Water Quality Guidance
Water Quality Guidance for the Introduction of Non-Project Water into the Central Arizona Project
CAWCD and the United States Bureau of Reclamation are pleased to announce the release of “Water Quality Guidance for the Introduction of Non-Project Water into the Central Arizona Project.” This guidance document includes extensive numeric standards as well as implementation details for parties proposing to use the CAP system to transport non-Colorado River water supplies. The document helps fulfill Article 12.1 of the CAP System Use Agreement between Reclamation and CAWCD, which requires the establishment of “uniform water quality standards.”
Water Quality Guidance Process
The development process for this document included extensive public input. Following are some of the highlights and comments from that process.
A briefing on the draft Guidance Document was held on April 23, 2020. Video and material from the briefing is posted here. In addition, the following comments were submitted during the public comment period, which closed on June 25, 2020.
Revised Draft Water Quality Guidance Document (10/26/20)
Based on stakeholder comments and additional technical work, CAP and Reclamation revised the draft Water Quality Guidance Document. A clean and redline version of the revised drafts are posted below.
These revisions were revised at a stakeholder briefing on Nov. 23, 2020. The agenda and presentation from that briefing are posted here.
This initiated a 90-day comment period, which ended Jan. 24, 2020. Comments follow:
Public Comment
System Use Agreement
CAP and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, with input from the Arizona Department of Water Resources and the Arizona Water Banking Authority, have worked intensively to refine and unify these key concepts into a comprehensive framework. Key elements of this framework have been incorporated into a draft “CAP System Use Agreement.”
