Lower Santa Cruz River Basin Study Final Report Shared by the Bureau of Reclamation

The Lower Santa Cruz River Basin Study, an analysis of the impacts of growth and climate change on the Tucson area’s groundwater basin, was recently posted by the Bureau of Reclamation.

The Study is the product of a partnership between Reclamation, the Southern Arizona Water Users’ Association (SAWUA), the University of Arizona, the Central Arizona Project, the Arizona Department of Water Resources, the Pima Association of Governments, and the Cortaro-Marana Irrigation District.

This study is significant for several reasons, including its highly collaborative approach to project management as well as the extremely sophisticated first-of-its-kind modeling of the impacts of climate change on water supplies in the Tucson Basin. It considers impacts of Colorado River shortages as well as changes in temperature and precipitation on groundwater in the Tucson Basin. The study is also significant because it prioritizes reliability of water supplies for riparian habitat as well as water for human uses.

You can read and download the full final report here. The project summary page is located here.