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Water Division
Peoria Groundwater Flow
Model January 2003
Managing the City’s water resources requires knowing the conditions
of its available water supplies. Realizing this, the Water Resources
division hired a consultant to create a computer groundwater model of
Peoria and the surrounding areas. The model was based off of the Arizona
Department of Water Resources Salt River Valley (SRV) groundwater model.
The SRV model has been used for many years as a regional groundwater model
of the entire Phoenix area. For this project, only the western half of the
SRV model was used and the model was enhanced in the Peoria area
specifically.
3-D View of Model Boundaries and Peoria City Limits
Click the Photo to view a larger version
As a piece of the model design, Peoria had the consultants run several
model scenarios for a time period of 25 years. The scenarios are described
below.
Base Case
The current pumping and recharge stresses were maintained at a constant
state for the 25-year period of the model run. No changes were made to
pumping or recharge, regardless of the certainty of the modifications.
Projected Recharge/Pumping Constant
This scenario added all proposed recharge projects in the west valley
and maintained the pumping stresses as they are currently. Large recharge
projects added in this scenario included the Hieroglyphics Mountains
Recharge Project and the Agua Fria Linear Recharge Project.
Projected Pumping/Recharge Constant
All projected pumping in and around Peoria were included in this
scenario but none of the proposed recharge projects were modeled. Only
currently operating recharge projects were modeled for the duration of
their permits.
Projected Pumping/Projected Recharge
This scenario was the consultant’s and Peoria staff’s "best
guess" at what future conditions would resemble. We checked with
water managers in the northwest valley to get a feel for what they thought
their respective agencies would be doing in the future. The scenario
incorporated all foreseeable recharge and pumping 25 years into the
future.
Lake Pleasant Sub-Basin Pumping
Since this model added the Lake Pleasant Sub-Basin to the original SRV
model, we added some pumping stresses in the vicinity of Lake Pleasant
Road and Carefree Highway. Other assumptions were the same as the
Projected Pumping/Projected Recharge scenario. The scenario attempted to
forecast the viability of the sub-basin for water supply wells.
Email Us At:
utilities@peoriaaz.gov
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