PRESCOTT - The Prescott Active Management Area's four mayors touted their water conservation and cooperation efforts during a roundtable discussion Wednesday, although they occasionally could not resist a few jabs at other Verde Watershed municipalities.
The discussion was part of a luncheon event that the Central Arizona Partnership held at Prescott Valley's Civic Center.
Chino Valley Mayor Karen Fann said the Upper Verde River Watershed Protection Coalition is a "major step forward" in regional cooperation. Prescott Mayor Rowle Simmons also cited the cooperation of the coalition, which includes all four municipalities as members.
As for broader regional cooperation through the Verde River Basin Partnership, "all things take time," Fann said. The Prescott-area municipalities have refused to join that group, saying they want better representation.
Cooperation within the Prescott Active Management Area (AMA) is not enough, Prescott Valley Mayor Harvey Skoog said. But to "make a level playing field" between the Prescott AMA and the downstream Verde Valley, he said the latter should become an AMA, which would increase its state-mandated water regulations.
It would not be good for the Prescott AMA to make sure the Upper Verde River does not go dry, "only to have it sucked dry by downstream users," Skoog said.
Dewey-Humboldt Mayor Earl Goodman said a regional water board would be helpful.
During his separate speech that led off Wednesday's luncheon event, Arizona water expert Grady Gammage Jr., urged Verde Basin communities to continue to talk.
"You are at the cutting edge of the rural-urban tension in Arizona," said Gammage, a Phoenix-area attorney who served on the Central Arizona Project board. "A major conflict is brewing...and you're going to be the test case."
During a short presentation about a consultant's critique of two recent U.S. Geological Survey studies of the Verde Watershed, Chino Valley Water Resources Manager Mark Holmes said an author of one of the studies, the late Laurie Wirt, caused public anxiety by "implying that the Verde River is going to dry up."
And an error in the Blasch et al. study makes it look like the Upper Verde River goes dry in July, he said.
Goodwin started out his comments Wednesday with a jab at neighboring communities saying their residents use twice-as-much water as Dewey-Humboldt's residents.
D-H residents, who all rely on unregulated household wells, each use an average of 45-60 gallons per day. Goodwin did not say how he came up with the Dewey-Humboldt calculations, since the town has no way to measure well water use.
The Arizona Department of Water Resources generally uses numbers higher than 100 for domestic well users.
Dewey-Humboldt officials are considering requiring new homes to include dual-flush toilets as well as gray water systems that can send water from bathtubs, sinks and clothes washers to outdoor landscaping, Goodwin said.
Skoog noted that proposed ADWR would allow subdivisions and water providers to include gray water use in their overall water-use calculations.
Fann noted that Chino will not let people use groundwater on their lawns in subdivisions that buy Big Chino Sub-basin groundwater from the town's proposed pipeline.
Simmons noted that Prescott offers cash incentives for residents to install low-water-use devices, and the city has newly tiered water-use rates that just increased again in July.
"I wish we could have done it after the election," he said, referring to the Sept. 11 city council election.
Prescott Valley has seen "quite modest" per-capita water use since it also initiated tiered rates, Skoog said.
Tiered rates create citizen "hostility," Goodwin said, although he agreed such rates are necessary.
Reader Comments
Posted: Saturday, August 18, 2007
Article comment by:
Tom Steele
Only Mayor Karen Fann has an overall knowledge of our water issues. The others are puppets (or parrots) repeating what they are told by their pro development supporers. None of the mayors want to discuss an assured water supply for current residences. They only cast doubt on the profesional reports of experts in support of large developments. Look on the internet for the sponsors, the Centeral Arizona Partnership ans see who they are. www.centralazpartnership.org
