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Eden, Susanna; Scott, Christopher A.; Lamberton, Melissa L.; Megdal, Sharon B. --- "Water–Energy Interdependencies and the Central Arizona Project" [2011] ELECD 1027; in Kenney, S. Douglas; Wilkinson, Robert (eds), "The Water–Energy Nexus in the American West" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: The Water–Energy Nexus in the American West

Editor(s): Kenney, S. Douglas; Wilkinson, Robert

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849809368

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: Water–Energy Interdependencies and the Central Arizona Project

Author(s): Eden, Susanna; Scott, Christopher A.; Lamberton, Melissa L.; Megdal, Sharon B.

Number of pages: 14

Extract:

8. Water­energy interdependencies
and the Central Arizona Project
Susanna Eden, Christopher A. Scott,
Melissa L. Lamberton and Sharon B. Megdal

8.1. INTRODUCTION

In the western United States, large-scale, long-distance water conveyance
projects have enabled continuous agricultural and urban development in
regions ­ like southern California and central Arizona ­ where limited
water supplies would otherwise have made this development impossible.
All water supply systems require some energy input, but large water trans-
portation systems are uniquely complicated by water­energy interdepend-
encies and distant or `displaced' impacts. The Central Arizona Project
(CAP), which delivers Colorado River water to central and southern
Arizona, provides a case study of the multiple interconnections between
water supplies and energy that characterize water transportation in the
American West.
CAP faces multiple water­energy challenges, some a result of infra-
structure design and thus are not easily remedied. Others are functions
of operation, management and displaced environmental impacts. While
drought and climate change are introducing new uncertainties into water
planning, population growth continues to place increasing demands on
supplies. The amount of its Colorado River water allocation that CAP
will deliver in some future years is likely to be reduced by a combination of
drought, climate change and upper-basin development. At the same time,
air-quality regulation and potential requirements for mitigating the envi-
ronmental effects of fossil fuel extraction and use promise to push CAP's
energy costs significantly higher.
CAP's water­energy interdependencies and displaced impacts are
unique, but in ...