The Arizona Water Banking Authority was created in 1996 to store the unused portion of Arizona’s annual allocation of the Colorado River. By storing this unused water the AWBA secures a dependable water supply necessary to ensure the state’s long-term prosperity. The plan is intended to govern the operations of the AWBA over the course of the entire calendar year.

The Arizona Water Banking Authority was created in 1996 to store the unused portion of Arizona’s annual allocation of Colorado River water. Until the AWBA was created, Arizona had not fully utilized its 2.8 million acre-foot allocation of Colorado River water and the state’s leaders recognized that leaving a portion of Arizona’s allocation in the river was a lost opportunity. The AWBA was created to provide assurances that water users within the state had secure, long-term water supplies.

The primary purpose of the Inventory is to identify storage capacity available to the Arizona Water Banking Authority to meet its water storage goals. Inclusion of a facility in the Inventory does not equate to a commitment by the AWBA to utilize any specific facility in the future. The AWBA will continue to determine annually which facilities will be used through the development of the Annual Plan of Operation. Conversely, not including a facility in the Inventory does not preclude the AWBA from utilizing that facility in a future Annual Plan. It does, however, preclude the facility from being utilized for interstate water storage, until such time as it is included in an updated Inventory.

Water banking is one of Arizona's most important water management strategies, and its success depends on effective planning. This joint plan helps advance the objective, articulated in the intergovernmental agreement among CAP, ADWR and AWBA, to develop a coordinated and cooperative planning process that includes distribution and recovery of water stored by the AWBA.

The purpose of the Inventory is to determine whether storage facilities exist in this state to meet the water storage needs of the authority for the following ten years. The Authority approved the initial Inventory in 1997. Because additional storage facilities are continually being constructed, the Authority updates the Inventory at least once every five years. The Authority has been annually updating all new facilities that could be utilized by the Authority in its Annual Report. It is important to note that the primary purpose of the Inventory is to identify the capacity that is available for potential storage by the Authority to meet its objectives. The inclusion of a facility in the Inventory does not equate to a commitment by the Authority that the facility will be utilized for water banking purposes in the future. The Authority will continue to determine annually which facilities will be used through the development of an Annual Plan of Operation. Conversely, a facility that is not included in the Inventory may be utilized in a future Annual Plan of Operation.

Building upon the work of many others who have contributed to quality of life research in Arizona, this report provides a framework for addressing key issues proactively. The data in Arizona Directions are presented in a highly graphic format with must-read information on our competitiveness, individual action steps, opportunities for public-private partnerships, and public policy options – all rooted in a deep understanding that revenue-neutral options are especially important in our current fiscal situation.

Governor Jan Brewer signed into law the Fiscal 2012 budget that eliminates all child care subsidies in Arizona. While the full impact of that action won’t be felt for weeks and months after the law takes effect July 1, Budget Trax has measured what sharply reduced funding in recent years has meant to working parents, children and businesses, as well as to the potential impact to matching federal funding.

The biggest economic trend in Arizona over the last decade has been the flat line on various measures of prosperity relative to the national average. Arizona always has been below the national average on measures such as the average wage, earnings per employee, and per capita personal income. However, Arizona compares less favorably now than it did in the 1970s and early 1980s.