Arizona heads East
The Mississippi mirage ... A legislative deluge ... And a secret pool party.
The Phoenix, Pinal, and Tucson Active Management Areas have a combined annual overdraft of 481,000 acrefeet, per the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR).
That’s 16 Empire State Buildings filled with water. Or: Lake Pleasant holds about 512,000 acrefeet as of today — if that helps you grok the volume of the overdraft.
Talking about big water volumes can be hard. That’s where the Water Agenda comes in.
The important point here is that we’re using more water than we’re getting, which means our groundwater reserves are going down. And making necessary cutbacks to our Colorado River allotments will be painful.
But Republican state Rep. Gail Griffin, who famously doesn’t like limiting Arizona’s water demands, is determined to solve this problem by adding more water to our supply side.
She kicked off this session’s first House Natural Resources Energy and Water (NREW) committee meeting, where she’s chairwoman, with two water augmentation-focused items:
HCM2003 is a concurrent memorial urging ADWR and the State Land Department to invest in groundwater recharge projects in rural areas.
HCR2016 is a concurrent resolution making a commitment on behalf of the Legislature to, when funds are available in the state budget, give more money to the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority, or as she puts it in the resolution, “reinstating the full appropriation envisioned and needed to secure new water supplies and enter strategic partnerships with the private sector.”
She’s talking about the plan former Gov. Doug Ducey set in motion in 2022 — a $1 billion “Long-Term Augmentation Fund” for the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) to seek new water supplies. The program’s $333 million allotment for 2024 was cut amid budget shortfalls.
The Long-Term Augmentation Fund requires that 75% of any new water sources come from out of state. You may have heard about a desalination plant at the Sea of Cortez in Mexico, or a pipeline to carry water from the Mississippi River, that WIFA has been exploring.
During the recent committee meeting, Griffin said “there’s flood water that could be moved into the state, for instance,” referring to the Mississippi. It’s not a new idea — she co-sponsored a concurrent resolution back in 2021, HCM2004, telling the same story:
“…Whereas, a new water source could help augment Colorado River supplies; and
Whereas, Denver, Colorado is successfully harvesting floodwater from the Missouri River to help alleviate its water shortage; and
Whereas, in wet years, the Mississippi River reaches flood level with a resulting loss of vast quantities of water into the Gulf of Mexico;...”While Denver had proposed building a floodwater pipeline from the Missouri River, they never actually built one, as a Denver Water spokesperson told the Republic’s Joanna Allhands.
But could we actually get water from the Mississippi? Let’s take a look.
If the Colorado River is the overworked mule of the Southwest, the Mississippi River is the wild, unruly thoroughbred of the Midwest, dumping an average of 4.5 million gallons per second into the Gulf of Mexico.
Proposals to divert water from the Mississippi to various thirsty states date back decades. The most recent revival imagines pulling water from Louisiana, where flooding is particularly problematic for local communities.
WaterX: As a feat of engineering, it’s not impossible. We’ve built pipelines for oil and natural gas that span thousands of miles. But water is heavier and less valuable per gallon, and moving it 1,600 miles at a 4,600-foot elevation gain across the Rocky Mountains would require colossal pumping stations and enormous amounts of energy — a Sisyphean feat. And a recent study found that this pipeline would need to be a whopping 88 feet in diameter, which would entail untold levels of eminent domain and right-of-way problems.
Political Dams: The ten states that rely on the Mississippi and its tributaries have their own interests, and many have already signaled their unwillingness to share.
The Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, a coalition of mayors along the river, unanimously approved a proposal for a Mississippi River Compact to block large-scale diversions. The idea mirrors the Great Lakes Compact, which has successfully prevented water exports from the Great Lakes Basin.
“We have to get something into play because the western states at some point in time will be coming after Missouri's water,” said Missouri state Rep. Jamie Burger, who also proposed legislation to ban river water exports.
There would also be a Herculean review permitting process required by the federal government, and all kinds of objections from those who have riparian water rights along the river.
Enviros hate it: During droughts, Mississippi water levels can drop precariously, which strains ecosystems and wildlife habitats. And diverting water to the Colorado could introduce pollutants and invasive species like silver carp and bighead carp from the Mississippi.
And while Louisiana does suffer from floods, the silty Mississippi actually deposits sediment which strengthens the shoreline and acts as a protective barrier against hurricanes.
“You’d be swapping one ecological catastrophe for another,” says Erik Johnson of the National Audubon Society.
The cost: Estimates suggest the pipeline would cost upwards of $23 billion to construct, and that doesn’t include the costs of acquiring land, permitting, maintenance, and energy for pumping stations.
After all that, the price of water delivered to Arizona would be at least $1,700 per acrefoot — compared to the $250 per acrefoot that Colorado River water costs us.
