Monday August 31, 2026
SJV Water —
A nascent proposal by Arizona to fill the water gap from its dwindling Colorado River and groundwater supplies by reaching into California’s rivers likely won’t go over well in the Golden State.
“Over our dead bodies,” was the response envisioned by the leader of one of the southern San Joaquin Valley’s most powerful water boards.
The proposal is one of two ambitious projects involving California that are being explored in a private-public partnership between Arizona’s Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) and Canadian company EPCOR.
EPCOR has proposed capturing excess water from the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers in flood years, banking it somewhere in the southern San Joaquin Valley and delivering 100,000 acre feet a year to southern California water agencies for urban use.
In exchange, Arizona would take a like amount of Colorado River water before it runs to California.
“I may be completely wrong, but I see the political maelstrom of ‘Oh wait a sec, you’re going to take water off the Sacramento or San Joaquin that is critically needed in the Central Valley for Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, and move it to Arizona?’” said Eric Averett, general manager of the Kern County Water Agency, the second largest contractor in the state for water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.