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Summary <br />Rillito Recharge Project <br />Artificial Groundwater Recharge Demonstration Project <br />Local Sponsor: Pima County Department of Transportation <br />and Flood Control District <br />Federal Agencies: Bureau of Reclamation <br />Environmental Protection Agency <br />Key Dates: <br />Cooperative Agreement: August 21, 1991 <br />Period of Agreement: Fiscal year 1991 - fiscal year 1995 <br />Began Monitoring: Spring 1987 <br />Introduction <br />This report summarizes the development, conduct, and findings of the Rillito Recharge <br />Project. Detailed information can be found in the Final Report: Rillito Recharge Project. <br />A copy of this report may be obtained by contacting Ms. June Gibbons, Program <br />Coordinator, Bureau of Reclamation, Phoenix Area Office, PO Box 9980, Phoenix, <br />Arizona 85068 -0980; telephone: (602) 395 -5724. The project is one of 13 demonstration <br />projects by the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and local sponsors in cooperation <br />with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) <br />under the "High Plains States Groundwater Demonstration Program Act of 1983," Public <br />Law 98 -434, to advance state -of- the -art groundwater recharge techniques. <br />This summary presents conclusions and recommendations which may be useful to water <br />resource planners concerned with: <br />• Institutional constraints affecting recharge projects <br />• Design of multipurpose, multiparty projects <br />• Prediction of discharge rates using real -time environmental monitoring <br />• Surface water chemistry of ephemeral stream systems <br />• Natural recharge via streambed infiltration <br />The district and Reclamation investigated the feasibility of artificial groundwater recharge <br />at Rillito Creek and its tributary, Alamo Wash. Both agencies are interested in increasing <br />water availability in the Sonoran desert region of southern Arizona, where physical and <br />political opportunities for new dams and surface water storage sites are increasingly rare. <br />Because stormwater recharge can involve less land acquisition and disturbance, it could <br />increase water supplies with relatively few impacts to the environment and community. <br />The Rillito Recharge Project was the first of its kind in Arizona to contemplate direct <br />impoundment and infiltration of stormwater within an unregulated ephemeral stream <br />