The City of Phoenix is moving forward with a plan to pull less water from the Colorado River in exchange for federal funding to build a water purification facility. The city is currently negotiating how much water to give up in exchange for $300 million in federal funding.
The proposed project would be called the North Gateway Advanced Water Purification Facility, and city leaders expect it to be completed by 2030, producing 7,500 acre-feet of water annually.
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Troy Hayes, director of Water Services for the city, said, "This would be a facility that would be in the northwest part of Phoenix that would take water there and treat it, pass drinking water standards and then put that back into the system."
Hayes went on to explain that city residents likely wouldn't notice the change because, "Presumably they have the same water service that they have today. When they turn their taps on, water comes out."
Phoenix currently receives about 40% of its water from the Colorado River system. The river and its main reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are all at all-time lows due to a more than 20-year drought. All basin states are coming up with plans to reduce their usage of water from the Colorado River and find more sustainable water supplies.
