Scottsdale’s Water Reckoning Arrives With the Colorado River Plan

Federal officials will unveil their Colorado River plan next week, and for Scottsdale and other cities in the area, the news is unlikely to bring relief. Quite the opposite. The pain lands here first Scottsdale draws roughly 70% of its water from the Central Arizona Project. That canal now sits at the center of a shrinking river. Federal officials will … Read More

Guest Editorial: Photo Ops Won’t Secure Scottsdale’s Water Future

By Councilwoman Solange Whitehead This week, a Council majority is staging a photo opportunity at Scottsdale’s Water Campus to reassure residents that Scottsdale’s water future is secure. It isn’t. The backdrop may be our award-winning Water Campus, but the reality is different. The experts who built Scottsdale’s nationally recognized water utility are gone. Funding for critical water projects has been … Read More

Scottsdale City Council advances Mayor Borowsky’s large water user ordinance initiative

From the Office of Mayor Lisa Borowsky Scottsdale is taking a significant step toward strengthening long-term water stewardship as the Scottsdale City Council unanimously directed the city manager and city attorney to agendize a work study session on the potential creation of a large water user ordinance. The proposed ordinance initiative, championed by Mayor Lisa Borowsky, is being developed in … Read More

Scottsdale’s Water Security Began Decades Ago

By Thyra Ryden-Diaz, PE, MPA – Scottsdale Water Interim Senior Director Recent discussion surrounding Scottsdale’s purchase of additional Long-Term Storage Credits prompted understandable questions about the City’s long-term water strategy. Water is one of our most valuable resources, and Scottsdale has planned for decades to assure the supply. The most important thing residents should know is this: the City Council … Read More

The Colorado River Is Running Out of Time. So Is Scottsdale.

By Ronald Sampson The seven states that share the Colorado River have now blown through two consecutive deadlines to renegotiate water-sharing rules. They missed November 2025. They missed February 2026. With the existing federal guidelines expiring this fall, the U.S. Department of the Interior is increasingly likely to impose its own interim framework on the basin, whether the states agree … Read More

Guest Editoral: Hey Scottsdale, We’re Buying Water

By Betty Janik At the June 23 Council meeting, Scottsdale is poised to purchase 15,000 acre-feet of long-term water storage credits for $8.25 M ($550/acre-ft) from the Vidler Water Company.  This equates to approximately 1 year’s worth of water for about 45,000 families (less than half our population) at a cost of $182 per family. The Harquahala Basin is the … Read More

Do They Know We Have an Impending Water Crisis?

By Alexander Lomax The Numbers Are Not Subtle Scottsdale gets roughly 70 to 75 percent of its tap water from the Colorado River via the Central Arizona Project canal. The current agreement governing CAP allocations expires at the end of 2026. Negotiations among the seven Colorado River Basin states have stalled. The federal government may impose cuts when that agreement … Read More

Guest Editorial: Preparing for what we can’t predict

By Thyra Ryden-Diaz, PE, MPA Interim Senior Director – Scottsdale Water Good water management is not about predicting the future. It is about preparing for it. The future of water in the Southwest will be influenced by many factors. Some are within our control. Others are not. Scottsdale cannot determine how much snow falls in the Rocky Mountains. We cannot … Read More