSIDD is scheduled to receive 2,275 acre-feet of surface water, and CAIDD is scheduled to get 7,856 acre-feet, according to current CAP deliveries data. Yerges said that represents less than 3% of their total water use. CAIDD did not respond to the data request.
That means the potential for water conservation with the USDA program is small in Central Arizona. But districts cannot offset that by using more groundwater elsewhere, said Montaño. The equation has to end up in water savings.
There are complementary programs that can help with groundwater savings, she said, such as programs from the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Those can help make water use more efficient and support aquifer recharge and got a funding boost from climate-smart funding and the Western Water and Working Lands Framework for Conservation Action.
Central Arizona priority districts
The program is explicitly keeping farmland active. Districts cannot account for water savings by putting land out of production.
“This is not to reduce water use and fallow,” said Montaño. “It’s reduce water use and grow, reduce water use and maintain agriculture.”
That distinction is an important one, given that farmers in Pinal County had to leave land unplanted after the Colorado River water cuts and as they made the transition to groundwater and there wasn’t enough infrastructure to take well water to all fields. Yerges, with MSIDD, foresees the irrigation district becoming smaller over time due to pressures of urbanization and reduced water availability.
The irrigation districts have been doing what they can to plan for water and to keep agriculture in the community, which is “fundamental” for the region, Montaño said. “Economically, we need agriculture in Arizona.”
The agency’s Economic Research Service selected CAIDD and MSIDD for the program based not only on how much they’ve been impacted by drought, she said, but also “based on their possibilities” and needs to do irrigation efficiency and sustain agriculture.
Clara Migoya covers agriculture and water issues for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Send tips or questions to clara.migoya@arizonarepublic.com.