Arizona cities cut deal to store more water in Lake Mead
by Tony David | Arizona Daily Star
Mitch Basefsky from Central Arizona Project talked to the Pinal Partnership Water Resources Committee n November about Colorado River shortages and conservation. There’s a 50% chance there will be a tier 1 shortage declared (with no additional conservation efforts) in 2017 which happens when the water level is below 1,075 feet. There are recovery plans in place.
Phoenix and Tucson have reached another water-sharing agreement: to store a substantial amount of Phoenix’s Colorado River supply in the Tucson area next year even as Tucson leaves a substantial portion of its supply in ailing Lake Mead.
Tucson will leave nearly 20 percent of its Central Arizona Project water supply in Mead next year, in hopes of propping up the declining lake and pushing back the date of shortages that would cut deliveries, particularly to cities.
Tucson and Phoenix also have agreed to have Phoenix store much more of its CAP supply in a Tucson-area underground aquifer next year than planned. The upshot of the deal is that even though Tucson will leave a lot of water in Lake Mead, it will still put even more CAP into its Avra Valley recharge basins next year than it normally does.
