RIO VERDE, Ariz. — The pumps have run dry.
After more than a year of warning, the City of Scottsdale made good on its threat to cut off about 500 homes in Rio Verde Foothills from city water.
Those homes relied on water hauler trucks that filled up at a nearby standpipe. Now, those pipes lie silent as the trucks have been forced to find water elsewhere.
"You would have thought that something would have been worked out," said John Carroll, standing next to his RV.
He built the house specifically so he would have a garage for the RV. He never thought he may end up having to live out of it.
"We've already talked about if worse come to worse we'd just have to go somewhere," he said.
Because that RV now has 100 gallons of clean, drinkable water in it.
The tank buried in his front yard has another 5,000 gallons. And when that runs out, he doesn't know when, or if, he can get more. Taking a long trip might be the best idea he has.
"You could live for a while without electricity," he said, "but water?"
Because of Arizona's long and record-breaking drought, Scottsdale decided it needed to conserve its own water. It wanted the city's water to be used by city residents and Rio Verde Foothills lies outside the city limits.
The water haulers that used to supply Carroll's home with water are now going to Apache Junction to fill up, at least an hour one way. Once there, it takes two hours to fill a single truck. Then the drive back, then the drive to deliver water. It takes at least four hours before they can deliver water to a single house.
Because of that, water haulers out here have had to drastically increase their prices. A typical family of four using 12,000 gallons of water a month will now pay at least $1,200 for water.
There are a lot of properties with livestock out here. They can expect to easily pay the equivalent of an entire mortgage payment for their water every month, if not more.
“I don't know what anybody's going to do," Phil Tilford said. "I think nobody wants to face the hardcore truth. People were, for many years, in denial."
Tilford has less than a full 5,000-gallon tank of water left. He's not sure if he can afford another tank, or if a water hauler can even get to him.
"They've tripled already," he said.
The City of Scottsdale has said it will not work with any external companies to provide Rio Verde Foothills with any water. Every other plan the community has come up with for a guaranteed source of water has also failed.
That leaves the people in Rio Verde Foothills wondering what they'll do next.
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