45-2471. Interstate water banking agreements

A. The authority may negotiate and enter into interstate water banking agreements with appropriately authorized agencies in California and Nevada, if all of the following apply:

1. The provisions of section 45-2427, subsection C have been met.

2. The director and at least two other voting members of the commission vote in agreement to enter into an interstate banking agreement.

3. The authority shall not enter into agreements with California and Nevada agencies that require the authority to reduce Arizona diversions from the Colorado river more than a total of one hundred thousand acre-feet of water in any one year.

4. No interstate banking agreement may be inconsistent with the decree.

B. In each interstate water banking agreement, the authority may agree to store Colorado river water in Arizona so that the stored water may be used in place of Arizona diversions from the Colorado river in years in which the California or Nevada agency requests water from the authority.

C. In each interstate water banking agreement, the California or Nevada agency shall agree to pay to the authority all costs that are or will be incurred by the authority in storing and recovering Colorado river water pursuant to the interstate banking agreement. The costs include all of the following:

1. The cost of acquiring Colorado river water.

2. The cost of delivering that Colorado river water through the central Arizona project to a storage facility, including fees for the operation, maintenance, pumping energy and capital costs of the central Arizona project as established by CAWCD.

3. Amounts equivalent to taxes ordinarily paid by CAWCD subcontractors and their customers to pay for the repayment, operation and maintenance costs of the central Arizona project, to the extent those equivalent amounts are not collected by paragraph 8 of this subsection.

4. The cost of storing that Colorado river water.

5. The cost of constructing, operating and maintaining a storage facility to the extent that facility stores water for the California or Nevada agency.

6. The cost of recovering the stored water and delivering it to Colorado river water users in this state to use in place of Colorado river water that would otherwise be used.

7. A fee equivalent to the approximate amount of administrative, legal and technical expenses incurred by the authority in storing water for the California or Nevada agency, recovering that stored water and making an equivalent amount of Colorado river water available to the California or Nevada agency.

8. Any fee paid in lieu of taxes pursuant to section 48-3715, subsection B by the authority in acquiring the water to be stored.

D. In each water banking agreement, the authority shall agree that in years in which the California or Nevada agency requests recovery of water stored in Arizona, the authority shall cause a decrease in Arizona diversions from the Colorado river by the amount of water requested for recovery by the California or Nevada agency, thus creating unused entitlement for delivery to that agency by the United States secretary of the interior pursuant to article ii(b)(6) of the decree. These banking agreements may provide that during years when the secretary of the interior has declared a shortage on the Colorado river, no decrease in Arizona diversions shall be required.

E. Each interstate banking agreement shall specify that if the California or Nevada agency breaches the terms of the agreement the authority shall cease creating unused entitlement for that entity until the breach is cured.