October 16, 2004
SPRNCA Federal Reserved Water Right
The Arizona Riparian Council held its fall meeting this weekend at the Gray Hawk Nature Center, along the San Pedro River, in Arizona. The center is within the boundaries of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, a 47-mile stretch of the San Pedro River in southern Arizona. SPRNCA was established by an act of Congress in 1988, and is now managed by the United States Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, specifically, by Bill Childress and his staff at the BLM. Bill spoke to the gathered Arizona Riparian Council members and guests, and had this to say about the future of the San Pedro River (the following four points are paraphrased from Bill's comments, and are taken from my notes made during the meeting):
1. 'The BLM will be seeking to perfect its Federal reserved water right for the SPRNCA later this year, and will ask for a volume of water, including groundwater, river flood-water, and river base-flow, that is sufficient to protect and enhance aquatic and riparian wildlife habitat within the reserve'.
2. 'Historically, the San Pedro River hosted 13 native fish species, of which only four remain extant today. The BLM is seeking to re-establish more species of native fish in the river'.
3. 'The volume of river base flow that BLM plans to request will be based on the volume of base flow available in the river in 1988, and is a larger amount than usually occurs now. The base flow in the San Pedro River generally becomes smaller each year due to deficit groundwater pumping in the valley aquifers that also supply the river'.
4. 'The BLM will continue to work within the framework of the Upper San Pedro Partenership to resolve water resources management conflicts between the Federal reserved water right in the SPRNCA and the groundwater uses by surrounding communities'.
Here is the link to Special Master Schade's order to the United States to submit a status report on technical studies that were prepared to substantiate the claimed flow for SPRNCA.
Posted by: jlombard at October 16, 2004 11:11 PM
Category: Policies
Comments
