The water melting from the upper reaches of the Salt-Verde Watershed is well below normal around 60 percent, but compared to last year, one of the driest on record, it’s an improvement.
James Walter, a meteorologist with the Salt River Project, said the utility is getting "quite a bit more" water this year. Overall, SRP expects about 330,000 acre feet of water this year.
“But we have to go all the way back to 2010 to see a year where we’ve seen above normal runoff into the reservoirs," Walter said.
While there wasn’t much snow this winter, there was more rain. Walter said that helped replenish the reservoirs, which are now at just under 60 percent capacity. The utility will also pump groundwater to supplement what it received from the snowpack.
