MINUTES
Coconino Plateau Water Advisory Council
June 30, 2006
USGS Building #3
2255 N Gemini Drive,
Flagstaff, Arizona 86001
Water Advisory Council Members Present
Liz Archuleta, Chairman, Coconino County
Deb Hill, Coconino County
Joe Haughey, City of Flagstaff
John Kocjan, City of Page
Eunice Tso, Navajo Nation
Lena Fowler, Navajo Nation
Tom Whitmer, Arizona Department of Water Resources
Bill Dowdle, Arizona State Land Department
Nick Melcher, USGS
Joe Alston, Grand Canyon National Park
Barry Baker, Tusayan
Nikolai Ramsey, Grand Canyon Trust
Lisa McNeilly, The Nature Conservancy
Bob Michaels, representing Carol Erwin, Bureau of Reclamation
Virginia Riedel, representing Mike Macauley, Natural Resource Conservation District
Bill Linville, Doney Park Water Users Association, Private Water Company Rep.
Liz Archuleta, Chairman, opened the meeting and introductions were made by those present. On a motion by Deb Hill, the minutes from the April 28 WAC meeting were approved as submitted.
The first item on the agenda was a presentation by Greg Houtz, Attorney with the Arizona Department of Water Resources on the status of Indian Water Rights Settlements. Greg began his discussion by stating that the December 2004 Arizona Water Settlement Act includes the Central Arizona Project Adjustment, Gila River Indian Communities, Southern Arizona Water Settlement, and San Carlos Apache Tribe water rights settlement. (Note: the full text is available on the ADWR website at http://www.azwater.gov/dwr/Content/Hot_Topics/AZ_Water_Settlements/New_Gila_River_Indian_Community_Settlement.htm) He said that included in the Law is a deadline of December 31, 2007 by which time the Secretary of the Interior must issue a notice in the Federal Register that everything necessary as set forth in the Act has been completed or it all falls apart.
Greg described some of the complexities of the various titles under the Settlement Act and where they were with the adjudication. One example was the Central Arizona Project Settlement that reallocates 197,500 AF of NIA Priority CAP water for present and future tribal settlement. The settlement reallocates approximately 95,000 acre feet of NIA Priority CAP water, which is lowest priority water and is not considered in meeting any “assured water supply” status. This water was reallocated to the ADWR Director to hold in trust and to make reallocation recommendations for M&I purposes to Arizona entities after 2010. Greg said that they won’t even know whether this amount is available, and if not what the amount is, until 2008. He noted that there is much competition for the water across the State, estimating demand exceeds allocation four-fold.
Greg also reviewed some aspects of the Gila River Indian Community adjudication, the Southern Arizona Water Rights Settlement, and Zuni Settlement.
In response to a question regarding criteria to be used by the ADWR Director for the reallocation Greg said that ADWR staff will be reviewing all past allocation processes.
Tom Whitmer asked about the Navajo Settlement. Greg said that the Navajo Tribe filed a lawsuit saying that the Secretary has not considered Navajo claims for allocation to the main stem Colorado and Little Colorado Basin. He said that it is currently in negotiations and discussions, but they have not made progress as hoped. He said the crucial date is in October when the judge will have to extend the stay at that time.
Tom asked about the possibility of a partial settlement with Navajo, e.g. via a Western Navajo Pipeline. Greg said water user entities in Central Arizona would object, they don’t want a partial settlement they want a complete settlement.
Liz thanked Greg for the information and moved to the next agenda item which was a report from the Strategic Planning Committee.
Liz said that at a previous WAC meeting she formed a sub-committee to address strategic plan for the bigger picture objectives of the council and had asked Sue Pratt, Coconino County, to report on the status of the group. Sue said that the group had met to discuss an approach to this process and has enlisted the help of Holly Foster, Coconino County Director for Organizational Development. She said that the committee determined that a retreat would be a good approach in order to get full participation by Council members. The group was targeting the September 29th regular WAC meeting date for the retreat, with an extended day going from approximately 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. She said that a pre-survey would be distributed prior to that time to help provide some focus for the retreat. Liz said that she would be sending out an announcement and RSVP in advance of that date.
The next item on the agenda was the process for moving to the feasibility stage. Tom Whitmer deferred to Bob Michaels, BOR, who reminded the WAC that the feasibility authority will need to come from Congress as it is unlikely that it would receive feasibility approval through normal administrative process.
Tom noted that a letter sent to the Bureau of Reclamation from the WAC had been copied to the congressional delegation, and that the City of Flagstaff and the Navajo Nation have already been in contact with Senator Kyl’s office. He said that once the agreement to move to feasibility is made they will need a concerted effort to lobby congress to get it approved. Bob noted that the letter the WAC sent to BOR has been sent up the ladder.
Liz asked that the Government Affairs committee develop a strategy for next steps and bring it back to the full Council. Greg asked about estimated cost to which Kevin Black said that $3 million is the tentative estimate. Bob noted that they need the authority first.
