Water started flowing through a new pipe system this week, making it easier for cities to access underground storage pools. The $25 million pipeline, built by the Salt River Project, carries a relatively small amount of water, but represents a step towards the kind of interconnected water systems that will be crucial for the Valley to survive a drier future.
The Gilbert Road Pipeline runs 3.5 miles, crossing the Salt River bed and a portion of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community near Mesa. It carries water from the Granite Reef Underground Storage Project, or GRUSP, to the Arizona Canal. The canal is a major piece of the Valley’s water infrastructure that has carried water to city treatment plants for decades.
Today, the same canal will make it easier for those cities to access water they stored underground as a backup plan for dry times. Now, those dry times are here…