WestWater Research attended the 34th Annual Arizona Water Law Superconference in Scottsdale, Arizona. Chris Smith, Chief Operating Officer, and Logan Barkley, Analyst in our Phoenix office, joined attorneys, agency leaders, and water managers for two days on the questions shaping Arizona’s supply outlook. The main idea was evident: Arizona’s current water environment is converging on legal and economic decisions. Topics spanned the Colorado River, adjudication, rural groundwater, tribal settlements, augmentation, and data centers.
Key takeaways from the event include:
- Colorado River operations remain unresolved. Post-2026 negotiations have not produced a seven-state agreement. Arizona objects to the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) preferred alternative as inconsistent with the Colorado River Compact and the Law of the River, and does not consent to the annual reductions of up to 3.0 MAF the FEIS operational sideboards authorize.
- Arizona groundwater is repricing. Type 2 rights are in demand for their flexibility, but holders are reluctant to sell and long-term leases remain difficult to secure.
- Demand is changing shape. Arizona now ranks among the four to seven largest data center markets in the country while ranking 14th in population, with most of that development concentrated in the Phoenix AMA, influencing asset pricing across the AMAs. Practitioners walked through service from a provider, self-supply, and increasingly a hybrid of the two for data centers and industrial projects.
- Updates to Augmentation. The Arizona Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) is continuing to evaluate augmentation alternatives, ranging from Pacific Coast and Gulf of California desalination to reclamation, reuse, and irrigation modernization. As one panelist put it, there is no silver bullet, just silver buckshot. Every one of those options carries a cost per acre-foot, and those numbers increasingly set the ceiling on what existing supplies are worth.
WestWater Research values groundwater rights, surface water entitlements, and long-term leases across Arizona’s AMAs using Waterlitix™, and advises buyers, sellers, and lessors through transactions where comparables are thin. Whether you are siting a data center, evaluating a Type 2 portfolio, or orienting yourself to the Arizona water market, WestWater can help.
