PHOENIX (CN) - The city of Phoenix is taking steps to secure its water future as federal cuts to an already dwindling share of the Colorado River loom.
For decades, the city has stored extra water underground, anticipating worsening drought conditions. If the feds follow through with slashing Arizona's share of the Colorado, the cache could prevent immediate disaster but won't be enough to keep Phoenix afloat forever.
"We cannot conserve our way out of this crisis," Phoenix Water Management Resources Advisor Max Wilson told the city council Tuesday afternoon.
The council unanimously authorized city staff to begin negotiating mutual aid and transactional agreements with other Arizona municipalities, tribes and other water providers. The program, called the Secure Arizona Water Program, intends to establish an emergency reserve in which water users can set aside "small, discrete amounts of water," to provide short-term emergency resources, Wilson explained.
It would also include a reduction offset program to reduce the volume of cuts on certain entities based on priority and need, and a "water sharing sandbox" for water users to experiment with new ways to conserve water.
Phoenix and Tucson have already agreed to contribute water to the emergency reserve.
"Central and southern Arizona have very different water situations, but we're confident that by working together to develop flexible tools, we can address the water problems all across our state," Wilson said.
For years now, the seven states situated along the Colorado River Basin have tried and failed to negotiate a plan to redistribute water use after the current operating plans terminate at the end of this year. Because the states can't agree, the federal government has proposed its own range of options, none of which are very friendly to Arizona.
The city uses about 155,000 acre feet of water per year, and receives 200,000 acre feet from the Colorado. Under the Bureau of Reclamation's proposed guidelines, the state could lose access to anywhere from 25% to 100% of its share.
Water Services Director Brandy Kelso presented a number of potentialities to the council.
If the city loses access to 25% of its Colorado River share, it would need to tap into its backup supply to make ends meet. If it loses 50%, it would be forced to empty its underground storage. Only by using up essentially all of its groundwater would Phoenix be able to survive more than 10 years if 75% of its share were cut.
"We manage groundwater as a finite resource," Kelso said, explaining how long it takes to replenish once used.
There is no workable solution if the city is cut off from the Colorado entirely.
Phoenix has already taken other steps to increase its supply of non-Colorado River water.
Under the Pure Water Phoenix Program, the city is developing three new wastewater reclamation facilities Kelso says could add as much as 50,000 acre feet to the city's annual supply. The city council already gave its approval for the first facility, and the city received a $179 million grant from the Bureau of Reclamation to build the second. The third facility will be regionally controlled, under cooperation with other water providers across the valley.
"We expect that all three of these facilities will be completed within the next 10 years," Kelso said. "This equates to about 25% of our Colorado River allocation."
On the Verde River, the Salt River Project is moving ahead with plans to increase the height of the Bartlett Dam by 100 feet, increasing the amount of floodwater it can capture and deliver to Phoenix. How much water it adds to the total supply will depend greatly on the frequency and intensity of flood events, but Wilson said it could add as much as 10,000 acre feet per year.
"While the entire Colorado river basin has a problem, Phoenix and its partners have a plan," Wilson said. "By taking these steps, water users across the state can work together to solve water problems."
Council members touted the city's conservation accomplishments, namely using 16% less water today than it did in 1985, despite the population more than tripling since then. Councilmember Jim Waring lamented that despite Phoenix's efforts, "at this point it's somewhat out of our hands."
Waring encouraged city staff to advocate not only for Phoenix but also for its sister cities, and to leverage the federal government's interests, pointing to the current war in Iran, where the U.S. has launched more than 1,000 Tomahawk missiles. Tomahawk missiles are primarily manufactured by Raytheon in Tucson.
"If Tucson has no water, then I guess no Tomahawks," he said. "The rest of the country will notice if that was suddenly gone."
The Phoenix Water Management team plans to return to the city council in the fall to discuss upgrading the city from a stage one to a stage two drought declaration, by which time the Bureau of Reclamation may have already imposed its plans for the future of the Colorado River.
Source: Courthouse News Service
