Recharge Potential of Southwest Alluvial Basins in Proximity to the Central Arizona Project Aqueduct

Prepared for: U. S. Bureau of Reclamation, Lower Colorado Region, Boulder City, Nevada 89005, September 1984.Introduction: Southwest desert alluvial basins seemingly offer significant potential for efficient subsurface storage of artificially-recharged water and conjunctive management of limited water resources. This report presents a preliminary assessment of five southwest alluvial basins in general proximity to the Central Arizona Project (CAP) aqueduct system. Each of these basins is typical of the Southwest Basin and Range Physiographic Province, which is characterized by broad, deep alluvial-filled basins bounded by steep, rugged fault-block mountain ranges. Further, these basins are categorized into either West or Central Basins on the basis of common lithologic, stratigraphic and hydrogeologic properties (Pool, 1984). Geography, hydrogeology, surface soils, water sources and land-ownership patterns of each basin are described relative to the potential of ground-water recharge.This item is part of the Water Resources Research Center collection. It was digitized from a physical copy provided by the Water Resources Research Center at The University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please contact the Center, (520) 621-9591 or see http://wrrc.arizona.edu