Interior Secretary Burgum tours Arizona water systems with ADWR, CAP and SRP leadership

In late November, the Arizona Department of Water Resources, along with the Central Arizona Project and the Salt River Project, led a tour of vital Arizona water systems for U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Andrea Travnicek, the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, who has helmed Colorado River negotiations on behalf of the federal government since her confirmation earlier this fall.  

ADWR Deputy Director Clint Chandler and CAP General Manager Brenda Burman briefed the Secretary on Arizona’s considerable efforts in recent years to support the Colorado River system, while SRP’s Associate General Manager of Water Resources Leslie Meyers spoke about the critical ways SRP and CAP can support one another with water exchanges.

We were pleased to elaborate to Secretary Burgum and Assistant Secretary Travnicek regarding Arizona's decades long leadership and success in water conservation and overall excellence in water management, said Chandler. 

The tour also provided the opportunity to discuss Arizona's substantial support for the Colorado River system over the past decade and our commitment, along with our Lower Basin partners, California and Nevada, to further support the system in the years to come.

Their tour occurred in two locations, along the CAP canal with a view of SRP's Granite Reef Diversion Dam below and nearby at the CAP Salt-Gila Pumping Station. 

The tour included viewing the location for the proposed “interconnection” between SRP and CAP operations known as the SRP‑CAP Interconnection Facility, which would physically connect SRP’s South Canal with the CAP canal system.

The Arizona water agencies also briefed the federal officials on water supply conditions in Arizona.

Prior to the tour, Secretary Burgum and ASWS Travnicek met with Arizona Governor Hobbs and other Western governors at the winter meeting of the Western Governors Association in Scottsdale.

The CAP and SRP executive leadership – including CAP General Manager Burman and SRP General Manager and CEO Jim Pratt - briefed the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary about the infrastructure they observed along the way, among other things.

While near the CAP canal, ADWR Deputy Director Chandler presented to Secretary Burgum a cumulative change in storage graph of the Phoenix AMA that was produced by ADWR’s Groundwater Modeling Section. The graph helped tell Arizona’s success story regarding the impacts of the enactment of the Groundwater Management Act and the arrival of CAP water. 

Chandler also provided Assistant Secretary Travnicek with a paper describing that excellent Arizona groundwater story authored by ADWR Assistant Director Carol Ward. The paper focuses on Arizona's leadership in conservation. 

Concentrating on conservation efforts in the active-management areas created by the 1980 Groundwater Management Act, the paper notes that at the time of its enactment, the withdrawal of groundwater in the most populous areas of Arizona “was greatly in excess of the safe annual yield.”

The paper observes that coupled with the availability of Colorado River supplies, [the 1980 GMA] has stabilized groundwater supplies and enabled responsible growth in a water-constrained environment.

ADWR’s Colorado River Programs Manager, Kristen Johnson, observed how important it was for Secretary Burgum to hear directly from ADWR leadership, as well as the leaders of both CAP and SRP, about the work the three agencies have engaged in for many years to protect Arizona's water supply.

The Secretary was an eager observer and listener, and it was a great opportunity for us, said Johnson. We demonstrated the critical role the Colorado River plays within the Arizona economy, including the tech sector.