WSP02397

• File Number: 8221.112.A
• Description: Central Arizona Project
• State: AZ
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 12/18/1983
• Title: Special Report: Central Arizona Project
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: News Article/Press Release

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Local money sought
for final touches
in Plan 6 storage

Babbitt
warns of
fund cuts

Federal officla1a must Dot begin to
beli.eve they can reduce funds for
completion of the Central Arizona
Project.
TbiB is a guiding principJe (or Gov.
Bruce Babbitt 88 he and a citizens group
consider how to raise local funda to speed
construction of 80me CAP features.
The .featllre8 they are talking about are
included in Pian 6, the propoeed alternative
to the construction of Orme Dani at the
junction of the Salt and Vereie rivera.
The main faceta of Plan 6 are conetruction
of the New Waddell Dam on the Agua Fria
River for CAP water storage; the Cliff Dam
on the Verde River for flood control, dam
safety and CAP water storage; and an
enlarged or new Roosevelt Dam on the Salt
River for flood control, dam safety and CAP
water storage.
One of the major disappointments when
_the CAP begins bringing Colorado River
water here is that there will be nowhere to
store it.
And, until there is, the CAP will Dot be
fully operational Here ia why:
Part of the plan for CAP is to store water in

Gov. Bruce BabbItt I, Marching 'Of' more CAP funding.

cooI8r months, when water demand is down.
This water then will be available fot' delivery
in the warmer spring and summer months,
when demand grows from both city dwellers
and farmers.
Without a place to store it, the CAP will be
limited to importing about 1.6 million acre-
feet of water per year, according to the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation.
With atorage. the CAP could operate at
maximum capacity of 2,172,000 acre.feet per
,......
A New Waddell Dam would provide
660,000 acre-feet of CAP water storage apace.
This year would have been a good one for
CAP water users if CAP construction had
been comp1eted and storage had been
available, because the Colorado River flooded,
and water was in the river for anyone who
wanted and could get it.
Water Btorage and flood control are part of
the 1968 law that authorized the CAP, but
dam wety CllDIe along 10 years later in
another federal measure.
"Right now, the federal government is
committed in law to CAP regulatory storage,

to flood control and to dam safety," Babbitt
said. "What we also know, however, ill that
these IU'888 may be the softeat piece of the
commitment."
It is those areas of "softest commitment"
with which the citizens group and Babbitt are
'Inlggling.
Of these, Babbitt said he ia "optimiltic that
(New Waddell) will be the fimt place we'll
reach agreement on" in tenns of a plan for
local participation.
Babbitt said the flood -control portion of
Plan 6 might be fmanced through property
..... collected by the Flood Conlrol~Diatrict
of Maricopa County, and the Salt River
Project might finance dam. safety. However,
the SRP insista dam aafety is a federa.l
responsiblity.
"It's' not going to be sin*Ie-source financ.
ing," Babbitt said. "There are all sorts of
mathematical formulas. But it's the age-old
process of getting together and striking a
bargain."
He said whatever program is worked out, it
will need congressional approval becauae it
would represent a change in CAP financing.