SDCWA is able to decrease its own reliance on the Colorado River by pulling water from the Carlsbad plant, meaning that it doesn\u2019t need to use its full allocation of Colorado River water every year. Under the proposed transfer system, SDCWA would leave some of that water in the river and let other water users \u2014 like the Central Arizona Project \u2014 pay to use it instead.<\/p>\n
At a time when Central Arizona is facing the threat of deep cutbacks<\/a> to its Colorado River supply, that is an attractive proposition.<\/p>\n The CAP, which brings Colorado River Water to the area through a 336-mile canal system, is one of the parties listed on the recent San Diego memo. CAP leaders said they are \u201copen to further discussions\u201d but have not yet committed to signing on.<\/p>\n The Pacific Ocean laps at the shore in San Diego, California on June 17, 2023. Drinking water produced by desalination is expensive, but could be part of backup plans for communities facing water cutbacks from the Colorado River. <\/p>\n Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University, said it could be a \u201cvery tidy solution to a really big problem.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think it’s a win-win,\u201d Porter said. \u201cSan Diego County Water Authority has an overbuilt desal plant, and they would like help paying for that most expensive water and there are water users in southern Nevada and central Arizona that are urgently looking for new water supplies because they’re facing uncertainty, except for certainly very deep cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n Cost has proven to be a major limitation to expanding desalination operations around the Colorado River basin. The Carlsbad desalination plant cost $1 billion to build, and tens of millions to operate every year. For all that money, it produces relatively little water \u2014 about 10% of the annual supply for the San Diego area.<\/p>\n Those high costs mean that desalination produces expensive water.<\/p>\n While SDCWA has not named a sale price for transferred water, there are some clues. The water coming out of the Carlsbad facility today costs about $3,500 per acre-foot, according to SDCWA general manager Dan Denham. A series of projections from 2023 show the cost of water climbing past $7,000 per acre-foot in the 2040s.<\/p>\n For comparison, CAP currently sells its water for $365 per acre-foot.<\/p>\n An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to fill one acre of land to a height of one foot. One acre-foot generally provides enough water for one to two households for a year.<\/p>\n Porter said expensive desalinated water could make sense for Arizona under the right circumstances. With stalled Colorado River talks<\/a> and the potential for deep cutbacks<\/a>, the Phoenix area will likely have to look for new sources of water. Turning to transfers enabled by desalination could help fix that without engaging in the contentious process of buying it from farmers around the state, she said.<\/p>\n Brenda Burman, general manager of CAP, said there are still a number of hurdles to clear before the agency can sign on to SDCWA\u2019s memo.<\/p>\n \u201cIt requires a lot of collaboration,\u201d Burman told KJZZ. \u201cIt requires a lot of coordination to make something like this work, and so there are a lot of parties that all need to talk to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n The MOU also seeks signatures from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the Arizona Department of Water Resources.<\/p>\n The system SDCWA is proposing would create the first program to transfer water across state lines within the Colorado River basin. That fact, plus the kind of agencies involved, could reveal a number of legal issues.<\/p>\n Part of the Central Arizona Project aqueduct near the Agua Fria siphon in northwest Phoenix in July 2025. The CAP could face deep cuts to its Colorado River supply under new plans for managing the shrinking river. <\/p>\n Other states within the Colorado River basin could try to block it under certain interpretations of the century-old Colorado River compact. Differing interpretations of that 1922 document are already at the heart of major present-day disagreements about water sharing.<\/p>\n Even if that hurdle is cleared and CAP manages to buy water from San Diego, the agency will need to figure out which of its customers will get that water. CAP brings Colorado River water to Arizona, then sells it to more than 60 cities, tribes and businesses.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772888996_615_.jpeg\"\/)
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