Days of Cheap Water in West Near an End

A concrete canal ribbons its way 190 miles over red rock mountains and scorched sand in Arizona, defying the laws of both gravity and economics, representing both the past and future of water in the West.

The umbilical cord called the Central Arizona Project carries water uphill at 4 m.p.h. from the Colorado River to bursting, thirsting cities. It is the last and most expensive of all the great federal water works, a $3.6-billion aqueduct conceived as a way to irrigate the desert and hailed as the final answer to Arizona’s needs.

But the CAP will be neither when it begins regular delivery of high-cost water this fall. It has been called too expensive for farmers and, mammoth as it is, not big enough to quench the urban thirst for golf courses, ornamental lakes and million-gallon-a-day microchip plants.

Called Ominous Example

Instead, water experts say the CAP has become an ominous example of how the cost of water in the West is being driven dramatically higher. Construction costs have been so high that CAP water will be many times more expensive than other sources.

At the same time, Arizona cities squeezed by growing demand and a law requiring the preservation of ground water are hunting with checkbooks rather than divining rods for new water that promises to be even more expensive.

The bottom line to consumers throughout the West: The days of cheap water are numbered; experts say water is going to cost more, a lot more.

“We’re going to have to spend more and more and more for water--there’s no question,” said George W. Britton, the Phoenix water planner. “It’s like oil--can you ever run out of oil? Probably not, as long as we’re willing to spend more and more money for it.”

New Economics Emerging

As the era of giant federal projects like the CAP ends, a new economics is emerging, one of water trading and water marketing, competing for gallons and paying top dollar for a precious commodity.

Those in need have begun buying water rights on the open market, purchasing farms and their water rights, for example, to harvest the water rather than the crops. Urban demands are competing with rural interests, clashing with environmentalists and raising the price of water to all users.

Scottsdale, Ariz., spent $11.6 million for a giant ranch with rich water rights near California; Mesa paid $30 million to 13 cotton farmers, and Phoenix is considering the purchase of an entire town.

The new economics has its detractors. Farmers and rural businessmen worry about the loss of farm land, and conservationists question whether Arizona doesn’t already have more than enough water--if farmers would only cut back or cities would abandon the wasteful “oasis mentality” of lush lawns and palm trees.

“In reality, there is so much ground water out here we could have our oasis,” said Dr. Bob Witzeman, an anesthesiologist who leads the Phoenix Audubon Society, which is trying to protect eagles threatened by the next phase of the CAP.

Decades of Plenty

For decades, Phoenix had it easy when it came to water. The booming city and its suburbs relied on a combination of ground water and surface water from the Salt River Project, a federal dam and canal development built under President Theodore Roosevelt’s administration.

It came cheap. For an acre-foot of SRP water, about 325,851 gallons (enough to supply an average family for two years) the Phoenix Water Department has paid about $8, so little it wasn’t even factored into consumers’ monthly bills.

But with the CAP coming on line, those days are numbered. Only 44% complete in terms of dollars spent, the CAP by 1991 will stretch 337 miles to Tucson. This year, budget-minded federal officials have required state and local governments to begin shouldering some of the cost up front, rather than spreading it out over 50 years.

CAP water will cost close to $200 an acre-foot to deliver to consumers, and water bills could jump a quick 15%. And over the next 10 years, Arizona consumers are likely to see water bills double or triple, officials said.

Californians Will Pay

The CAP doesn’t raise water rates just for Arizonans. The 1.5 million acre-feet of water Arizona’s giant “straw” will suck from the Colorado River each year is currently going to Southern California, mostly San Diego, at little cost. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Arizona was entitled to the water.

California’s Metropolitan Water District will have to find other water sources, officials say. Cost: maybe $300 an acre-foot, or higher.

And the ripples will continue.

“A big chunk of all of Southern California’s supply has been lost,” said Brad Hilltscher, government relations representative for MWD. “It’s going to be more expensive for everyone. That’s a product of changing times.”

Examples from those changing times:

Farmers in the Imperial Valley of California and elsewhere are selling out, learning that it makes more sense to consider water a cash “crop” than to spray it on their fields.

El Paso has sued New Mexico for access to ground water that the city says it needs to survive and that the state claims it needs for its future. In July, a California man placed a bid on 163 billion gallons of ground water in sparsely developed southern New Mexico that he hopes to sell to six states.

Albuquerque, N.M., has spent $1 million for water it has yet to touch, but believes it is money well spent for its future.