11/24/2006 4:00:00 AM Officials debate trying pilot water district
By JOANNA DODDER
The Daily Courier
PRESCOTT Prescott-area elected leaders debated Wednesday about whether to consider creating an Upper Verde River water management district.
While Chino Valley Mayor Karen Fann and Prescott Valley Vice Mayor Mike Flannery voiced support for it, Yavapai County Supervisor Carol Springer cautioned that it might be better to wait and let another part of the state be the guinea pig.
All three are members of the Upper Verde River Watershed Protection Coalition. Prescott Mayor Rowle Simmons and Dewey-Humboldt Mayor Bob Greene did not attend Wednesday is meeting and the Yavapai-Prescott Tribe still is considering whether to join the relatively new coalition.
So those at Wednesday's meeting decided to wait until their Jan. 24 meeting to discuss the idea more.
"This is huge it's a very big issue," Fann said.
The Statewide Water Advisory Group is inviting local watersheds to be part of a potential pilot program and create local water districts that would offer more local control. The group plans to make various recommendations to the Legislature by early January.
Water resource managers for Prescott, Prescott Valley and Chino Valley recommended that the coalition take part in the pilot project.
"It would be self-designed," said PV Water Resource Manager John Munderloh, who also sits on the statewide water group. "I think that's the neat thing."
If the pilot program works, the state Legislature then might create legislation that allows such water districts all over the state, Munderloh said.
Right now, county supervisors can't regulate irrigation use in the Big Chino Sub-basin north of the Prescott area, such as preventing a huge new agricultural operation, Munderloh said. The Big Chino aquifer is the major supplier of the Upper Verde River's flow.
That scenario worried Flannery, but Springer said she's not so sure that the supervisors would want to try to stop a large farm using one of the largest aquifers in the state anyway.
Munderloh also cited other potential problems with current limited local powers.
Local agencies could start a project to recharge the aquifer with treated wastewater, and then someone could drop a well right next to it and defeat its purpose, he said.
A water district could establish non-irrigation expansion areas and well spacing requirements.
"Now is the time to move," Flannery said.
"I'm a firm believer that you take charge of your own destiny," before someone else does it, Fann said.
"I just don't know that I'd want to be a poster child for it," Springer countered.
If locals do not get in on the front end of the idea, they might get stuck with something they do not like in the end, Fann countered.
However, if local areas get to set the rules, one local area might hurt another, Springer said.
And new power, such as being able to deny subdivisions based on inadequate water supplies, leaves local governments open to lawsuits by shifting the heat away from the Arizona Department of Water Resources, she said.
Springer also worried that the Legislature might end up creating district rules that locals wouldn't like.
Munderloh said the Legislature created rules for a new Santa Cruz water district that locals didn't like, so they just didn't create the district.
Three people in the audience said a local water district is a good idea.
"We need to take matters into our own hands," especially since this region is unique in its dependence on groundwater, said Dan Campbell of the local Nature Conservancy office.
