Water Banking in Arizona: Large-Scale Storage and Recovery  of Colorado River Water

Seasholes, Kenneth

Water Banking in Arizona: Large-Scale Storage and Recovery of Colorado River Water

Presented on Monday, March 16, 2015

Kenneth Seasholes and Laura Grignano, Resource Planning and Analysis, Central Arizona Project, Phoenix, AZ

For more than two decades, Arizona has been engaged in an ambitious effort to store Colorado River water in the aquifers of Central and Southern Arizona. Much of this has been undertaken by the Arizona Water Banking Authority, which has stored nearly 4 million acre-feet of Colorado River water delivered via the Central Arizona Project. This water has been stored through both direct recharge and by exchange with irrigation districts. The stored water will be used to provide a supplemental supply for municipal, industrial, and tribal water users during shortages on the Colorado River. More than 600,000 acre-feet is also available to Nevada as part of an innovative interstate storage and release arrangement.

This paper describes the institutional and regulatory context in which water banking occurs in Arizona, and highlights the challenges and opportunities for the future recovery (pumping) of the stored water. The authors review recovery methods and key findings from recent modeling and analysis that was performed as part of a multi-agency recovery planning effort. The paper concludes with an exploration of the role of water banking as part of an overall drought management strategy.

MP3 Presentation Slides

Kenneth Seasholes

Resource Planning and Analysis, Central Arizona Project, Phoenix, AZ

Kenneth Seasholes manages a group that has responsibility for long-range planning and policy issues within the Central Arizona Project's three-county service area, which includes 80% of Arizona's population. He is the former Tucson Area Director for the Arizona Department of Water Resources and was a researcher at Arizona's Water Resource Research Center. He holds a master's degree in geography and bachelor's in political science.

Laura Grignano

Resource Planning and Analysis, Central Arizona Project, Phoenix, AZ

Laura Grignano is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Central Arizona Project (CAP) where she works on a variety of long-range planning and policy initiatives, including serving as the lead staff person addressing the recovery of water stored by the Arizona Water Banking Authority. Prior to joining CAP, she was a resource planner with the electrical utility Arizona Public Service, and spent 13 years at the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

NGWA may only post those brown bag sessions, Webinars, event sessions, and like for which we have obtained copyright permission from the presenter. Furthermore, by accessing or downloading any of these items, you agree they are for your own personal use and may not be disseminated by any means to others via any medium. Click here to read NGWA's proprietary legend and disclaimers before proceeding.