PHOENIX — The new state law designed to restore water service to Rio Verde Foothills has cleared its first hurdle in bipartisan fashion.
The desert subdivision north of Scottsdale has gone seven months since its water supply was cut off, becoming a national symbol of Arizona's failure to manage its shrinking water supply
The emergency law is a temporary solution to that problem. Here's what comes next:
Leaders appoint new board
The new law creates a so-called standpipe water district.
For the first time, the state will provide water service to a community.
On Monday, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, the Republican leaders of the House and Senate, and two Hobbs agency appointees met the deadline to appoint the five-member standpipe district board.
The five are in various stages of being sworn in. All five are Rio Verde Foothills residents. At least four of the five have water hauled to their homes.
The roughly 500 homes that rely on hauled water have seen their water rates soar since the City of Scottsdale shut off water deliveries Jan. 1 to a water standpipe serving the foothills.
Before Jan. 1, haulers would fill their tanks with water at the standpipe and deliver it to homes. They now must travel across the Valley to fill up with water.
Who will stand up new board?
There are still questions about who will do the basic work of standing up the new water utility - getting office space for the board, setting up email, hiring an administrator or an attorney.
Earlier versions of similar legislation had the state Department of Administration involved. A department spokesman told 12News Monday that the agency wouldn't play a role in the standpipe district.
A Hobbs spokesman said that was being figured out.
Urgent tasks to restore water
The board faces two urgent tasks:
-Contracting with a water supplier for the foothills. The privately-held water company EPCOR is believed to be the likeliest candidate. EPCOR is working through Arizona regulators to bring a permanent water supply to Rio Verde Foothills. That project is expected to take about three years; the standpipe board expires in three years.
-The thorniest challenge might be dealing with the City of Scottsdale. The standpipe board has to reach an intergovernmental agreement with the city to treat and transport the board-supplied water to the foothills' standpipe.
Mayor David Ortega had opposed virtually every solution to the Rio Verde Foothills water crisis that involved Scottsdale.
Scottsdale halted water deliveries to the standpipe at the end of last year, after declaring that its drought contingency plan no longer gave it the freedom to sell water to about 500 homes outside its boundaries.
But the new law requires Scottsdale to deal with standpipe district in negotiating a contract. The law stipulates that the city be reimbursed "for the full reasonable costs of providing and delivering the water."
Ortega and the City Council now appear to be on board with resuming water deliveries to Rio Verde Foothills. The seven-member council would have to approve the IGA.
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