The Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CAWCD), acting in its capacity as the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District (CAGRD), has approved a major acquisition of Extraordinary Conservation Intentionally Created Surplus (EC‑ICS) water from the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT). EC-ICS is a category of ICS that is created using extraordinary conservation measures, such as fallowing, system conservation, or other actions beyond normal operations. CRIT conserved 10,009 AF which resulted in the creation of 9,009 AF of EC-ICS between 2020 and 2022.
The agreement represents one of the most consequential tribal–district water transactions. It is the first transaction under CRIT’s new federal water leasing authority pursuant to the Colorado River Indian Tribes Water Resiliency Act of 2022 (CRIT Water Resiliency Act) and the marks the first major movement of the 2020-2022 conservation. In addition, it supports CAGRD’s 2027 firming obligations, and formalizes a long-term relationship between CRIT and CAWCD, and can serve as a model ICS transfers from tribes to municipal districts.
CAGRD has often worked with tribal governments to meet its purpose of securing replenishment supplies needed to satisfy Assured Water Supply requirements. The district’s agreements with tribes include repeated leases of Long‑Term Storage Credits (LTSC) from the Tohono O’odham Nation, as well as the 2019 GRIC LTSC package, which included a one‑time permanent transfer of 445,375 AF of LTSC—which is the largest tribal-municipal transfer in the United States to date—and established the framework for ongoing LTSC exchanges between the Phoenix and Pinal AMAs, which provides CAGRD with a durable, multi‑year mechanism to use as replenishment needs shift across AMAs. The CAWCD–CRIT agreement adds a new dimension to that history by incorporating federally authorized leasing and conservation generated under Exhibit S.