Peoria, Cave Creek partner on innovative water exchange

The city of Peoria and town of Cave Creek are addressing Colorado River shortages and Central Arizona Project (CAP) reductions through a water exchange agreement.

The Peoria City Council approved the intergovernmental agreement on Tuesday and the Cave Creek Town Council will consider it during its June 23 meeting.

The terms of the agreement include:

• Exchange Ratio: Cave Creek will exchange 1.1 acre-feet of recovered long term storage credit for every 1 acre-foot of CAP water Peoria delivers.
• Financial Terms: Cave Creek will pay a water recovery fee, which starts at $460 per acre-foot and includes a 3% annual increase, to support Peoria’s well operations, maintenance and replacement budget.
•  Volume Cap: The exchange volume of CAP water that can be delivered to Cave Creek during declared shortages is capped at 450 acre-feet per year, and there is 25,000 acre-feet of CAP water available for delivery to Peoria.
• Timeline: The agreement runs through 2033 in order to give Cave Creek time to launch its own permanent, augmented water supplies.

The agreement is mutually beneficial as it provides Cave Creek with an immediate short-term water supply and supplies Peoria with access to recovered water resource that don’t adversely affect its groundwater supplies.

The water exchange agreement is similar to one that Peoria had with the city of Tucson in 2023. It also supports Peoria’s Assured Water Supply designation and diversified water portfolio of CAP water, SRP water, effluent, groundwater and long-term storage credits.

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