Water-Energy Nexus: The Arizona Experience

The intrinsic connection between water and energy resources has become a topic of considerable discussion and interest in the past few years. The Southwest is a region particularly sensitive to water-energy relationships with its semi-arid environment, high rates of growth and ongoing drought conditions. Due to these growing demands for both water and energy, Arizona water resource managers are in a perpetual search for additional sources. The water-energy nexus involves many trade-offs and the solutions are both dynamic and not always clear-cut. These linkages complicate planning and policy making, as decisions that conserve one resource may have detrimental impacts on the other. This paper takes the form of a narrative on the Arizona experience with water-energy questions.