The next item on the Agenda was an update on the Coconino Plateau Water Appraisal Study Report. Kevin Black said that they had extended the deadline for formal comments by the Technical Advisory Committee to July 7. He said that next it would go to BOR and DOI for review and to get approval to present it in full at the July WAC meeting.
Eunice mentioned that the Government Affairs Committee wanted to invite representatives from legislative and congressional offices to that meeting. There was discussion about whether it would be covered in one or two meetings. Deb Hill suggested one meeting for cohesiveness and suggested expanding the July meeting. Liz suggested 10-1:30 with a working lunch.
Kevin said that the formal comments and letters will be incorporated into the report, but noted that the final hard copy of the report won’t be ready until August.
Virginia Riedel asked if the report would be available for the Council to review prior to the July meeting. Kevin said that the TAC mentioned that at their last meeting and though it would be a good idea, so he will make it available electronically in a PDF file.
Next on the agenda was a report from the Public Outreach Committee. Deb Hill, Committee Chair noted that Don Bills, Pat Cox, Becky from Grand Canyon Trust, and Brenda Gray from the County met and have drafted a press release to be sent to the media by the end of the day on July 14. Deb said that it would be referred to the WAC by July 10 for any comments prior to being released to the press. Deb said that the purpose of the press release was to get information about the WAC out to the public before the report of findings is released so that people would have some familiarity that the WAC exists.
Deb said the release would identify Liz as the contact person. Liz suggested Deb be included as the chair of the public outreach committee. Deb said they would be distributing it throughout the region and Central Arizona.
Tom said that as word gets out they will want to put together a canned presentation to have on hand when requests are made for more information. Deb said that they are looking at that as well as developing a speaker’s bureau, and they are looking for a graphic designer to develop a logo.
After a short break Eunice gave an update on the Government Affairs Committee. Eunice noted that Lisa McNeilly, Jerry Flannery from Coconino County, Bob Michaels, Nick Melcher, and Tom Whitmer had met and are still focusing on developing goals and a legislative agenda. There was an interest by the committee to have the different members provide some education on how the various processes work, e.g. Eunice will discuss the Navajo Nation system, and others will address state and federal systems. She mentioned that the committee also wanted to invite legislative staff to the presentation at the July meeting and Tom will be drafting a letter to send out.
Deb noted that it will be important to be very clear on what type of meeting they are being invited to. Deb asked how far geographically they will send it to for tribal representation, Eunice said that to tribes that sit on the WAC but don’t attend.
Liz asked where they were with a plan to move to feasibility level study. Tom said they need a concerted plan and that they need to start having discussions now by entire WAC. Liz said they need a representative group of the WAC who takes that on and asked the government affairs committee to put a time line together and an outline for a strategy.
Joe Haughey said it would be good to pass on information so everyone is on the same page. Liz suggested that a single fact sheet or white paper would be good so everyone has the same information.
The next item was a legislative update given by Tom Whitmer. Tom said that the ADWR budget is approved and the money is available to continue on to the feasibility study stage. He said that the legislature did not pass any real water bills of significance this session. He said that the big undertaking is the Statewide Water Advisory Group (SWAG) which was created by Governor in recognition of the need to help rural Arizona address water issues. He said the primary purpose of the SWAG is to develop mechanism for creating regional water management entities. He noted that there are 52 members including Liz, Ray Benally, Ron Doba, The Nature Conservancy, and Bill Dowdle from the State Land Department. He said that the next meeting is July 7 and representatives from California, Colorado, and Utah will be attending. He said that the SWAG will be breaking into three work groups to develop and present legislative package next year.
Abe Springer said that the legislature did approve and provide appropriation for the Arizona Water Institute. He said that the Director is Kathy Jacobs and that ADWR, ADEQ, and the Department of Commerce will have directors as well. Abe said that he is the NAU coordinator.
Liz skipped to the last item regarding the next meeting agenda, which she noted will be the presentation and discussion on the water appraisal study.
Ron Smith, Project Director for the Little Colorado River Watershed Coordinating Council gave the next presentation. Ron said that he has given the same presentation to the County Board of Supervisors and to some of the cities and towns around the region. He said that the Little Colorado River Watershed Management Plan includes 50 stakeholders and that they meet quarterly. He said that the LCR watershed is 27,000 square miles, half of which is on Indian Reservation, 20% is federal government, 10% state land, and 20% private lands.
He said that the underlying key goals and beliefs revolve around water being the underlying issue in natural resource and economic development. He said that he is at the WAC asking for support. He said that they have been going to all communities and counties in the watershed asking for funding support at $1 per person for people living in their respective jurisdictions, for a total of $300,000. He said what they are trying to fund is a sophisticated “video game” to assess water issues which is transportable around the region. He said the big question marks regarding funding support are Flagstaff and Coconino County.
Liz noted that Coconino County has done their budget and has not included any funding for this project. She said that this is the first she’s seen the presentation and that she would need more information to understand it better.
There were no further questions or comments.
The meeting adjourned at 11:55.