How the city with the most to lose in the Colorado River crisis is trying to adapt

Shawn Kreuzwiesner, utilities director for the Town of Cave Creek, visits the town's pump system in Phoenix on March 27, 2026. Nearly all of the town's water flows through the pumps, which draw Colorado River water from the Central Arizona Project. Alex Hager/KJZZ hide caption toggle caption Alex Hager/KJZZ On the outer edges of the Phoenix metro area, the small town of Cave Creek, Arizona sits nestled among the cactus-dotted hills. It's home to about 5,000 people and known mostly for its quiet residential neighborhoods, art galleries and an annual rodeo. It's also on the front lines of the Colorado River crisis. Climate change and a 26-year megadrought have crippled the river, which supplies nearly 40 million people across seven Western states and Mexico. Negotiations about how to share its shrinking supply are at an impasse , and the federal government has proposed steep cutbacks to protect the nation's largest reservoirs. Cave Creek, which gets about 95% of its water from the Colorado River, will be among the first to feel the impact of those cuts. The Colorado River basin stretches from the snow-capped peaks of Wyoming to the mostly-dry Delta in Mexico, where it once met the sea. Along the way, the river is divided, diverted and siphoned off to cities, farms and tribes with a legal right to use it. …