The benefit: In good years, this pipeline would deliver 600,000 acrefeet annually. But of course that would have to be split among the seven Colorado basin states. If we got an even split, it’d be an 85,000-acrefoot dent in Central Arizona’s 481,000 acrefoot annual overdraft.
Survey says: State officials rightly say that we’ve got to put all options on the table. And, one day, even astronomical costs per gallon will likely be agreed to as demand grows.
But this project would also need to be on the table for the Mississippi River states and the federal government, which doesn’t sound likely.
“All the feasible [pipeline projects] have largely been done... the ones that are left are the ones that weren’t done because they just turned out not to be feasible,” as John Fleck of the University of New Mexico put it.
Expect the allure of the Mississippi to persist — a mirage for desperate legislators who want to kick the watering can down the road.
Bill Tracking
A deluge of water bills is already starting to flow through the Capitol — we’re tracking 61 and counting.
Here’s an overview by the numbers:
Republican Rep. Gail Griffin: 22 bills
Democratic Rep. Christopher Mathis: Eight bills
Democratic Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton: Six bills
Democratic Sen. Priya Sundareshan: Six bills
Republican Rep. Lupe Diaz: Four bills
Republican Sen. Tim Dunn: Three bills
One bill each: Reps. Stacey Travers (D), Quantá Crews (D), Selina Bliss (R), Pamela Carter (D), Sarah Liguori (D), and Sens. Jake Hoffman (R), and TJ Shope (R)
AMA-related bills: 10
“Vehicle” bills for future strike-everything amendments: 6
Bills sponsored by Griffin scheduled to be heard at next week’s meeting of the House Natural Resources, Water and Energy Committee, which she chairs: 10
Other bills to be heard at the meeting: Zero
Bills you’ll know about if you subscribe to the Water Agenda: All of them.
Sippin’ on my sewage: The federal government is giving an $86.7 million boost to the City of Tuscon to build a wastewater-to-drinking-water plant by 2031, the Republic’s Clara Migoya reports. In exchange, the city will give up 56,000 acrefeet of its Colorado River allotment in Lake Mead over the next decade. The City of Goodyear is expanding its Rainbow Valley Water Reclamation Facility for the same purpose, aiming to treat 16 million gallons per day by 2030.
Water detectives: For the first time since 1987, the Arizona Department of Water Resources’ field hydrologists are sweeping Eastern Arizona’s groundwater basins, measuring water levels in wells to get a clearer picture of the state’s declining water levels. The targeted subbasins are Bonita Creek, Duncan Valley, Gila Valley, Morenci and San Carlos Valley.
Ok, GenX: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has joined 22 states in an amicus brief supporting federal limits on PFAS or "forever chemicals" in drinking water, reports Judd Slivka for 12News. The six specific PFAS being targeted are called PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, PFNA, PFBS and, believe it or not, GenX.
Where’s the canal?: Due to security concerns, the Central Arizona Project headquarters isn’t able to give visitors a closer look at the massive canal that delivers water from the Colorado. So they’re designing a Water Education Center to make up for it. The center will have interactive exhibits, and it already has some sweet artist renderings for its design.
No bark, no bite: Arizona’s supposed corporate watchdogs, the Arizona Corporation Commission, just approved streamlined annual rate hikes for the 300 utilities in the state. The vote was passed by three of the ACC’s Republicans, Chairman Jim O’Connor and Commissioners Nick Myers and Kevin Thompson, who claim gradual, regular adjustments are preferable to the typical two-to-three-year process for rate changes. Sarah Barrios Cool, the attorney for the Residential Utility Consumer Office, the state’s watchdog-for-our-watchdog agency, disagrees.
“Formula rates will upend over 100 years of rate-making in Arizona. Residential customers will likely pay much more under formula rates,” Cool told Joseph K Giddens with Sedona Red Rock News.
Let’s be friends: The Friends of the Verde River non-profit is awarding grants for projects that will conserve Verde River water. Homeowners, businesses, non-profits, and municipalities can all apply for grants from $1,000 to $5,000.
Goldwater vs Water: The Goldwater Institute is suing Gov. Katie Hobbs over her tightened restrictions on housing development water requirements. Goldwater claims the new 100-year forecast models for “unmet demand” are unreasonable and illegal, and that the ADWR are untrustworthy “faceless bureaucrats.”
Animal housing crisis: Republican Rep. Gail Griffin issued a statement on Tuesday slamming Hobbs for failing to fund “long-term water augmentation, rural water supply development, water conservation, or groundwater recharge projects.” She then went for the kill by claiming that Hobbs is “more interested in building new homes for fish and birds than building new homes for hard-working Arizonans.”
For your viewing pleasure, a trail cam montage of mountain lions, a bear, deer, skunk, ring-tailed cat, fox, bat and a few birds at a “Hidden Mountain Pool” somewhere in Arizona:
481,000 acre feet annual overdraft, how much is that, percentage wise? Are we overdrawn by 5% annually, 25% annually?