Chandler announced in June the city has entered Stage 1 of its Drought Management Plan. This stage does not involve residential or business water cuts, but focuses on educating residents and businesses on how to best conserve water as conditions at the reservoirs worsen.
The U.S. Secretary of the Interior has announced emergency actions required to protect Lake Powell from critically low reservoir levels. These actions include a reduction in scheduled water deliveries from Lake Powell to Lake Mead. With a 20-year drought, reduced precipitation in the Colorado River Basin and extremely dry soil conditions, the runoff into Lake Powell over past few years has been significantly below historical averages.
These reservoirs store water that is delivered by Central Arizona Project canals to cities, tribes and agricultural users in Central Arizona. With prolonged drought and declining storage levels in Lake Mead, a Tier 2 Shortage will be declared in 2023. This means that Arizona will receive less Colorado River water next year.
