---
title: "Scottsdale Invests $8.25M in New Water Source Amid Colorado River Uncertainty"
url: https://stacklist.com/card/cef26e87-3be5-4eff-84fa-0669dda986f9
source_url: "https://www.azfamily.com/2026/07/23/city-scottsdale-spending-825-million-water-harquahala-valley/"
stack: https://stacklist.com/c/business/stack/f18f3f68-46c3-4155-910a-bc10d4e86f7a
summary: "Scottsdale City Council approved an $8.25 million investment in water from Harquahala Valley as Arizona faces uncertainty over Colorado River allocations. The city, which relies on the Colorado River for 70% of its water supply, is implementing Stage One of its drought plan with voluntary 5% usage reduction while assessing infrastructure readiness for alternative water sources."
tags: "water-management, colorado-river, scottsdale, drought-planning, infrastructure, water-conservation, arizona"
key_entities: "Scottsdale (location), Arizona (location), Colorado River (location), Harquahala Valley (location), Phoenix (location), Scottsdale City Council (organization), Kyl Center for Water Policy (organization), Arizona State University (organization), Sarah Porter (person), Bryan Cassens (person), long-term storage credits (concept), drought-planning (concept)"
classification: "news"
content_hash: "sha256:d0985b4cc6396b4bfd9bc5ac1863217a18aab9945785f24f2b1d770b098f62ac"
acp_version: "0.2"
token_counts_approximate: 551
visibility: public
agent_accessible: true
status: "final"
---

# Scottsdale Invests $8.25M in New Water Source Amid Colorado River Uncertainty

Share Add Us On Google Add as a preferred source on Google SCOTTSDALE, AZ (AZFamily) — Uncertainty remains over how much Colorado River water Arizona will be getting next year as negotiations between Western states continue. Arizona will likely be getting less, but how much less is unclear. This means cities across the state are getting creative in how they will get additional water sources, and that includes the City of Scottsdale. The city gets about 70% of its water from the Colorado River, which is a higher percentage than other Valley cities. For example, in Phoenix it’s about 40%. RELATED STORY: How will Colorado River water cuts impact Arizona? Depends on where you live This month, the Scottsdale City Council approved a plan to spend $8.25 million on water from the Harquahala Valley. It’s west of Phoenix and south of Tonopah. The purchase includes millions of gallons in the form of long-term storage credits, which essentially is like a water savings account. Arizona’s Family spoke to Sarah Porter, the director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at ASU, about the concerns she has. “The concern for Scottsdale is whether it will be ready for very deep shortages, and it isn’t so much with the supply, though supply is definitely an issue, but it is also very much about the infrastructure,” she explained. “Does Scottsdale have the infrastructure to send alternative water supplies to a water treatment plant and then deliver that tap water out into their very north parts of town?” In a previous interview with Arizona’s Family, Bryan Cassens, assistant senior director for water resources , said the city has been preparing for this for years and is currently in Stage One of its drought plan — asking residents to voluntarily reduce water usage by 5%. Cassens said mandatory restrictions are not currently necessary. “The City of Scottsdale is currently not doing water restrictions because we are in a position now where we don’t need to,” he said. See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it . Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description. Copyright 2026 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.