by Robert Marcos, photojournalist, Grand Junction Colorado
The Arizona Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) has welcomed proposals from project teams on diverse strategies like ocean desalination, surface water importation, wastewater reclamation, and novel technologies to develop new renewable sources that bolster the state’s long-term water security amid growing shortages. The effort by WIFA come as the state faces additional cutbacks in its Colorado River supplies and its existing sources of groundwater are stressed to the limit.1
Concept 1: Reactivating the Yuma Desalting Plant
Persistent Colorado River shortages since the 2000s have prompted Arizona stakeholders, including the Central Arizona Project (CAP) and ADWR, to evaluate the Yuma Desalting Plant operation as a supply augmentation tool. Legislative proposals like Sen. Martha McSally’s 2020 bill sought to mandate repairs and restart, though dismissed as unfeasible due to $160-450 million in upgrades plus $25-40 million annual operations.2
As of 2025, the plant remains in “ready reserve” with ongoing evaluations of tech upgrades and alternatives like well-field pumping to protect the Ciénega de Santa Clara wetland in Mexico, which relies on untreated drainage flows. Environmental groups oppose reactivation, citing $670+ million costs for partial operation and habitat risks, while Bureau officials prioritize conservation over YDP use.3
Concept 2: Building a New Desal plant in Puerto Penasco
Arizona has shifted away from the original IDE Technologies proposal for a Sea of Cortez desalination plant near Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, which faced transparency issues and was not exclusively pursued. Instead, the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority advanced four alternative proposals in November 2025 for further feasibility analysis.4
One of those alternative proposals has a water exchange as a core mechanism: desalinated water output supplies Mexican users (e.g., local communities or agriculture), which would free an equivalent volume of Mexico’s Colorado River allocation for Arizona diversion northward via the Central Arizona Project canal to Phoenix and Tucson. This aligns with broader WIFA-approved initiatives from partners like EPCOR and Acciona-Fengate, which propose similar Gulf of California or Baja plants producing 150,000–500,000 acre-feet by 2031–2034 in “equal-for-equal” swaps, avoiding long-distance Arizona pipelines. Challenges include high costs ($3,000+ per acre-foot), U.S.-Mexico approvals, environmental compliance for brine discharge, and contract risks in surplus years, but it leverages proven global tech to onshore supplies without Upper Basin conflicts.5
Concept 3: Investing in a new desal plant in Southern California
Arizona has explored offering to invest state funds, through its water financing authority, in a large new seawater desalination plant on or near the Southern California coast, with the core idea that Arizona would help underwrite construction and then receive a contractual share of the plant’s output. In turn, that desalinated water would be used within California to free up an equivalent portion of California’s Colorado River allocation, which Arizona would then take upstream via the Colorado River and Central Arizona Project canal, effectively turning ocean water into an additional Colorado River supply for Arizona through an interstate exchange mechanism.6