A new proposal for managing the Colorado River would see Arizona leaving some of its water in the river, but would help cities and towns in the Phoenix area avoid the “devastating” cutbacks that had been previously planned.
The plan, which was co-signed by Arizona, California and Nevada, is designed to prop up major reservoirs through 2028 while easing deep cuts to the Central Arizona Project. The CAP is a 336-mile canal system that carries Colorado River water to the Phoenix and Tucson areas.
The nation’s two largest reservoirs — Lake Powell and Lake Mead — have been on course for all-time lows after a 26-year megadrought was compounded by the most recent winter, which set records for dry conditions.
The federal government had proposed a plan to boost those reservoirs by making cutbacks in Arizona, which local water leaders described as disproportionately harmful to the CAP. The proposal cast a wave of anxiety over cities and towns that depend on its water. In Cave Creek, for example, those plans would have taken away nearly 60% of the town’s Colorado River supply, which accounts for nearly all of the water that flows through city pipes.
Officials with the Central Arizona Project said the federal proposal was trying to “wipe us off the map” and hinted that they might pursue legal action if it was enacted.
This new proposal would steer the Valley away from that reality.
“It's the difference between devastating, impossible to manage cuts that would have real impacts on some of those communities’ residents, to something that's manageable,” said Patrick Dent, CAP’s assistant general manager of water policy.
The previous federal plan could have made 237,000 acre-feet of water available to CAP, according to Dent. The new three-state plan would more than double that amount, making about 820,000 acre-feet available to the agency.
An acre-foot is roughly the amount of water it would take to cover a football field with one foot of water. The Arizona Department of Water resources says one acre-foot is roughly a year’s supply of water for three homes in the Phoenix area.
The new proposal, which was developed with input from the Central Arizona Project, may also help steer the CAP or Arizona away from a courtroom battle with the federal government.
“We're hopeful,” Dent said, “for the next three years, when it comes to litigation over cuts that they might implement, that if they choose this, then it might provide some reasonable shelter from litigation.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: The story has been updated to correct Patrick Dent's quote about the impacts of the new proposal.
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