The agreement replaces an existing agreement with the Roosevelt Irrigation District (RID). The ability to store water in the RID lands provides an alternative for storing Central Arizona Project (CAP) water in return for Long-Term Storage Credits (LTSCs).

1. Approve the Groundwater Facility Agreement between the Roosevelt Irrigation District and the City of Goodyear, Arizona.
    
2. Authorize and direct the City Manager or her designee to take any and all actions to execute all documents necessary to carry out the intent of these agreements. (Gretchen Erwin, Water Resources and Sustainability Manager)

Storage at the Groundwater Savings Facility will be on a calendar year basis.  The city will not incur any operational or administrative costs under the terms of this agreement.  Instead, RID shall pay to Goodyear an amount agreed to annually in writing.  In 2020 and 2021, RID paid Goodyear $25 per acre-foot for the CAP water.

The city has a Municipal & Industrial subcontract with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation giving the city the right to purchase up to 10,742 acre-feet per year (AFY) of Colorado River water and a lease with the Gila River Indian Community for 7,000 AFY of Colorado River water.

Historically, the city has stored the CAP water it has ordered in a CAP-owned recharge facility, which allowed the city to earn Long-Term Storage Credits (LTSCs) that could be recovered and used to offset the city's withdrawals from wells within the city's service area. Recovering LTSCs allows the city to meet its renewable water supply requirements under the city's Designation of Assured Water Supply.

On June 22, 2020, Council approved a similar agreement between RID and the City of Goodyear ("June 2020 RID Agreement"). The June 2020 RID Agreement allows the city to store annually a specified volume of the city's CAP water in a Groundwater Savings Facility on RID lands in return for LTSCs, and allows SRP to recover the credits using their wells in exchange for delivering the stored CAP water to the city using the SRP canals.

Storing water in the RID lands allows the city the flexibility to recover the LTSCs from SRP owned wells that can deliver water to the new Surface Water Treatment Facility. This adds another source of water to the plant. This new agreement is needed as RID is updating all agreements with all of the entities that store water with them to eliminate inconsistencies among the agreements. The terms of the new agreement are essentially the same as the previous agreement with two exceptions: 1) It will eliminate the priority system in which Goodyear had the lowest priority of all the storers which is a benefit to Goodyear, and 2) RID will not commit to specific pricing in the agreement. This is in reference to money that RID pays Goodyear in return for the savings they receive from not pumping. This is understandable as the new agreement will continue indefinitely.  The city will negotiate pricing prior to committing to store water with the area's available storage facilities.  Goodyear will determine which facility offers the most economic and strategic water storage advantages each year prior to ordering our CAP water. RID will be competing with other storage facilities for our water. This agreement will replace the previous agreement dated June 22, 2020.