While recent storms and flooding may suggest the opposite, Arizona, along with much of the West Coast, is experiencing damagingly high levels of drought. Fortunately, the city of Phoenix will remain hydrated even when the streets dry up.
“Right now our average customer is using 108 gallons a day, which is really good,” said Brandy Kelso, water services deputy director for the city of Phoenix. “While we have grown, we’ve been able to use about the same amount of water.”
On Sept. 18, Kelso, along with water resources adviser Cliff Neal, presented to the Environmental Quality Commission on Phoenix water use and availability.
“What you use outside is basically used and lost,” Neal said. “What you use inside goes into the reclaim system, which is then used for other purposes.”
Phoenix currently draws from four major water sources: reclaimed waste waters, the Central Arizona Project (also called CAP) and the Salt and Verde rivers (also called SRP and groundwater).
“We’re down to about 3 percent groundwater per year. That used to be, in the mid-80s, about 20 to 25 percent,” Kelso said.
Kelso elaborated that this change in percentage is the result of a deliberate reduction in the use of groundwater as Phoenix leans more heavily on its more viable sources.
“We’ve done a really good job over the last several years of trying to become less dependent on groundwater so that we can save it for drought conditions and in times of emergency,” Kelso said.
The preservation of groundwater allows Phoenix to offset potential shortages of water from CAP or SRP supplies.
While Phoenix has experienced record-breaking rainfall, this surplus of water on the roads does not actually impact available water supplies.
“The water supply comes from snowpack up in the three upper basin states: Colorado, Utah and Wyoming,” Neal said.
Neal went on to offer figures demonstrating large increases of available water, as Phoenix does not currently need to use all the CAP water it is entitled to.
“We still have significant room to grow into the existing supplies we have,” Neal said.
Additionally, through recharging efforts, the Water Resources Department has been able to maintain aquifers as a way of water storage.
“The recharge in the service area is higher than what we’re pumping out,” Neal said.
Commission Chair Jeremy Stapleton brought up his concern about water availability for agricultural land, and how the transition between agriculture and urban use could create problems.
“Another question I have is around food security (…) we’re going to transition those farms to houses, but how do we do that while still preserving local agriculture,” Stapleton asked. “The doomsday scenario (is) ‘oops sorry, we don’t have enough water to deliver to the farm,’ so we actually have no agricultural production.”
“We’re lucky that, in the city of Phoenix, there’s not a whole lot of farms left relative to other places,” Kelso said. “We don’t have to deal with that as much as some communities…as a state I know we’re concerned about that.”
“Everything that Cliff and I have presented is purely what we have from an industry and municipal standpoint,” Kelso said.
Stapleton pointed out that while water use has kept up with city growth, the city anticipates even more expansion.
“We’re going to have twice as many homes by 2050,” Stapleton said.
Because of this, the Water Resources Department has run scenarios through 2050, experimenting with shortages and excess of water along with high and low demand.
“How will the drought affect Phoenix? We’ve secured a diverse amount of supplies over the years, as you’ve seen,” Neal said. “We don’t anticipate an effect on our ability to meet customer demands for a number of years into the future, even if the drought extends on.”
Contact the reporter at grsandle@asu.edu
