The Salt River Project announced that it was reopening its Granite Reef Underground Storage Project, also known as GRUSP, on Wednesday to assist with the drought in Arizona.
GRUSP is one of the state’s largest water-banking facilities and it was taken offline last year after the intake delivery channel was washed out in a flood during one of last year’s few storms. The channel has since been reconstructed and water recharge will resume this month.
GRUSP was originally constructed in 1994 with expansions in 1999, 2000 and 2005 that resulted in seven total basins. The facility is located on Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community land, north of State Route 202 in Mesa. GRUSP is jointly owned by Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, SRP, Chandler, Gilbert, Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale and Tempe and operated by SRP.
Underground water storage works by flooding the porous basins and allowing the water to seep down into the water table and stored until it is later retrieved via well-pumping.
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