By John — Desalination News
Arizona’s Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) board voted on October 5 to fund feasibility studies for two more Mexico-based water projects proposed by the Acciona-Fengate Water Augmentation Alliance, a coalition pairing the Spanish construction and engineering group Acciona with Canadian investment firm Fengate. The approval directs about $8.5 million toward studying a seawater desalination plant on the Gulf of California, sited near either Puerto Peñasco or Playa Arenosa, and a further $5.7 million toward studying a project to recover and purify water for reuse in Mexico that could serve Tijuana, Mexicali, and San Luis Río Colorado.
The vote brings to five the number of water-augmentation projects WIFA now has in its appraisal pipeline. The board held off on two other Acciona-Fengate proposals — a Pacific Coast desalination plant spanning California and Baja California, and an irrigation-modernization project in the southwestern U.S. — after some members had to leave the October 5 meeting early; staff have been asked to refine those proposals’ scope ahead of a possible vote later this fall. Other projects already under appraisal include a separate desalination plant proposed for the northern Gulf of California and water-reclamation studies in Mexico and California, the latter pursued by Canadian utility EPCOR and Spanish firm Sacyr under earlier WIFA funding rounds ($4.9 million in September and $7 million in August, respectively).
The studies are early-stage: WIFA estimates the Gulf of California desalination plant would take at least 12 years to develop were it to proceed, with a potential yield of up to 500,000 acre-feet a year, while the reuse project could be built in under half that time for roughly 50,000 acre-feet annually. One acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, or enough to supply roughly three Arizona households for a year. Production costs for either project haven’t been estimated yet, which board members cited as part of the reason the studies are needed before any commitment to build.
The underlying pressure is Arizona’s shrinking claim on the Colorado River. The state faces cuts of at least 760,000 acre-feet a year from its 2.8-million-acre-foot allocation, and WIFA executive director Chelsea McGuire described the river’s challenges as unsolvable by any single state acting alone, saying Arizona, California, and Mexico need to “look at this regionally.” The proposed deals would have Arizona help fund new water production — desalinated or reclaimed — in Mexico or California in exchange for a share of those water users’ existing Colorado River allocations, freeing up river water for Arizona’s own use. Board member Ted Cooke added that the studies will also test whether affected communities, local governments, and tribes on the other side of the deal are willing to accept the projects, not just whether they’re technically feasible.
The Arizona legislature appropriated $386 million to WIFA for long-term water-augmentation projects, a fraction of the $1 billion originally set aside in 2022 before roughly two-thirds of it was swept back to cover state budget shortfalls. Appraising all five projects currently in the pipeline is expected to cost about $27 million combined, and officials have been clear that construction of any of them, especially a Gulf of California desalination plant, would run into the billions of dollars — a cost the current appropriation doesn’t begin to cover.
(Source: Arizona Capitol Times, Arizona Republic)