Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey gave his State of the State address on Monday. In his eighth address, which a governor has not done since former Gov. Bruce Babbitt in 1986, the governor hit on familiar themes such as tax cuts, crime, school choice and border security. He also spoke about water issues.
Ducey recalled the foresight of Arizona’s past leaders in creating the Central Arizona Project, the Salt River Project, Hoover Dam and Roosevelt Dam. He also mentioned his more recent legislative victory resulting in the passage of the Drought Contingency Plan (DCP). Of course, past infrastructure accomplishments fed growth in Central Arizona and Tucson. The efforts behind the DCP were aimed at mitigating cuts to the state’s Colorado River allocation.
Nothing in Ducey’s speech, however, mentioned any type of protections for Rural Arizona’s groundwater. Some large out-of-state corporate agricultural entities and developers have targeted these areas because they have no restrictions on groundwater pumping. Furthermore, state law prohibits Rural Arizona from having any ability to manage their own groundwater resources.
Gov. Doug Ducey
Office of the Governor
In a press release the governor gave lip service to “encouraging further reuse and efficiency with current supplies,” but his speech made it obvious that his focus is on finding more water for Central Arizona to accommodate more growth.
Some environmentalists may oppose any type of water augmentation and think conservation is the only way to manage this arid state’s limited water resources. At the other end of the spectrum, others tout bringing in water from the Great Lakes or the floodwaters of the Mississippi River. A more realistic approach, however, should include a menu of conservation options as well as some water augmentation where feasible.
US Geological Survey
In terms of the feasible, most of the public policy discussion centers on the desalination processis as the most realistic way to increase Arizona’s water supply. Desalination, however, is not cheap and the quantity of water a facility produces will not create a Colorado River kind of supply. In the past, the Central Arizona Project (CAP) has delivered 1.4 million acre-feet per year through its canal. The delivery rate for the CAP municipal and industrial contract for 2022 is $192 per acre-foot. By contrast, the largest desal plant in the United States, the Poseidon plant in Carlsbad, California, optimally produces about 56,000 acre-feet per year at a cost of almost $2700 per acre-foot. Ouch! 2019_09_26FormalBoardPacketSEC_0.pdf (sdcwa.org)
Poseidon Desalination Plant in Carlsbad, California
Poseidonwater.com
Desalinizing brackish groundwater may cost much less. According to a CH2M Hill study the costs range from $488-977 per acre-foot, but even that study was cited almost 11 years ago. Public-Private Partnerships Recommended for Desalination Financing | wrrc.arizona.edu
For the upcoming budget, Ducey wants to spend $1 billion for a desalination plant in partnership with Mexico, probably close to Rocky Point. A bi-national report released in 2020 estimates the cost of two side-by-side plants would cost approximately $3-4 billion and produce approximately 100,000 acre-feet each. These plants would almost double the output of the Poseidon plant at a purported cost of $2000-2200 per acre-foot. Presumably, the cost of these projects would be borne by other partners since a billion dollars will not complete their construction. Perhaps other partners, such as Salt River Project who helped pay for the study, might bear some of the cost. Gov. Doug Ducey proposes spending $1B on water infrastructure (azcentral.com)
Desal could provide another source of water, but in itself, desal will not provide the silver bullet some people want to think it will. To put it in context, due to the drought, Central Arizona must endure a cut of 128,000 acre-feet of water to its Colorado River allocation this year. At the same time, our state, along with California and Nevada are in the process of taking another voluntary cut of 500,000 acre-feet to prop up Lake Mead!
While the governor and others look to find more water for Central Arizona, Arizona’s leaders continue to overlook Rural Arizona and its water problems. Some of these areas are also experiencing either population growth and/or stress created by outside interests who have exploited the region’s groundwater resources. We must not simply continue a Maricopa-centric focus at the state level while ignoring serious water resource issues outside of the Phoenix metro area.