PHOENIX — Rio Verde Foothills residents whose main water source was shut off eight months ago could be just weeks away from having it turned on again.
"We're hoping for something within the next 30 days," Meredith DeAngelis, chair of the new Rio Verde Foothills Standpipe District, said Tuesday.
DeAngelis provided the update at a ceremonial bill signing at the Capitol with Gov. Katie Hobbs.
"We never really imagined that we would be in the situation we are today," said DeAngelis, whose family has lived in the Foothills for more than a decade.
"If it wasn't for this bill, I really can't imagine what would have happened to our home."
The signing marked the rapid progress of the 2-month-old water district, the product of bipartisan legislation to restore water service to the unincorporated desert subdivision north of Scottsdale.
The plight of an estimated 500 households that rely on hauled water from a nearby standpipe has become a national symbol of Arizona's failure to manage development in the face of a shrinking water supply.
"While it's not perfect, I'm glad that we are able to deliver relief for the residents of the Rio Verde Foothills," Hobbs said.
The new water district effectively put the state government in the business of providing water service to a local community.
All five members of the water district board are Rio Verde Foothills residents.
They were appointed by the Democratic governor, Republican legislative leaders, and two state agency heads.
All are serving on a government board for the first time.
The board "isn't moving fast enough for our tastes, but I think we're moving very fast at the same time," said Michael Miola, a retired money manager who breeds quarter horses on a 60-acre ranch in the Foothills.
"The uppermost thing in my mind is making sure our people have water."
According to Miola, this is a potential timetable for the next steps in securing a water supply for Rio Verde Foothills:
- The standpipe district could approve an agreement with water supplier EPCOR as soon as the district's scheduled meeting next week.
- The Scottsdale City Council could vote as soon as Sept. 11 on an agreement to treat and transport the EPCOR water to Rio Verde Foothills' standpipe.
It's the same standpipe that Scottsdale supplied with its own water for decades.
City of Scottsdale emails show the city had warned Rio Verde Foothills residents for at least three years that drought planning might force it to stop supplying water.
That day came last Dec. 31.
"Everything's working really well with those two," DeAngelis said of EPCOR and Scottsdale.
DeAngelis said the district didn't have the costs yet for the new water supply. Those are subject to negotiation with EPCOR, Scottsdale and water haulers.
Residents who rely on water haulers are seeing exorbitantly high water bills because of the distance the haulers travel for the supply.
"The water cost ... should be significantly lower," she said.
"Not back to probably what it once was, which I don't think it will ever be there. But definitely affordable."
The standpipe district is doing a headcount to see how many residents will pay for the water hauled from the standpipe.
The legislation creating the district allows for water services for a maximum of 750 residences. The residences would have to have been water customers before the shutoff.
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