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Tribe, US Officials Reach Deal to Save Colorado River Water

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Ken Ritter & Terry Tang

A Native American tribe in Arizona reached a deal Thursday with the U.S. government not to use some of its Colorado River water rights in return for $150 million and funding for a pipeline project.

The $233 million pact with the Gila River Indian Community, announced in Phoenix, was hailed as an example of the kind of cooperation needed to rescue a river crucial to a massive agricultural industry and essential to more than 40 million people in seven Western U.S. states and Mexico. Officials termed it “compensated conservation.”

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Arizona Tribe Will Receive Millions in Federal Payouts for Water Conservation

/in , /by /KUNCby Alex Hager

The federal government will send up to $233 million to the Gila River Indian Community for water conservation. The tribe is among the first to receive federal payouts as part of a program to incentivize water cutbacks in Arizona, California and Nevada. Those three states make up the Colorado River’s Lower Basin, where water use remains steady in spite of shrinking reserves.

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Opinion: Enough Messing Around. Will the Feds Mandate Cuts to Save Lake Mead or Not?

/in , , /by /Arizona Republicby Joanna Allhands
The Gila River Indian Community announced in August that it would no longer leave part of its sizable Colorado River water allocation in Lake Mead, citing lack of progress on a deal to stop it from tanking.

Two months later, the tribe became the first major Arizona player to take the feds up on a new offer to voluntarily leave water in the lake.

What changed?

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Gila River Tribe Will Take Offer to Conserve Water, but Yuma Farmers Say it’s Not Enough

/in , , /by /Arizona Republicby Brandon Loomis

The Gila River Indian Community is the first Arizona water rights holder to publicly pursue the federal government’s new offer of compensation to leave Colorado River water in Lake Mead.

Tribal Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis announced the plan on Monday at a gathering of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s water advisory council, which is reviewing ways to spend $4 billion of Inflation Reduction Act funds targeted at Colorado River drought relief, as well as funds approved in an infrastructure funding law.

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