Across the Southwest, there’s a plan to survive a drier future. But it will come at a steep cost. Water managers in states that use the Colorado River say they have plans to make water systems more efficient as supplies shrink due to drought and climate change. A new list of potential water infrastructure projects shows the ways Arizona and its neighbors might adapt to a drier future, and the massive spending it will take to make them possible.
The list appears to follow an April meeting between Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and governors from the seven states that use water from the Colorado River. The secretary requested a sort of wish list from those states, and they returned a wide-ranging collection of more than 80 projects with ballpark cost estimates that totaled in the tens of billions of dollars.
The list, which was obtained by KJZZ, outlines more than $25 billion of potential spending in Arizona alone.
There is currently no reason to believe that the federal government will fund these projects anytime soon, if ever. However, the list provides a glimpse at the kind of work that state leaders think may be necessary to tolerate shrinking water supplies from the Colorado River.
“I think this list demonstrates the overwhelming need and opportunity to keep investing in the Colorado River Basin to improve our water outlook,” said Haley Paul, senior director for policy in the Southwest with the National Audubon Society, a conservation nonprofit. “There are big price tags with continued investment in water security, and we need to start getting used to that, that the costs aren't going down.”
The list includes a diverse group of water projects — from a desalination facility on the coast of Mexico that could cost as much as $6 billion to highly local riparian habitat restoration efforts in Utah that cost about $2 million.
Arizona pitched some highly publicized projects such as the Bartlett Dam expansion, which would allow the Phoenix area to capture more water from the Verde River at a cost of about $3.7 billion. The list also includes a $6.5 billion effort to develop wastewater recycling facilities in the Phoenix area, allowing cities to turn sewage back into clean drinking water. The list says construction on those facilities could begin as soon as 2030 and become operational as soon as 2033.
Around the rest of the Colorado River basin, the project includes many established ways to cut back on water use. Nevada listed a continuation of its work to rip out thirsty grass lawns in the Las Vegas area. California suggested lining agricultural canals with concrete, helping them hold on to more of the water they carry.
States are under pressure to cut back on demand as the amount of water in the nation’s largest reservoirs hover near record lows. Over the past decade, huge federal payments helped them do that, especially in the short term. The Biden administration designated $4 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act for Colorado River work. That funded many projects similar to the ones on the new list. Less than $100 million of that IRA money remains, according to recent testimony from a federal water official.
In May, a broad coalition of Colorado River water users called on the federal government to provide at least $2 billion in new funding for drought programs.
Previous federal payments have been used to stave off catastrophically low levels at major reservoirs, often by paying farmers and cities to use less water for a few years.
Paul, whose organization co-signed the letter asking for new federal drought funding, said future spending should be focused on long-term programs that will help the region endure a future that promises to be drier than the past, according to climate scientists.
“We can't keep spending money for short-term, one year deals,” Paul said. “We need to invest in longer-term, more durable projects that help promote the overall resilience of the system.”
