Scottsdale readies local guardrails as feds roll out Colorado River cuts

Scottsdale is moving to tighten how it vets high‑demand projects just as Washington readies deeper Colorado River cuts. Mayor Lisa Borowsky said this week she will pursue a large water user ordinance after the Bureau of Reclamation released its Final Environmental Impact Statement that sketches how Arizona, California and Nevada could absorb new reductions, with the potential for steeper curbs later in the decade.

The stakes for Scottsdale are immediate. Borowsky says roughly 70 percent of the city’s supply rides in on the Central Arizona Project canal. With ongoing basin drought and a federal framework that anticipates further reductions, Scottsdale is planning for less CAP water and more scrutiny on what gets built and how it operates.

The consequence for growth is simple: big water footprints will face tougher questions up front. Borowsky’s proposal, which the City Council unanimously agreed to begin exploring earlier this month, would create an added review framework for developments and businesses with significant water demands, reinforcing the city’s conservation posture.

Borowsky is openly skeptical of the new federal framework. She argues the document contains legal flaws, downplays the Colorado River Compact and mischaracterizes Arizona’s rights. She also says the Lower Basin is already leading, pointing to a tri‑state commitment to conserve at least 3.2 million acre‑feet through 2028 and more than 9 million acre‑feet conserved since 2007.

She stresses the new release is a framework, not an operating plan. According to Borowsky, it sets guardrails and contemplates two‑year operating decisions tied to real hydrology, and she expects the 2027, 28 plan to reflect key elements of the proposal the Lower Basin states put forward. In her view, the federal document does little to encourage true basin‑wide consensus that includes all seven states.

Arizona’s conservation record features prominently in her case. Borowsky says the state conserved nearly 900,000 acre‑feet last year and more than 5.5 million acre‑feet since 2014, enough to raise Lake Mead more than 80 feet, and that Arizona is using less Colorado River water than it has in 35 years.

Scottsdale’s pitch to residents is that the city has been preparing for exactly this moment. Borowsky cites decades of work on conservation, aquifer recharge, pure water technology and long‑range planning that she says have made Scottsdale one of the region’s most resilient municipal systems.

Resilience, she adds, does not erase responsibility. The proposed ordinance would give the council and public a clearer way to evaluate whether future large water users align with the city’s long‑term development expectations and conservation goals as CAP reductions loom.

Borowsky, who serves on the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association board and the Protect Arizona’s Lifeline Coalition, says she will keep pushing for policies that recognize Arizona’s conservation, protect the river’s long‑term viability and ensure the state has a strong voice in decisions that hit local taps and ratepayers.

For a high‑growth city built in the Sonoran Desert, the priority is capacity, not rhetoric. With federal rules still in flux, Scottsdale is signaling it will rely on local guardrails to protect its supplies and taxpayers while the basin wrestles with a smaller river and unsettled operating rules.

Borowsky is asking residents to stay engaged, conserve where they can and show up for the debates that will shape the city’s future. Water security, she argues, is not just environmental policy. It is economic stability, public safety and quality of life. Scottsdale’s bet is that careful planning now will keep that lifeline intact for decades.

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