AWBA Activities – Update

The AWBA continues to work to accomplish its mission of utilizing the unused portion of Arizona’s Colorado River allotment 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.

The AWBA recharged 165 ,042 acre-feet of CAP water in 2009: 106,018 acre-feet for Arizona uses and 59,024 acre-feet on behalf of Nevada, which includes approximately 33,000 acre-feet of intentionally created unused apportionment (ICUA) made available by Nevada. Total consumptive use of Colorado River water by Arizona for 2009 was approximately 2.77 million acre-feet. Of that, approximately 1.11 million acre-feet were used directly along the Colorado River, 1.49 million acre-feet were used by CAP subcontractors and the 165,042 acre-feet, which included Nevada ICUA, were used by the AWBA. Since the inception of the AWBA in 1996, through 2009, the Bank’s cumulative water deliveries for storage are nearly 3.6 million acre-feet. This represents excess CAP water that would potentially go unutilized absent the Bank’s activities. Arizona’s annual allocation of Colorado River water is 2.8 million acre-feet.