Arizona's taps won't run dry, but water bills will go up under federal plan for Colorado River

The Central Arizona Project canal winds through Phoenix on March 26, 2026. The 336-mile canal system pumps water from the Colorado River to the Phoenix and Tucson areas. Water supplies for the canal's users will be cut under a new plan for managing the Colorado River. Alex Hager/KJZZ hide caption

Under the searing desert sun, Max Wilson watched water flow through a canal in north Phoenix. This unassuming strip of blue next to a busy road is the city's lifeline to the Colorado River. Soon, there will be less water in it.

Wilson, who is the water resources management advisor for the City of Phoenix, has to make sure cuts to this canal's supply don't cause taps to go dry for more than 1.7 million people who depend on his system.

He is confident water will keep flowing out of kitchen sinks, showers and sprinklers across the nation's fifth-largest city.

"Arizonans have been solving water problems for our entire history, and we didn't forget how to do that overnight," Wilson said. "We're going to do it again now."

The cuts, which kick in on Jan. 1, are the result of a new federal plan for managing the Colorado River . After more than 26 years of drought and climate change sapped the river's supply, the nation's two largest reservoirs — Lake Powell and Lake Mead — are at record lows. The seven states that use the river's water spent years trying to agree on a plan to rein in demand. Those negotiations failed, and the federal government had to step in with its own.

The result is a strategy that includes mandatory cuts of 27% to Arizona's Colorado River supplies each year through 2028, with an option for steeper cuts after that .

Now, Central Arizona cities are charting a course through a future with less Colorado River water. Water managers across the Phoenix metro say they have robust backup plans in place to keep taps flowing , thanks to years of preparation and huge construction projects. Those upgrades, though, come with a big price tag, and will carry the area into a future that is still rife with uncertainty.