Working with a pair of prominent golf courses, Scottsdale is finally ready to launch an alternative water source plan.

The city is sizing up a 60-mile, $30 million tee shot.

Perhaps you have been tracking concerns about the Colorado River drying up over the last two, three, four years.

Via the Central Arizona Project, two-thirds of Scottsdale’s water comes from Colorado – with big cuts expected to hit this year.

In framing a recent water credits purchase as a way to “expand the city’s water portfolio,” Scottsdale City Manager Greg Caton was echoing his predecessors in decades gone by.

Indeed, Scottsdale leaders have been plotting for alternate water sources for a long, long time.

The city looked not north, to Colorado, but west, to an area past Buckeye known as the Harquhala Valley.

Caton says the end is nearing on a complex plan more than two decades in the making.

But the infrastructure needed will cost an estimated $30 million.

The city manager recently revealed construction on infrastructure to bring millions of gallons of water to Scottsdale will start next year – finally, some longtime City Hall watchers might add. 

Twenty-four years ago, the city of Scottsdale and GDW signed a contract “with respect to the construction of an irrigation water distribution system and storage and recovery project known as the IWDS.”

This was an amendment to a similar agreement between the city and two powerhouse golf developers: Desert Mountain Properties Limited Partnership and CGP Granite Golf. The former was building the sprawling Desert Mountain Golf Club in far North Scottsdale, on the way to Bartlett Lake. The latter later became Scottsdale National Golf Club, in northeast Scottsdale between Troon and Rio Verde.

Desert Mountain was to pay two-thirds of the project costs, with Scottsdale National Golf Club picking up the remaining third.

In 2002, the city agreed to provide the two golf courses up to 4 million gallons of water per day, with Desert Mountain getting up to 2.7 million gallons and Scottsdale National getting around 1.3 million gallons daily.

The tradeoff, according to “Agreement No. 2002-065-COS-A3”:

“Contemporaneously with the execution of the 2002 Agreements, CGP-Granite and DMP caused approximately 1,215 acres of land in the Harquahala Irrigation Non-Expansion Area to be transferred to City.”

The golf courses and the city “anticipated that groundwater withdrawn” from the Harquahala land “would qualify as a long-term water supply of 3,460 acre feet per year.”

That would mean hundreds of millions of gallons of water washing Scottsdale’s way – every year.

Caton referenced that potential tide at City Council’s June 23 meeting. The topic at hand was an $8.25 million “purchase of 15,000 acre feet of long-term storage credits in the Harquahala Valley.”

The city typically consumes 70,000 to 80,000 acre feet of water per year, so the one-time 15,000 acre feet can be considered a drop in Scottsdale’s bucket.

But, wait, there’s more …

Caton noted the new credit purchase is closely tied to “an existing groundwater right in the Harquahala Valley in partnership with two golf courses – and that is a groundwater right to the tune of 3,800 acre feet on an annual basis.”

It’s not as easy as whistling for the water to show up, he allowed, as “There is significant infrastructure that is needed in order to convey that water rights to get it to Scottsdale.” 

Without giving a figure, he said it will take “a significant infrastructure cost.”

Though he allowed the “standalone 15,000 acre feet, 60 miles west of here,” was not a game changer, in itself.

 “… it’s the infrastructure for the other water right in conjunction with this that really brings it to our customers here in Scottsdale,” Caton said.

Dogleg

According to the 2002 agreement that was amended 13 years later, “(Scottsdale’s) share of the water supply was 1,260 acre feet per year; DMP’s share was 1,467.4 acre feet per year; and CGP-Granite’s share was the remaining 732.6 acre feet per year.”

The plan then took a dogleg.

In 2010, “CGP-Granite and Desert Mountain arranged for (the) city to purchase approximately 1,021 acres” of Harquahala land.

On June 27, 2013, the city closed on the purchase of the Desert-Granite Property, anticipated to have “a total long-term water supply of 2,910 acre feet per year.”

A subsequent purchase increased this to 3,645 acre feet per year.

The original Harquahala Valley land was sold in mid-2014, with $8.7 million deposited into “the HVID account.”

That money has been just sitting around waiting for action, apparently.

The 2025-26 Scottsdale Capital Improvement Projects budget showed a “Harquahala Valley Irrigation District Property – Desert Mountain Golf Club” line with just over $9 million for the year that ended July 1. The total budget over five years was listed at just under $16 million.

The 2026-27 CIP budget for the same project shows just under $9 million for this year, with total expenditures of just under $15 million by 2031.

According to Bryan Bouchard, a spokesman for Scottsdale Water, “The current estimated cost to build the infrastructure needed to move water from the Harquahala Valley Irrigation District (HVID) into the Central Arizona Project (CAP) canal is approximately $30 million.”

He reiterated Caton’s summary that the project is in the design phase, with construction expected to begin in 2027. 

“Construction is anticipated to take 18 to 24 months,” Bouchard said.

Who is footing the bill?

“The HVID fund is financed through contributions from the participating golf courses,” Bouchard said, “which are ultimately responsible for covering all of the costs of the infrastructure needed to deliver water from HVID.”

He explained the city is responsible for managing the HVID infrastructure project, “but it is not responsible for paying for it with taxpayer or general city funds.

“Instead, the Pipeline Capacity Holders – golf courses – provide the money through a dedicated HVID account.”

But what if – as so often happens – the project gushes over budget?

“If construction costs exceed the available funds,” Bouchard said,  “the city is not required to continue the project until the (golf courses) contribute additional money, or the city is reimbursed.”

Putting it in layman’s terms, he said the city is managing the project, but the golf courses “bear the financial responsibility and risk for building the HVID infrastructure.”

Sounds like Scottsdale is the caddy, with the golf courses ready to for a long shot: Plenty of green – cash as well as land – stands between the Harquahala Valley tee and the Scottsdale Water hole.