Garnett Querta puts on his gloves as he stops the truck he drove to a park. Within seconds, he unrolls a hose and opens a fire hydrant, pumping water into the tanks of the vehicle’s low-bed trailer.
He timed. It will take five minutes and 20 seconds to fill a tank. Then it will fill the other. The water comes from underground and will be carried tens of miles across rugged landscape to supply the approximately 700,000 tourists who visit the Grand Canyon each year on the Hualapai Indian Reservation in northwestern Arizona. The tourism sector is the main source of income for the tribe.
The Colorado River flows 100 miles (160 kilometers) of Hualapai land, but the tribe does not have access to its water. A dozen tribes in the Colorado Basin are not allowed to drink the water. And now that the river’s flow is low due to too much water withdrawal, drought and man-made climate change, the tribes want the government to make sure their interests are protected.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is part of a series on the 100th anniversary of the historic “Colorado Compact,” a 1922 agreement regulating the use of the waters of the Colorado River. The series is a collaboration between Associated Press, The Colorado Sun, The Albuquerque Journal, The Salt Lake Tribune, The Arizona Daily Star and The Nevada Independent, exploring river pressures in 2022.
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The Hualapai tribe has a deal with Congress that includes $ 180 million for infrastructure. But it could be a year before an aqueduct is built and the river water reaches Peach Springs, the tribe’s main town, or the Grand Canyon West resort.
“It was the lesser of two evils,” says Phil Wisely, the tribe’s director of public services, referring to the deal. “I don’t think we could have achieved more, especially now.”
The Colorado River can no longer provide all the water needed by the 40 million people in the West who depend on it and a $ 15 billion agricultural sector. The Bureau of Water Management (Bureau of Reclamation) recently ordered water supply restrictions and asked the seven states of the Colorado Basin to find ways to conserve more water.
The tribes were not assigned water when an agreement was signed in 1922 that assigned the rights to the river water.
On the Ute Reservation, east of Salt Lake City, they’ve been negotiating for years how much water the tribe should receive.
Tribal leaders say they are tired of asking the government to protect their interests and complain that they have not been treated well.
“Until they start facing inequalities and injustices, nothing can be addressed,” said Shaun Chapoose, chairman of the Ute Business Commission.
In a statement sent to the Associated Press, the Department of the Interior did not say how tribal rights, which are federal rights, will be protected as the river recedes. He indicated that he is working with tribes affected by the drought.
In the Hualapai Reservation they have been obtaining underground water for years.
Querta’s work is exhausting, but he is well prepared to do it. It is analytical, fast and it sets goals.
The truck is heavily worn and makes multiple daily trips of nearly 30 miles on gravel and dirt roads. The exterior mirrors and rear glass are semi-loose, held in place by red tape. Any major vehicle repair or illness can knock you out. Last year he was unable to work for two weeks due to COVID-19 and no one replaced him.
“I didn’t care because I didn’t want anyone messing with my truck or my tanks,” Quert said. “I take care of the truck as if it were mine.”
The water it draws in is sent by an aqueduct from Peach Springs to the Grand Canyon West.
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Fonseca covers indigenous communities for the Associated Press team on racial and ethnic issues.
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