The Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona took the first steps last week to asking companies for plans to show they could import more than 100 billion gallons of water into the state

The move comes as the authority has faced financial challenges. WIFA’s funding has been cut to less than half of its original budget after the state government had to make sweeping budget cuts.

The board is looking for other options after scrapping an idea to desalinate ocean water from the Gulf of California.

Any imported water would supplement what’s used by homeowners, industrial users and farmers.

What WIFA is pursuing is what remains of a grandiose $1 billion plan by Gov. Doug Ducey to have the state desalinate water from the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. That resulted in behind-the scenes negotiations by the WIFA board solely with Israeli-based IDE Technologies in a bid by the then-governor to have a deal inked by the time he left office in January 2023.

The board is looking at bringing in surface water from other states and reclaiming wastewater, and says it is open to other options

The average monthly water bill for Phoenix is about $45 a month. It's pretty much the same for Tucson.

Multiply that out by 12 and you're talking $540 a year. That covers everything from producing and treating it to maintaining the system that delivers it to the door

By contrast, estimates for desalination projects put the cost of treating and delivering an acre foot of water at anywhere from $2,500 to $5,000 an acre foot. Even assuming conservative use of water and that three families can be served with an acre foot, that means adding anywhere from $830 to $1,600 extra a year to a water bill.