Producer
Central Arizona Project (CAP)
The Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CAWCD; Phoenix AZ; state agency; governing board elected by taxpayers in Maricopa, Pinal, and Pima counties) operates the Central Arizona Project — a 336-mile aqueduct and pumping system delivering Arizona's Colorado River allocation (~1.5 million acre-feet/year) from Lake Havasu on the Colorado River to Phoenix and Tucson. CAP is the largest single water delivery infrastructure project in Arizona history, authorized by the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968 and costing ~$4B (1973-1993). The CAP system requires 14 pumping stations and more than 2,900 feet of total lift elevation (the water must be pumped uphill from the river) — making CAP the largest single electric energy consumer in Arizona (consuming ~2.8 billion kWh/year, approximately 3% of Arizona's entire electricity consumption). CAP water has the most junior priority rights in Arizona — the last to be cut in a shortage declaration. In the Tier 1 shortage declared for 2022, Arizona lost 512,000 AF/yr — nearly all cuts came from CAP agricultural deliveries in Pinal County (Central Arizona farming districts). In a Tier 3 shortage, CAP deliveries to some municipal customers would also be cut. CAP water is the primary water source for the Phoenix and Tucson metropolitan areas, serving approximately 5 million people.
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Municipal Water Delivery (Phoenix/Tucson)
60%Agricultural Water Delivery
25%Pumping & Infrastructure Operations
10%Tribal Water Settlements
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Did you know2023
The Central Arizona Project consumes approximately 2.8 billion kWh of electricity per year — roughly 3% of Arizona's total electricity consumption — making it the single largest electricity consumer in the state. This electricity pumps water that cools the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station (50 miles west of Phoenix), the largest nuclear power plant in the United States by generating capacity (3,937 MW). The circular dependency: CAP consumes massive amounts of electricity to pump water to Phoenix and Tucson AND provides the reclaimed water that Palo Verde uses for reactor cooling (Palo Verde is the only nuclear plant in the world cooled entirely by treated municipal wastewater). An electricity shortage that forced Arizona to reduce CAP pumping would reduce water deliveries to Phoenix; a water shortage severe enough to cut CAP deliveries to Palo Verde's reclaimed water source would threaten reactor cooling at the nation's largest nuclear plant. Arizona's water supply infrastructure and its nuclear power infrastructure are co-dependent in a feedback loop that both federal agencies manage largely independently.
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission ↗Origin2023
The Central Arizona Project was authorized by the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968 — a law that took 60 years to pass. Arizona and California had been in legal and political conflict over Colorado River rights since the 1920s Colorado River Compact. Arizona refused to ratify the Compact for decades, believing it shortchanged the state. The legal battle culminated in Arizona v. California (1963), in which the US Supreme Court ruled that Arizona was entitled to 2.8 million acre-feet per year — but Arizona had no infrastructure to actually take that water. Congress passed the 1968 Act authorizing $4 billion in federal construction funding for the aqueduct. Construction ran from 1973 to 1993 — 20 years — to build a system pumping water 2,900 feet uphill over 336 miles from the Colorado River to Phoenix and Tucson. The political irony: the same 1968 Act that authorized CAP also authorized the Marble Canyon Dam, which would have flooded part of the Grand Canyon — environmental opposition killed the dam, and CAP was built with the more expensive pump-lift system instead. Arizona's water lifeline exists in its current form because 1960s environmentalists stopped a Grand Canyon dam project.
Central Arizona Water Conservation District ↗