Glendale preserves water resources for looming Colorado River cutbacks

By Richard Smith
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Glendale continues to line up as many water resource options as it can, as city officials and their contemporaries around Arizona prepare for the worst in potential Colorado River cutbacks while hoping for the best.

The Central Arizona Project provides Colorado River water to the city and the rest of Arizona. Colorado River distribution cuts for Arizona could go from at least 20% to all of Arizona’s allocation during the next couple years.

Joanne Toms, Glendale environmental programs administrator, said the final report on Colorado River water usage and distribution solutions will be published in spring 2026. New rules on Colorado River water distribution go into effect Jan. 1, 2027.

“There’s a lot of agreements that need to get ironed out in 18 months,” Toms said. “Negotiations have been ongoing and it’s moving in a positive direction.”

Vice Mayor Lauren Tolmachoff asked what effect the likely reduction in CAP water will have on the requirements of new development to provide a 100-year water supply.

Toms said a reduction in Colorado River supply would likely lead to use of more groundwater.

Glendale receives 22,000 acre-feet yearly from CAP. Precipitation was at an average level in the Colorado River system, though the spring runoff is low, said Meghan Sheldon, Glendale’s deputy director of water services.

“There are times in the year where that water is traveling all the way north from Pyramid Peak water treatment plant all the way into the central portion of Glendale, even into the southwest portion,’ Sheldon said.

Glendale’s total water use was 40,590 acre-feet in 2024. An acre foot is what three average households would use in a year.

Glendale's water sources used were 51% Salt River Project, 47% CAP and 2% groundwater.

The SRP canal delivers Salt River and Verde River water to Glendale. Approximately 55.000 acre-feet is available yearly for the city and is mostly set aside each year, Sheldon said.

“Current conditions in the Salt River Project are not as good as they have been in the last few years. The 2024 monsoon season was the third lowest on record and, unfortunately, our winter precipitation — the runoff from that — is the driest ever,” Sheldon said.

As of May 12, Glendale’s sare of water in reservoirs on that SRP watershed are only 67% full. Last year at this time, Glendale was at 92%.

In 2024, the Valley had 100 days of temperatures above 100 degrees and 70 days above 110 degrees.

“We see that use increases with weather. Our residents use more water when it is hot and dry outside,” Toms said.

The current Tier I shortage designation is expected to continue into 2026.

Glendale has been in stage 1 of drought watch since 2022. City facilities are required to reduce water use by 5%. Toms said that was not easy in 2024.

Groundwater is available through city-owned or SRP wells. The Arizona Department of Water Resources allows the city 7,500 acre-feet of groundwater per year.

Effluent water treatment allows 70% of Glendale’s reclaimed water to be charged into the ground. It accounts for 17,000 acre-feet per year.

Long-term storage credits, where water is stored underground for future use, provide Glendale 6,000 acre-feet per year. The city had 200,000 acre-feet accrued through the end of 2023.

“That’s a really good number to have. That’s about four or five years of water for the entire city,” Sheldon said.

Long term storage credits would allow the city to go above its groundwater use cap if necessary.

Sheldon said the city is not experiencing any shortages. Glendale water services do not go west of 115th Avenue.

Glendale recently drilled two new wells and is sill working on equipping those wells. More new wells are included in the city’s capital improvement plan.

The SRP system provides more water from its new conservation storage space at the larger dam of Roosevelt Lake. Water stored here can also be used by Glendale on homes and businesses outside of the SRP system.

One of two long-range solutions to Arizona’s water woes — the state is last in line for the river’s water among Colorado River Compact in the river’s lower basin — is another dam.

SRP is looking at raising Bartlett Dam to increase the reservoir capacity, or building another, smaller dam farther down the Verde River, In either case this would double the storage capacity of the system.

Still in the discussion phase, projects on or around Bartlett Lake would not go into effect until about 2040.

“What can we do as a city and as a council to get this moving? All it’s going to do is cost us more money and every year, we’re taking that chance on not having enough water to take care of the people we have,” Mayor Jerry Weiers said.

Arizona also is looking at advanced water purification. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality recently published rules making this process possible, Toms said. Getting a plan together and a site built will take the Valley or Glendale quite a while.

“This is sending high quality effluent through advanced water treatment. There’s a lot of different processes to make sure that water is completely safe to drink,” Toms said.

Richard Smith
Senior News Editor | Glendale & West Valley Preps

rsmith@iniusa.org

Richard Smith has been with Independent Newsmedia since 2016, and worked at a Sun City-based news outfit covering the Northwest Valley for 22 consecutive years.

An NAU alum and lifelong Arizona resident, Richard began as a copy editor and page designer at Surprise Today and the Daily News-Sun, then rekindled his love of sports writing by taking the reins on West Valley Preps in 2008.

For most of the mid-2010s he was the Surprise editor and West Valley Preps reporter. Now he’s the West Valley Preps Editor and Surprise Associate Editor.

As COVID restrictions slowly lift, Richard is cautiously optimistic he will visit book stores, football fields and gyms again this fall.