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; Ready or not, the water's coming i- and some planners aren't ready Planners in some Valley cities behave aa if Central - Arizona Project water never will arrive. A typical response from some of these planners about how they expect to take CAP water was that they are waiting until they know more about the exact arrival time. Ready or not, the CAP's Granite Reef Aqueduct is scheduled to deliver Colorado River water into Maricopa County late in 1985. Of 35 cities and private water companies who could sign contracts to draw water from the Granite Reef Aqueduct, only a handful actively 8fe making plans for building neeeuary water-treatment plante and pipelines to CU8tomers. . . . The Arcadia Water District, the Roosevelt Water Collllervation District and Phoenix, Tempe, Chandler and Gilbert have had several meetings with Salt River Project officials to determine if Colorado River water can be delivered through SRP canals. Some cities, including Phoenix, Scottsdale and Glen- dale, plan new treatment plants near the Granite Reef Aqueduct. Only Phoenix's plant at the corner of Deer Valley Drive and Cave Creek Road is under construction. Smaller communities, like Chandler and Peoria, also would like to use their existing treatment plants and distribution systems to deliver CAP water. They still would need to build pipelines connecting to the CAP lqueduct. . . . The coat of building CAP water-delivery and distribu- Jon systems on the Salt River Indian Reservation, east of kottsdale and north of Mesa, is estimated at $7.1 mil- ion. Construction plans, however, will not be ready before January 1985. Construction will take about two Years, vhich means the system will not be ready until 1987 . In the meantime, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian ::Ommunity has asked the SRP to deliver its CAP Illocation to the reservation. The SRP baa not made a lecision on the request. . . . Eleven non-Indian districts and individuals are eligible o receive water through the Granite Reef Aqueduct for !lrming. If all 11 sign contracts for CAP water, together they rill get about 33 percent of the water remaining after ities, industries and Indians get weirs. - C": N ~ ( ,-. Currently, though, it appears only three of the 11 ma)' be ready to take water by the end of 1985. They are the Harquahala Valley Irrigation District, Maricopa Count}' Municipal Water Conservation District No.1 and the Salt River Project, though the SRP's board has Dol decided whether to take the water. Collectively, thest three can contract for 16 percent of all agricultural water. Water Conservation District No.1 already is prepared to take CAP water. The SRP would have to connect its delivery system to the Granite Reef Aqueduct and take the water behind Granite Reef Diversion Dam. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Ariwna Game and Fish Department are concerned that if this is done, fish from the Colorado River would swim upstream into the Salt and Y,!rde rivers and eat the smaller fish that are the food supply fOI the desert bald eagle, endangering its survival. Before the 32,OOO-acre Harquahala Yalley Irrigation District can get water, it must construct a 2Yi:-mile cunal to the Granite Reef Aqueduct. The canal is to hal'e a capacity of 400 cubic feet per second, or almost 800 acre. feet of water per day. After two miles, the canal willl;plit into two canals, each capable of carrying 200 cfR to serve the southwestern and northeastern portions of the district. The total cost for Harquahala's connection is estimated at $27.6 million. The district will put up about $6.3 miJIion, with $5.9 million expected to come from general-obligation bonds approved by landowners at an election in September, and $400,000 from farmers who obtained private loans. The federal government will loan $21,373,000. Plans for Harquahala are advanced to the point that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will award a construction contract for the canal in the current federal fiscal }lear, making it possible for the district to take CAP water in 1985. Plans for the remaining district.a along the Granite Reef Aqueduct are uncertain. So far, none has indiCRted. it does not intend to take the CAP water. . . . Both Ariwna Public Service Co. and the SRP have received CAP allocations to produce electric power. Plans for using this water are uncertain. ]n addition, water has been allocated for park and recreational use to the Game and Fish Department and Maricoptl(County. ~)t -"