Out in the desert north of Phoenix Valley lies a critical piece of Arizona's water lifeline: the Agua Fria River Siphon.
It's just one link in the 336-mile Central Arizona Project canal system that delivers over 500 billion gallons of Colorado River water to Phoenix and Tucson. When that canal crosses a river like the Agua Fria, engineers employ massive siphons to pump water underneath.
"Through the aqueduct, through some more pipelines, and into the Phoenix Metropolitan area," Jim Geisbush, Central Arizona Project engineer and P.H.D, said. "During the visit this past week, the siphon was bone dry thanks to blockers, which were lowered into the canal, allowing crews to work safely.”
"There are five steel walls sitting on top of each other, stopping the water from flowing any further than this," Geisbush said. “When people turn on that tap, for 80% of the population of Arizona, the water has come through this canal and pipeline.”
Every few years, the blockers are lowered so CAP can do inspections on the Siphon. The pipe stands 21 feet tall and normally has 1.3 million gallons of water rushing through it every minute.
Walking along the pipe, Geisbush looked at the effects billions of gallons of rushing water have had on the structure.
"All these little spots are corrosion of the steel," Geisbush said.
The damage isn't dangerous yet, but identifying it early is exactly why these inspections are critical.
"If we were not to do anything, we would start getting leaks," Geisbush said.
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A major leak could mean a significant water delivery disruption for millions of residents. While this siphon is temporarily dry, thirsty customers across Phoenix and Tucson are still receiving water thanks to Lake Pleasant, where water levels are noticeably lower.
"Over the summer, we are going to release 260 thousand acre feet of water, that's going to bring down lake levels by about 30 feet," Crandall said.
Crandall says this isn't cause for concern, but rather evidence that the system is working as intended.
"It's a reliability feature, both for scheduled maintenance like the siphon, or an emergency situation where we hold water in this reservoir for all of our customers downstream," Crandall said.
Back underground, the maintenance team's hard work and advanced planning today will prevent emergency situations from threatening their system tomorrow.
"If we can do our maintenance prior to something failing, it's so much better, less expensive, and easier for everybody overall," Geisbush said.
With inspections complete and future repairs planned, the siphon now has water rushing through it again, continuing deliveries to Phoenix and Tucson as just one small part of this complex water delivery system.
