Early on the morning of July 1, a thick, mud-like material got into Cave Creek's intake on the Central Arizona Project canal, and the Water Treatment Plant had to shut down temporarily while crews cleared it out. The Cave Creek / Carefree Independent reported that Utilities Director Shawn Kreuzwiesner said it "took staff several hours to resolve the issues with the pipeline and the four booster sites," and that in the meantime the town "had to rely on our water storage reservoirs to meet customer demands." Residents were asked to cut back voluntarily until things were back to normal.
The project finishing up next to Lowe's on Cave Creek Road was built for mornings like that one. It answers one of the town's two water problems. The second problem is the one the Town Council will bring to residents next year.
One Pipeline, Twelve Miles, Four Booster Sites
For most of the town, tap water has come by a single path. The Town's water department describes it this way, as quoted in the Foothills Focus:
- Raw Colorado River water is drawn from the CAP canal at Deer Valley Road in Phoenix.
- It is pumped about 12 miles north through pipelines.
- It is filtered and treated at the Town's Water Treatment Plant on Basin Road.
- It goes out to the roughly 2,500 connections on the Cave Creek system.
Desert Hills works differently. Its roughly 1,800 users are served by three groundwater wells, and because the Town describes that system as "dependent on a decreasing groundwater supply," it is topped up with treated CAP water from the Cave Creek system through an existing connection. Cave Creek's single line is effectively serving both places.
That is why a few hours of mud at one intake meant the whole system was running on stored water.
The Second Route Runs Past Lowe's
The Phoenix Interconnect sits next to Lowe's, off Cave Creek Road just north of Carefree Highway. Here is how it works. Cave Creek sends its own CAP water to the City of Phoenix for treatment, and Phoenix sends drinking water back for the Town to deliver through its own pipes. The Town's November 3 FAQ says the connection gives Cave Creek 1.4 million gallons per day of backup capacity.
Residents have already sat through the construction. The Town's October 23 notice said that starting October 26, Cave Creek Road near the site would drop to one lane in each direction for about two weeks while contractor MGC modified the 16-inch waterline out front. The notice called that work "one of the final steps." Phoenix had already finished the major work south of Carefree Highway, and the Town said it expected to start receiving treated water from Phoenix in early November.
Mayor Robert Morris has been plain about the purpose. "What are you going to do if water is out for two weeks? This project was originally put in to address that issue," he told the Foothills Focus. The same paper put the project's price at nearly $20 million. Morris said the cost was "already built into rates," financed with borrowed money spread over 30 years. He also cautioned that rates are likely to go up for other reasons.
Same River, Different Treatment Plant
The new pipe adds a second way to treat and deliver Cave Creek's water. It doesn't add any water. What flows through Phoenix's plant is the same Colorado River allocation that flows through Basin Road.
| Question | What the interconnect changes |
|---|---|
| If the CAP intake or the 12-mile pipeline goes down, is there another way to get treated water to town? | Yes. That is the main purpose of the project. |
| Who can treat Cave Creek's water? | The Basin Road plant, and now also the City of Phoenix. |
| Where does the water come from? | Unchanged. It is still CAP water from the Colorado River. |
| How much water does the Town have? | Unchanged. That depends on CAP allocations and banked reserves. |
The supply numbers come from the Town's own utility FAQ, posted November 3, 2026. Nearly 95% of Cave Creek's water comes from the Colorado River through CAP. The Bureau of Reclamation is cutting Arizona's allocation by 20% in 2027, but CAP and the Arizona Water Banking Authority have "firmed up" Cave Creek's supply so the town is "whole" for that year. The FAQ says reductions are likely by 2028, depending on conditions at Lake Mead and Lake Powell. The Town has three to five years of water banked underground.
The FAQ also covers the fall storms. Citing Sarah Porter, director of Arizona State University's Kyl Center for Water Policy, it says Lake Powell rose 12 feet in two weeks after the rain but is still only about 25% full. Lake Mead is at about 23% of capacity. More than 80% of the river's flow comes from snowpack in the upper Rocky Mountains. A wet October in the foothills changes neither of those percentages much.
The Town's March press release put the 2027 range for municipal CAP users at 20 to 57 percent before the firming arrangement was in place. A wide range like that is why the Council is looking at more than plumbing.
The Decision That Comes After the Pipe
On March 25, 2026, the Town Council voted unanimously to widen an Invitation for Bid that had originally covered only the Desert Hills system. The expanded version covers all three utilities: Desert Hills water, Cave Creek water and Cave Creek wastewater. The goal, in the Town's words, is to "determine whether it makes sense to keep the utilities or sell them." The earlier Desert Hills-only solicitation, posted in December 2025, described about 1,840 customer accounts.
The Council hired the consulting firm Raftelis for $114,000. Its job is to appraise the systems, analyze any bids, weigh the pros and cons of selling or keeping them, and estimate what the Town might avoid spending on new water resources. Raftelis is also analyzing a possible intergovernmental agreement under which another municipality would supply bulk treated water that the Cave Creek system would deliver to customers.
That last option ties straight back to the pipe by Lowe's. The November 3 FAQ says the Town has brought in consultants to look at expanding the Phoenix Interconnect so Phoenix would handle 100% of the town's water treatment. A backup built for outages is now one of the options for running the whole system.
As of the FAQ, the Council had held two executive sessions to review what came back from the bid and was going over proposals with consultants and the Town Attorney. No decision has been made. The FAQ lists the issues under review as rate impacts, plus concerns from private-well owners and residents not yet connected to Town water. It also says the Arizona Corporation Commission would not let a private water company sell Cave Creek's water resources into another service territory, and would not approve a sale to a private company that could not show it has enough water to serve the community. If keeping the "status quo" for Cave Creek and Desert Hills water and wastewater turns out to be the best option, the Town says it will keep working hard to secure new supplies.
The supply ideas presented at a joint Town Council and utilities advisory meeting in September, as the Foothills Focus reported, show how long the timelines run:
- Water exchanges that would give the Town physical access to its stored CAP credits and Arizona Water Banking Authority credits
- Putting equipment back into existing Cave Creek wells
- Bringing new groundwater from the Harquahala basin through the CAP canal
- A request for 1,000 acre-feet of storage in a new Bartlett Dam project, which works out to about 286 acre-feet a year on average and isn't expected to be available until 2035
Where This Shows Up on the Calendar
The interconnect is the part residents have already seen, from the late-October lane work on Cave Creek Road near Carefree Highway to the Town's expectation of Phoenix-treated water in the system this month. The utility question moves more slowly and more publicly. The Town says that once the Council reaches consensus, the item will come up for public discussion at a Council meeting with time for questions and comments. Public information sessions are planned for early 2027.
Regular Town Council meetings are held at Town Hall, 37622 N. Cave Creek Road. The next one on the Town calendar is November 17, 5 to 7 p.m. The Town's News Flash page is where the October road notice and the November FAQ were posted. The Town also started a community calendar on October 28.
The utility decision could affect home values for owners on Town water, on a Desert Hills connection or on a private well. If you want to know how it might shape the value of your property, Andy Berglund has followed this market since 1995 and is glad to talk it through. Get Your Instant Home Valuation to see where your home stands today.
