Daniel Salzler No. 1326 EnviroInsight.org Six Items October 3, 2025
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- Queen Creek Looking To Gain Water Independence With Groundwater From Harquahala Valley. The town of Queen Creek is among the only communities in the Phoenix metro region that is not considered a designated water provider. That means that its residents have to pay a fee to get water delivered and to replenish groundwater they use.
This month, the Queen Creek Town Council authorized officials to negotiate a potential $240 million deal to pump groundwater from Harquahala Valley, about 70 miles west of Phoenix. That additional groundwater would help Queen Creek qualify as designated water providers.
“By becoming designated, we will no longer be pumping groundwater that needs to be replenished,” said Queen Creek Water Resource Director Paul Gardner.
The deal would be for up to 1.2 million acre feet of water over the next 100 years, though the final agreement could come out to half that amount.
The town already has enough groundwater to last for 100 years and has certification of assured water supply. But town officials are looking to get designation so that they aren’t reliant on the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District to handle recharge.
“So if you were to look around in the valley, the two largest water providers that aren’t designated are in the two fastest growing areas of Buckeye and Queen Creek,” Gardner says.
Queen Creek relies heavily on its aquifers to provide customers with water. It needs additional water supplies to either offset the groundwater it uses or to replenish the aquifer to become a designated water provider.
“For every gallon of water you pump out, that’s considered groundwater. You have to put back into, have to bring another source of water and put it back into the aquifer,” Gardner said.
Gardner says bringing in water from Harquahala Valley would let them do just that. And he says the deal would do away with a recharge fee Queen Creek water users pay to the CAGRD.
By becoming a designated water provider, Queen Creek’s water customers wouldn’t have to pay extra fees to replenish the water.
“One, it allows us to control our destiny. Two, it allows us to help control cost. And three, it allows us to be able to do better long-term planning because we have the water resources available to get us to what we call build out without relying upon a third party like CAGRD.” Gardner said.
The town would purchase the water in February, but will have until mid-January for what it called its investigation period.
“So our biggest thing is just to make sure what the costs are going to be, designing part of the construction facilities. The other part that we’re looking at is the financing side. So it gives us till January to figure out all the things on financing this water, how we’re going to pay for it,” Gardner said.
A separate agreement is needed to use Central Arizona Project canals to deliver the water.
“We’ll pay them an operation and maintenance fee for moving that water from Harkuahala out to Queen Creek. So that’s going to be a separate charge that will be a separate deal that we’ll absorb as part of the rates,” Gardner said. But Gardner said how that will be “absorbed” isn’t clear yet, “some of the things that we’ll have to do long term is reviewing the rate structure of how this is all paid for.” Source: KJZZ | By Greg Hahne Published September 25, 2025
2. Arizona Faces Continued Colorado River Water Cuts, Uncertainty About Future Access. Arizona will continue to see an 18% reduction of its Colorado River water allocation next year, as decided by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
The level of future potential cuts is uncertain as the basin states are up against a 2026 deadline to negotiate new operating guidelines.
The state currently gets about 40% of its water supply from the Colorado River, according to Arizona Department of Water Resources Director Tom Buschatzke. He said the state’s cuts, which have been going on for several years due to low reservoir levels, mainly impact agriculture.
“Historically, that water would have been used in many ways, … by farmers in central and southern Arizona, Maricopa and Pinal counties mostly. So, they’ve lost that Colorado River supply,” Buschatzke said.
Farmers that use Colorado River water in active management areas and other parts of the state are very efficient at water use, at about 80% efficiency. However, Buschatzke said drip irrigation can help get them closer to 90% efficiency to help mitigate the impact cuts.
He said his department was prepared for the cuts based on how much water there is in Lake Powell and Lake Mead, which are both at about 30% capacity. Despite lower-than-normal water levels, Buschatzke said there is still over two trillion gallons in Lake Mead.
States that use Colorado River water aren’t treated equally
Arizona isn’t the only lower basin Colorado River water user dealing with supply cuts. Mexico and Nevada do, too, but at lower percentages than the Grand Canyon State.
California, however, is not being forced to take cuts because it has senior rights and is more reliant on Colorado River water than the other lower basin states.
However, Buschatzke said the Golden State is doing its part to conserve water in Lake Mead through voluntary compensated conservation programs.
“In 2019, California agreed to take cuts when Lake Mead hit a certain elevation,” Buschatzke said.
Colorado River operating guidelines expire next year.
Elected officials and water leaders have been negotiating for their states as Colorado River operating guidelines are set to expire at the end of 2026.
Buschatzke explained the upper and lower basin states need to come to an agreement before October of next year. And whatever agreement they come to will likely need to be approved by the state legislatures and Congress.
Buschatzke said he’d like to see the four upper basin states — Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming — agree to mandatory cuts as part of the new operating guidelines, adding it’s been a struggle to get them to do that.“To date, the four upper basin states have not put any of that on the table in the discussions. And it’s inequitable for Arizona to have to take those mandatory, certain and verifiable cuts without others doing that as well,” Buschatzke said.
As a result, Arizona faces the possibility of larger cuts in the future.
How climate change affects Colorado River supply.
The strain on the Colorado River is a result of climate change, according to Buschatzke.Drought plays a role as well, but droughts are temporary. The Southwest has seen lower than normal runoff for the past 20 years.
“We’ll get average or close to average snowpack in those upper basin states. And we’ll get anywhere from 30%-70% runoff, snowmelt that makes it into the river. That’s because it is warmer, the soil is drier and it sucks up that melted snow before it gets to the river,” Buschatzke said. Source: KJZZ
3. Water Restricted At Madera Canyon Amid Ongoing Drought. TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) – Due to ongoing drought conditions in Madera Canyon within the Nogales Ranger District, visitors are now being asked to voluntarily reduce their water use.
Visitors should bring all the water they need for activities such as picnicking, camping, hiking, birding, or any recreational opportunities.
Do not rely on potable water being available in the canyon. Source: News 4, Tucson.
4. Soybean Growers May Be Using A Lot Less Water For Production. According to the September 26, 2025 edition of the NY Times newspaper, China bought $12.6 Billion in soybeans last year. Since the tariffs have gone into effect (this year), China has purchased $0.00 worth.
5. Will NASA Kill A Pair Of Critical Climate Satellites? The Trump administration has proposed cutting funding for the satellites, which are in good working order and provide some of the best data on carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere.
As Congress returns to session this month, the fate of two satellites that have become integral to climate science hangs in the balance.
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 and -3, or OCO-2 and -3, have been circling the globe for years, gathering some of the best data available on carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere.
They helped scientists determine that natural systems struggled in the extreme heatof 2023 and failed to pull in as much CO2 as normal. They’ve helped researchers track early indicators of agricultural drought in India, and measure climate-warming emissions coming out of coal power plants in Montana, Poland and Canada.
They are the “gold standard” for measuring the most abundant climate-warming gas in the atmosphere from space, according to NASA. Yet the space administration has proposed ending the satellites’ missions next year, part of the Trump administration’s proposed 24 percent reduction in the agency’s budget.
6. October Sky First Of The Month: Mars Reaches Brilliant Opposition. Mars reaches its peak this month, exceeding Jupiter in brilliance and dominating the sky all night. While you wait for Mars to gain altitude, Jupiter and Saturn are well placed in the early evening for spectacular viewing. But Mercury is a difficult early evening target. Source: https://www.astronomy.com/ science/october-sky-this-month-mars-reaches-brilliant-opposition/
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