By Richard Smith | YourValley
Cautious optimism is preferable when discussing Arizona’s water resources, given the dire updates of the past two years.
Vineetha Kartha, the Central Arizona Project’s Colorado River Programs manager, was there to deliver some good news — at least in the short term — at the Surprise City Council work session May 16.
The snowpack from this winter is abundant throughout the Colorado River Basin.
Kartha said the snowpack is 161% of the 30-year median.
“We were very fortunate. The snowpack was magical this year,” Kartha said, “We haven’t received this kind of snowpack in more than a decade.”
She cautioned, however that more than 20 years of drought conditions have made the basin arid and caused the watershed to take a larger percentage of the snowpack before it melts into runoff water headed for Lake Powell.