The Gila Settlement was signed into law in December 2004 as part of the Arizona Water Settlements Act. The settlement allows New Mexico to divert up to 14,000 acre-feet per year from the Gila and San Francisco Rivers and provides up to $128 million in federal subsidy for construction of a project.

The Consumptive Use and Forbearance Agreement (CUFA) is the legal agreement under the Settlement that governs the conditions under which New Mexico can divert water without harming downstream senior water rights holders. The diversion parameters do not take into consideration minimum flows and other critical parameters necessary to protect the river's ecosystem. If water were diverted according to the CUFA, flows on the Gila River would be reduced primarily in winter and spring. More data and research are needed however to address more specifically the potential impacts to the ecological values of the river.

Following through on Governor Richardson’s June 2007 policy statement, the Interstate Stream Commission (ISC) initiated in late October 2007 a series of four workshops for stakeholders involved in discussions of how funding and water will be used under the Arizona Water Settlements Act (AWSA). The workshops brought together municipal and agricultural water users, local governments, conservation groups and state and federal water and wildlife management agencies to discuss critical issues in the planning process and facilitate consensus on key goals and objectives for moving forward under the AWSA.

As a result of a lack of agreement regarding the Gila planning process, Governor Richardson vetoed $945,000 for “ Gila Basin water development” during the 2007 legislative session. The Gila-San Francisco Coordinating Committee process has been on hiatus ever since. The Governor’s policy statement laid the groundwork for developing a new planning process that establishes Gila River protection as a priority as New Mexico implements the AWSA and for redirecting the Gila planning process to analyze the range of alternatives, “with the ‘no diversion option’ as an essential part of the analysis.”

Participants in the workshops agreed to the need for increased stakeholder involvement, use of a consensus-based process, and need for identification and evaluation of the feasibility of all water supply alternatives for southwestern New Mexico. The group also developed a consensus goal for the planning process:

“Utilize the AWSA in a cost-effective manner to balance historical and future demands against uncertain supply while protecting the environment.”

Additionally, the stakeholder group agreed to support the Interstate Stream Commission’s appropriation request of $1.5 million and the categories of “studies” that the appropriation would fund:

As communities move ahead with AWSA implementation, the Gila Conservation Coalition looks forward to a process that increases stakeholder involvement, works through consensus, and identifies and assesses the broad range of water supply/demand management alternatives available to Southwestern New Mexico. We believe that fully integrating stakeholders in an open and transparent planning process and looking objectively at all of the feasible alternatives will improve our chances for a successful outcome.