We encourage you to vote for those candidates who understand water issues and promise to work for solutions that help our area.
In the Prescott Active Management Area, which includes Dewey-Humbolt, Prescott Valley, Prescott, and Chino Valley, groundwater pumping exceeds natural and artificial replenishment by over 18,000 acre-feet per year (afy) — that is a football field three=-and-a-half miles deep, disappearing from the aquifer every year, depleting our groundwater reserves.
The overdraft relentlessly continues to grow, decimating Del Rio Springs, and drying wells in Williamson Valley, Chino Valley and Coyote Springs. In the last 70 years, the flow from Del Rio Springs, the historical headwaters of the Verde River, has declined 90%. A partial, preliminary survey has identified more than 500 failing wells south and west of Chino Valley, along Williamson Valley Road, and in Coyote Springs. Occasionally, a failing well can be replaced by drilling a new well at great cost, but this is a long-shot gamble, so most afflicted homeowners install a holding tank and have water hauled to them. Their home value is reduced up to 50%.
The latest guidance from the Arizona Department of Water Resources not only fails to address the overdraft, but has already approved more than 10,000 new homes for new water service. And existing state law authorizes water for an additional 100,000 homes! Every new home consumes groundwater and worsens the problem.
Pumping in the Big Chino threatens Paulden domestic wells and the upper Verde River. The river begins perennial flow near Paulden where groundwater from the Big Chino emerges at Verde Springs, the only water source for the upper 25 river miles, which contains the finest riparian habitat in AZ. River flows have been steadily declining since 1996. In late June, we measured all-time record low flows at Perkinsville Bridge. We are witnessing the slow decline of the last surviving perennial river in Arizona.
Arizona water law authorizes groundwater pumping for the Big Chino Water Ranch pipeline, a project intended to support new homes, to dry up the river. It is totally legal for big agriculture to move into the Big Chino, irrigate without limit, and dry up the river. Additional residential growth in the Big Chino also can dry the river.
Meanwhile, our local representatives to the state legislature ignore our local problems – fiddling while our water disappears – and fail to provide solutions. In the last session, legislators from other rural areas introduced several helpful bills addressing rural water needs. Unfortunately, one state representative beholden to agricultural interests prevented any of these bills from being considered on the floor of the legislature. We need forceful action from our state legislators, and that has not happened.
It is true that the legislature recently enacted new state water legislation, spurred by the Colorado River water supply crisis. We do not receive any water – zero – from the Colorado River. The new law ignores the water problems in Northern Arizona. Instead, it authorizes expensive and unrealistic augmentation projects such as multi-billion dollar desalinization plants or importing water from the Missouri River. Prior Arizona water law continues to support drying the Verde River and draining our aquifers in the name of promoting growth.
If we want to have a sustainable water supply and a flowing river, local citizens and government need to step up with solutions. Solutions do exist. For example, a regional water conservation incentive program could reduce water use by rural wells and private water systems and improve existing weak conservation programs in Prescott Valley and Chino Valley. Also, a regional stormwater recovery and recharge program will reduce the overdraft.
First, we need regional cooperation to protect a shared water resource. There has been no regional water planning since the Yavapai County Supervisors discontinued the Water Advisory Committee in 2014. Local governments must begin to meet regularly and plan solutions to protect our groundwater and the Verde River.
Most importantly, it is essential for citizens to learn where candidates for the state house and senate stand on the critical issues facing our regional water supply and the Verde River. We encourage you to vote for those candidates who understand water issues and promise to work for solutions that help our area. QCBN
By Gary Beverly, Ph.D.
Gary Beverly is a retired scientist and business owner working to protect the Verde River.
