the unanswered $64,000 dollar question

Williams seeks right to pump Verde Basin water … By Joanna Dodder Nellans, The Daily Courier … Thursday, March 06, 2008 …The City of Williams has found out that it is violating state law by using Verde River Basin groundwater, so now it is seeking a change in the law to make the pumping legal. It is generally illegal in Arizona to pump water from one groundwater basin to another. Although the 1993 law contains several exceptions, the state has not granted any since. Williams City Manager Dennis Wells said the city realized this past summer that its two wells are located in the Verde River Basin instead of the Coconino Plateau Groundwater Basin where Williams is situated. Since Williams spent $13 million to drill wells to supplement its surface water supplies that leave it without enough water at times, the city is seeking an exception to state law so it can continue to use the wells. The House Water and Agriculture Committee approved House Bill 2772 on Thursday. The Williams language is tacked onto an existing bill that the Legislature annually approves to allow groundwater basin transfers during drought emergencies. By coincidence, Rep. Lucy Mason, R-Prescott, is the prime sponsor of HB2772 because she chairs the House Water and Ag Committee. The bill would allow Williams to use as much as 700 acre-feet of Verde Basin water each year, plus an unspecified amount of additional water if necessary for fire protection. It would lose the right to use Verde water when it gets enough supplies from other sources, but no specific deadline is included. The city is involved in a Coconino Plateau study that is considering the feasibility of a Colorado River pipeline. The Williams water comes out of the Redwall-Martin Formation that otherwise would flow into the Verde Valley near Clarkdale, so it is not reducing the flow of the Upper Verde River that depends on headwater springs for its baseflow, said Herb Guenther, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

The demand for Verde River water continues to grow and expand, the $64 thousand dollar question which remains unanswered is can this river support the demand “we” are placing on it…?

Whether Williams, Arizona has the legal right to use Verde River water appears to me to be – moot – as the reality is this community via legislative fiat has been doing so for a number of years and in all probability will continue to do so into the foreseeable future.

Another legal stumbling block for SRP to deal as it attempts to close the noose on anyone “stealing” its water.

In Arizona is water legally defined as a commodity or a right, though merely words the definition has significant implication in a court of law…?