The Salt River Project has re-opened one of Arizona’s largest water storage facilities to assist in Arizona's drought.
For more than a year, the Granite Reef Underground Storage Project (GRUSP) in the east Valley was offline.
Storms and flooding washed out an important water delivery channel, but has now been reconstructed, meaning that water stored in the aquifer underneath the recharge basins will be available to six Valley municipalities.
This comes at a crucial time as a likely shortage declaration on the Colorado River will be announced later this summer.
“That’s exactly what this water has been stored for is to be prepared for future droughts and shortages so that we do this in partnership with Valley cities . They’ve stored water here that they’ll be able to call upon in a future shortage,” said Christa McJunkin with the Salt River Project.
GRUSP makes up part of SRP’s expansive water portfolio, which includes water from the Salt & Verde rivers along with groundwater.
Since its completion in the mid 90s, GRUSP has recharged over one-million acre-feet of water, which is enough to fill Saguaro Lake 17 times.
To learn more about GRUSP, click here.
