Arizona prepares to tap into emergency water supply as it braces for Colorado River cuts

Arizona is preparing to unlock a reserve of water that will move groundwater from storage wells to the Arizona Canal to feed Phoenix-area communities and beyond, reports Brandon Loomis in the Arizona Republic.

The Salt River Project has been collecting water since the mid-1990s, when the state was receiving a surplus of water from the Colorado River. Now, as that river's supplies dry up and states are forced to make major cuts, Arizona is banking on its reserves to shore up its supplies and mitigate upcoming reductions. 

Since the project began, basins in central and southern Arizona have banked roughly 4 million acre-feet of water, or over half of what the state uses in a year. The Salt River Project also involved building the infrastructure to transfer water across jurisdictions.