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Implementing the DCP in Arizona: Tom Buschatzke of the ADWR Lake Mead.
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he Colorado River supplies nearly 40 percent of Arizona’s water use, providing water through the Central Arizona Project (CAP) to farmers, municipalities, and tribal water users. CAP’s service area covers Arizona’s biggest cities, including Tucson and Phoenix, as well as nine Native American tribes and the productive agricultural land around Yuma. Given the crucial role of the Colorado River in supporting Arizona’s population and industry, the state had a strong interest in a robust and effective Drought Contingency Plan (DCP). In this interview, Tom Buschatzke of the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) speaks with Irrigation Leader Managing Editor Joshua Dill about the planning and implementation of the DCP in Arizona. Joshua Dill: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
22 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER
Joshua Dill: Would you give us a basic explanation of why the DCP was needed? Tom Buschatzke: The end goal of the DCP is to lower the risk of Lake Mead falling to critically low elevations. In 2007, an agreement was put together on interim guidelines for the coordinated operations of Lake Powell and Lake Mead when shortage criteria obtained. Those guidelines were also intended to lower the risk of Lake Mead falling to those unhealthy levels. At the time, the risk was in the single digits. Over time, because of the ongoing drought and other issues, that risk started to climb. In some hydrological scenarios, the risk had risen as high as 45 percent. The actions taken under the DCP are intended to reduce that risk back down into the single digits by 2026, the end of the plan period. Joshua Dill: Would you tell us about the planning process by which the different states came to the agreement as it exists now, and how your agency contributed to Arizona’s position?
PHOTO COURTESY OF ADWR.
Tom Buschatzke: In 1982–83, as a graduate student at Arizona State University, I interned at the ADWR. I then became a permanent employee of the department, working various jobs and moving up the ranks to become a program manager in the Water Rights Adjudication Section. In March 1988, I left the department to work for the City of Phoenix. I worked for 14 years in the City of Phoenix’s Law Department on water rights and other issues, then moved in 2002 to a position as water resources policy advisor in the city manager’s office. In summer 2011, the director of the ADWR asked me to come back as assistant
director, officially overseeing all the policy prescriptions and programs performed by the department, including regulatory programs under the 1980 Groundwater Management Act. I was in that position until January 2015, when Governor Ducey nominated me to be director. My nomination was confirmed by the Senate as required by law, and I have been the director since then.
