AWBA Activities

The AWBA continues to work to accomplish its mission of utilizing the unused portion of Arizona’s Colorado River allocation for recharge and development of long-term storage credits for Arizona’s future use. The recharge that is done by the AWBA utilizes Colorado River water that would otherwise not be used within Arizona.

AWBA staff meet annually with permitted recharge facility operators and Central Arizona Project (CAP) staff in developing the Annual Plan of Operation that governs the operations of the AWBA over the course of the calendar year. Further information on current funding sources and projected recharge activity can be obtained from the most recently published Annual Plan of Operation. In July, the AWBA publishes an Annual Report that shows accounting for the previous calendar year.

Arizona’s annual allocation of Colorado River water is 2.8 million acre-feet.  Total consumptive use of Colorado River water by Arizona for 2011 was approximately 2.78 million acre-feet. Of that, approximately 1.16 million acre-feet were used directly along the Colorado River, and 1.63 million acre-feet were used by CAP. The AWBA recharged nearly 152,000 acre-feet of CAP water in 2011 all of which was for Arizona uses.  No water was recharged on behalf of Nevada.  Since its inception in 1996 through 2011, the Bank has delivered approximately 3.93 million acre-feet for storage. This represents excess CAP water that would potentially go unutilized absent the Bank’s activities.

As a result of this storage, the Bank has accrued nearly 3.7 million acre-feet of credits.  Approximately 3.1 million acre-feet were accrued for intrastate purposes at a cost of nearly $180 million.  Just over 600,000 acre-feet were accrued for interstate purposes at the cost of around $110 million.