Arizona Revisits Plans for Withdrawing Water Reserves

Arizona has excelled at storing water in preparation for future droughts. The challenge now is how cities will access that water when they need it.

1 minute read

August 28, 2018, 9:00 AM PDT

By Elana Eden


Lake Powell

Wolfgang Staudt / Flickr

Arizona has taken advantage of its access to the Colorado River over the years to store more than 3.6 million acre-feet of water, making the state a national leader in saving up water for future dry spells. There's just one problem: how to get it out.

Some of the largest storage facilities in the state have no infrastructure to pump water to the cities they serve. As dry years and water shortages loom on the horizon, access to those reserves is becoming increasingly urgent. Tony Davis reports on the conundrum in the Arizona Daily Star, covering the practical and political questions facing the effort to create a new recovery plan by the end of this year.

Monday, August 20, 2018 in Arizona Daily Star

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