Summary:
As part of the City’s effort to ensure healthy neighborhoods, engage in smart growth, grow its economic competitiveness and provide superior public services, the City of Peoria Water Services Department takes great pride in providing a reliable and safe supply of water to its residents and businesses. The provision of water and the treatment of wastewater are measured in “acre-feet”. One acre-foot is the equivalent of being able to cover one acre of surface area, or an area about the size of a football field, to a depth on one foot, or 325,853 gallons.
The City of Peoria has a Designation of Assured Water Supply from the Arizona State Department of Water Resources (ADWR) of 69,117 acre-feet, of which the Water Services Department treats and provides over 33,959 acre-feet to its 58,000 residential and business consumer accounts. This 69,117 acre-feet is comprised of several sources: 37% of it comes from the Central Arizona Project (CAP); 36% is from surface water provided by the Salt River Project (SRP); 11% is Reclaimed Water processed by the City of Peoria; 10% stems from the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC); 5% is from Groundwater well pumping in Peoria; and the remaining 1% is from Long-term Storage Credits. Collectively, Peoria Water Services treats and distributes approximately 29 million gallons per day to its customers via the Quintero, Pyramid Peak and Greenway treatment plants, 47 well sites throughout the City and distributes it via 1,150 miles of underground water distribution lines. At the same time, the department is responsible for processing all wastewater and has three water reclamation facilities (the Jomax, Beardsley and Butler wastewater treatment plants) that safely process 12,010 acre-feet (3.9 billion gallons) of wastewater each year. The city uses this highly treated, reclaimed wastewater for irrigating landscaping, golf courses, city parks, a public school, and by recharging it into the ground for storage and future use.
The remaining unused allotment of water, 35,158 acre-feet, has been carefully assembled through prudent water acquisition decisions of past and current City Councils. In total, this represents approximately 11.5 billion gallons of water per year that are available for the future growth and build-out needs of the City. Assuming no changes to Peoria’s current water resources, there will be enough water for approximately 150,000 additional Peoria residents.
Even so, as part of the Lower Colorado River Basin, it is important to note that Peoria – as with most other Arizona Cities and Towns located in Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties – relies primarily on five sources of water continuously subject to legislation and legal oversite: a) water from the Colorado River; b) surface water; c) groundwater; d) reclaimed water (non-potable uses); e) recovered water (stored as CAP and reclaimed water). Also of note is that in general, the state of Arizona has “junior” water rights when considering the role of the Federal Government and a series of complex water-rights agreements coordinated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the states of California, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, various sovereign Native American nations, Mexico, and numerous irrigation districts throughout the southwest United States.
The Colorado River System provides water to approximately 40 million persons. It relies on two major reservoirs for storage – Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Because of a 20-year drought and the tremendous population growth in the Colorado River System area, Lake Powell is currently 45% full and Lake Mead is 38% full. In 2007, the various member states and the US Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) adopted guidelines to prevent one of these reservoirs – Lake Mead – from dropping to critical levels. In this specific case, the first critical level range is 1050 – 1075 feet. The current water level is approximately 1079 feet above sea level and is expected to drop to the critical level within the next twelve months. Because of this the Bureau of Reclamation, state agencies, and others, including the Arizona ADWR and CAP, have been working to develop a revised water policy to address what will be an initial reduction of 512,000 acre-feet of water diverted down the CAP canal to central Arizona water users. This new water policy is called the Drought Contingency Plan, or DCP. As indicated, the City of Peoria is among those who use CAP water.
Over the course of the past several months a complicated legal framework has been developed to allow the adoption of the pending DCP in Arizona. Work continues in an effort to draft and finalize all of the associated agreements by Arizona Colorado River water users and other stakeholders. The pending DCP will be presented to the State Legislature for consideration and possible enactment in mid-January. Although it is still too early to fully assess any proposed legislation, the Water Services Department will work with the City’s Intergovernmental Relations Department to address any potential water legislation not in the best interests of Peoria; monitor for any possible higher water costs charged by CAP to the City for its legal share of CAP Water; advise the City Council appropriately of any future rate implications due possible reductions; and begin revised conservation and community education efforts on more efficient uses of water.