A tribal government building on the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona. Photo from Facebook
The Gila River Indian Community has entered a long-term deal to sell some of its water to the city of Chandler, Arizona. The tribe will receive nearly $43 million from the city over a 100-year period, The Arizona Republic reported. The first payment will come this year although the water won't start flowing until 2019, the paper said. "This agreement helps further the Gila River Indian Community’s goal to expand its agricultural development by exchanging water with Chandler that are less costly than using CAP water and generating revenue that will be used to address the rising cost of CAP water,'' the tribe said in a statement to the paper. Some of the tribe's water rights are delivered through the Central Arizona Project. Most of that water is used for agriculture, according to the tribe's website. The tribe's rights to CAP were secured through a settlement between the state and the federal government. Congress ratified the settlement through the Arizona Water Settlements Act of 2004. As a result of numerous settlements, some 47 percent of the CAP supply now goes to tribes in the state, according to the project. The tribes are entitled to sell, lease or distribute their shares as they see fit. "This makes CAP the largest single provider of Colorado River water to Native American water users in the Colorado River system," the project states on its website. More on the Story:
Chandler pays $43 million for some of Gila River tribe's water (The Arizona Republic 8/9)
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