45-2245. Acquisition and disposition of water in excess of initial quantity

A. The authority may contract with the United States for the delivery of Colorado river water in excess of the initial eighteen thousand five hundred acre-feet a year that the United States makes available to the authority.

B. The authority may apportion Colorado river water, water credits or effluent that it obtains in excess of the initial eighteen thousand five hundred acre-feet a year between municipal and industrial uses in the manner that the authority determines to be appropriate after considering the water needs of the county in which the authority is formed.

C. The authority may contract with a multi-county water conservation district or its successors or with subcontractors of a multi-county water conservation district or their successors for the delivery to the authority of Colorado river water available to the central Arizona project.

D. The authority may purchase, lease, sever, transfer or retire water rights to the Colorado river in this state.

E. The authority may lease Colorado river water apportioned to this state from Indian tribes that are entitled by decree to that water and whose reservations are located in the lower basin of the Colorado river system in this state.

F. The authority may store, recharge and recover any water or effluent available to the authority to the extent allowed under any provision of chapter 3.1 of this title and may enter into exchanges of water or of water credits within or outside the county in which the authority is formed to the extent allowed under any provision of chapter 4 of this title.

G. The authority may contract for the storage or recovery of effluent to the extent allowed under any provision of chapter 3.1 of this title and may contract for the delivery or purchase of effluent.

H. Under terms specified by the authority and subject to subsection B, the authority may enter into subcontracts with authority members and other water providers in the county where the authority is formed for the sale, exchange or other disposition of Colorado river water, water credits or effluent acquired by the authority pursuant to this section. In connection with those subcontracts, the authority may charge or impose standby or holding charges, development impact fees, connection fees, extraction fees, user fees, administrative fees or any other fees or charges that the authority determines to be necessary to recover the authority's costs of making the water, water credits or effluent available under the subcontract. The authority may impose additional fees or charges as the authority determines to be necessary or prudent to fund the acquisition of replacement supplies of water for the authority.

I. Any subcontract under this section shall require Colorado river water delivered pursuant to the subcontract to be used in the county in which the authority is formed.