09/18/2026
Canyon Lake, Arizona: Teamwork on the Waterfront
At Suntex Marinas, operating on the waterfront means working within a much larger ecosystem. Canyon Lake, Arizona, is a great example of what that looks like in practice.
Canyon Lake will undergo an approximately 16-week drawdown, lowering the lake roughly 54 feet so normally submerged infrastructure at Mormon Flat and Horse Mesa dams can be inspected and maintained. This type of major drawdown occurs only about once every 20 years.
For the Suntex Construction and Operations teams at Canyon Lake Marina, preparation has required extensive coordination with the public agencies, partners, and stakeholders responsible for the lake and surrounding infrastructure.
The scale of coordination is significant:
• 5 public agencies are identified by SRP as directly involved in the drawdown: Salt River Project (SRP), U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Forest Service/Tonto National Forest, Arizona Game & Fish Department, and Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office
• SRP's broader stakeholder coordination has also included the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, along with Forest Service permittees and other affected organizations
• The lake will be lowered approximately 54 feet, with roughly four weeks for drawdown, eight weeks for inspection and maintenance, and four weeks for refilling
• The work supports dam safety, flood control, and water reliability for more than 2.5 million Valley residents
• Importantly, no water will be wasted, and water deliveries to SRP customers will continue
This is marina management beyond the docks. It is the ability to collaborate across public agencies, private businesses, construction teams, and marina operations to prepare for a complex project safely and responsibly.
From our inland lakes to our coastal waterways, these partnerships are an important part of how Suntex works: bringing the right stakeholders together to protect infrastructure, support our communities and prepare our marinas for what comes next.
