Following one of the driest winters on record, and with communities in the Southwest in the grips of drought, the topic of water is on the minds of many. In the Grand Canyon state, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) recently released Arizona’s Next Century: A Strategic Vision for Water Supply Sustainability. This report identifies potential long-term imbalances between available water supplies and demands. The document states, “While the state as a whole is not currently facing an immediate water crisis, Arizona is at a point where it must begin to face future water supply and management challenges.”
Municipalities throughout the state are in various stages of strategic planning. In Flagstaff, city staff is continuing progress on acquiring water from Red Gap Ranch 40 miles east of the city. Voters approved a bond process to purchase the ranch in 2005, expected to significantly supplement the water supply. Flagstaff’s Utilities Director Brad Hill says the water rights deal with the Navajo Nation has been signed and now officials are working to determine the best path for transporting the water. “We have looked at pathways and the favorite is along the interstate.”
Determining the best procedure for transferring water from Red Gap to Flagstaff has created a delay in the process; Hill says the newly released state water report specifically addresses the Arizona Department of Transportation, suggesting it resolves right-of-way issues for utilities. “The Department of Water Resources recognized that it is important for them to use ADOT’s right of ways across the state. So Flagstaff is at the tip of that, the forefront of that question,” Hill added. After the selected route is finalized, the pipeline’s conceptual design and location of a facility will be determined. Questions about cost and minimizing environmental impacts will be considered along with public input.
Maintaining Flagstaff’s superior water taste will also be a concern, says Hill, as Red Gap water is integrated into current sources. “We would be very smart before we co-mingle those water supplies that we determine if, A, there is going to be a quality difference and, B, how do we want to treat for that?” Water in the Winslow area typically has more minerals, which makes it taste saltier, noted Hill. “We will be paying attention when that time comes.”
Like officials from the city, many others have studied the recently released DWR report. Water resources expert Abe Springer, Ph.D., is interested in how the state will address water management within the current drought. “That’s not part of that long term planning process [in the report] but that happens to be our current management issue,” said Springer, who is a professor at Northern Arizona University. He said the last really dry period between 2000-2003 led to planning changes. “Our state put together our drought planning processes in response to that; this will be an interesting time to see how well the drought plans and mitigations are implemented and how they function.”
Springer serves as adviser to watershed groups in the state who contribute to water management policy. He describes the Department of Water Resources document as a standard water supply planning approach, where supply is compared with anticipated future demands. “What is a bit unique about this current planning process is recognizing that there aren’t really a lot of the traditional sources left to tap anymore. So there is a bit more looking to alternatives that we’ve never considered before as part of that long-range plan.” The state’s action outline calls for beginning discussions on ocean desalination this year, as well as identifying funding mechanisms for large-scale water importation projects.
Managing the state’s vegetation may also affect water yields by reducing evaporation. The Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI), for example, is working to restore forest ecosystems in Northern Arizona by reducing tree populations and reintroducing a normal fire regime. “We’ve spent a lot of time looking at the role planned forest restoration projects have on our hydrologic systems,” said Springer.
He says studies from the 1950s to the 1980s in the Beaver Creek Experimental Water Shed provide historical data about the hydrological response, supporting restoration processes. 80 percent of annual precipitation is lost to evaporation, says Springer. “So when you thin the forest back to a more park-like open condition good studies have shown from our foresters that it reduces evapotranspiration 12 to 15 percent.” This science has been incorporated into managing resources in the region, including the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Program. “It is just another potential benefit from it (4FRI),” said Springer. There may not be much of a hydrological benefit, he adds, but if it offsets a climate change, as the state continues to plan for its future water supplies, that’s a good thing. FBN
The Arizona Department of Water Resources report can be found at:
http://www.azwater.gov/AzDWR/Arizonas_Strategic_Vision/
By Theresa Bierer
Flagstaff Business News