Interview with Grady Gammage - Central Arizona Project

seepage. But we have all this extra water, so what do we do We flow it out on
the desert and let it seep slowly into the ground. I got to dedicate a recharge site
when I was President of CAP. You open the head gates and the water flows out
onto the desert and seeps slowly into the ground. This guy standing next to me
turns to me and says, “Isn’t this the most exciting thing you’ve ever seen.” And I
looked at him and I said, “You could only be a hydrologist if you think that. We
are watching water seep into the ground.” I told that story at water conference in
Texas a while back and this women came up to me afterwards and she said
“Could my husband and I go visit a recharge site That would be so exciting.
We’d fly to Arizona, if you could arrange a tour.” I said, “Okay, one more time
listen to me here. Flat desert, water, seeps into the ground. You could probably
picture it in your mind adequately to make up for any tour.” Oh no she wanted to
see it. She came. She flew out and she went on a tour and she thought it was
just… We are the world leaders in this. We have put four million acre feet of
water back into the ground through this and other mechanisms.
Q. How can you tell….
A. We can tell it goes into the ground. We don’t know once it’s down there where it
goes. That’s the real problem. You can measure the fact that you’re seeping
and you know how much is lost to evaporation. Once it’s down there we’re not
sure where it heads, if it stays put.
Q. So if we had to use it would we have to re-drill pumps
Interview with Grady Gammage
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