by Joseph Olsen, General Manager, Metro Water District
Numerous news articles, both local and national, have been written about the Cities of Phoenix and Tucson entering into an agreement for Phoenix to store a share of its Central Arizona Project (CAP) water at Tucson’s underground recharge facilities in preparation for projected municipal and industrial (M&I) shortages of CAP water. This concept known as Inter-Active Management Area (AMA) Firming was proclaimed as innovative water management. U.S. Senator Jeff Flake even lauded Inter-AMA firming in an op-ed piece by touting its creativity that benefits both the Phoenix and Tucson communities. (Arizona Daily Star, March 23, 2015).
However, the full story was not in the media reports. While it is noteworthy that Arizona’s two largest municipalities are working together on water planning during a statewide drought, the real story of Inter-AMA firming is about creativity and collaboration, two critical components for managing water in Arizona ahead of potential supply shortages.
The concept of Inter-AMA firming began with the questions, “How will the Arizona Water Banking Authority (AWBA) remedy the projected shortfall in meeting its M&I firming goal for the Tucson area?” and “How can the Phoenix area utilize the growing accumulation of Maricopa County water storage tax funds after AWBA meets the Phoenix AMA M&I firming goal?”
Metro Water District, a regional water entity in Southern Arizona, and Tucson Water collaborated with Phoenix and the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association (AMWUA), representing Maricopa County’s ten largest municipalities, to develop a concept in which AWBA would store water in Tucson on behalf of the Phoenix area. By doing this, more M&I water would be firmed in the Tucson area while also providing a benefit to Phoenix M&I users. During severe future shortages, CAP water could be delivered directly to the Phoenix area, which needs wet water delivered to its surface water treatment plants, and the water stored by AWBA could then be recovered to meet Tucson area’s needs.
Initial discussions acknowledged the benefits of using funds from the Phoenix area to purchase water for Inter-AMA firming, however due to growing demands, AWBA would have less and less access to excess CAP water, with virtually no access during shortages. Therefore, efforts were also directed to individual water providers with CAP M&I water allocations.
For Inter-AMA Firming to be realized, CAP users in the Phoenix and Tucson areas had to support it. AMWUA and the Southern Arizona Water Users Association (SAWUA), which comprises Tucson’s 15 largest water providers, agricultural water users, and reclamation departments, jointly concurred that Inter-AMA Firming would significantly help Arizona deal with future Colorado River shortages to CAP M&I users. SAWUA and AMWUA agreed that a pilot phase was important to refine the mechanics of Inter-AMA firming. Specifically, Phoenix area municipal water providers would store some of their unused CAP M&I water at Tucson area recharge facilities where the water can be recovered and used in Southern Arizona during a shortage in exchange for the Phoenix providers receiving the same amount of CAP water delivered from Tucson providers. This ensures that each region has water during a shortage through a partnership that maximizes existing resources and infrastructure.
After M&I CAP users in Pima and Maricopa Counties supported the concept, further collaboration was needed. SAWUA and AMWUA sent a joint letter of support to the Arizona Department of Water Resources, AWBA, and CAP to begin to address regulatory and operational concerns. These entities have been supportive of Inter-AMA Firming and expressed a willingness to make the concept work.
This support led to Metro Water, Tucson and Phoenix’s governing bodies approving agreements to initiate pilot projects in 2015. Under the pilot, Phoenix has ordered 150 acre-feet of its CAP allocation to be delivered and recharged at Metro’s Avra Valley Recharge Project (AVRP) in 2015. In October 2016, Metro will place an order for its 2017 CAP water and have 150 acrefeet of that CAP water delivered to Phoenix as recovered water. Metro
will then recover the 150 acre-feet that had been stored at AVRP and Metro’s order of CAP water will remain whole. Phoenix is also in the process of performing a similar pilot project with Tucson Water for 850 acre-feet of CAP water.
If the pilots are successful, Inter-AMA firming could expand among water providers with CAP M&I water subcontracts as well as AWBA. The intent is that Phoenix area water providers would help expand Tucson area recharge facilities and have a larger portion of their otherwise unused CAP water stored in the Tucson area to firm their CAP allocations, thus providing more certainty for when shortage impacts their M&I CAP supplies in the future.d
The collaborative process used to develop Inter-AMA Firming will become more essential if Arizona is to continue proactively addressing water challenges. Working together creatively generates the most beneficial solutions and is imperative for Arizona’s water future.