The ongoing drought continues to cause problems for one community in the North Scottsdale area, causing residents to desperately search for a source of water before the city of Scottsdale leaves them "high and dry."
"We have a truck that comes every six weeks and they kind of top us off. So, this water tank holds 5,000 gallons of water. We use about 3,000 gallons. We're fairly conservative with our water usage here," says Meredith DeAngelis, a homeowner in the area.
The reality is that it could soon come to an end for homeowners like DeAngelis who live in the Rio Verde Foothills community.
It's an unincorporated area of North Scottsdale that falls outside of city boundaries.
"They sent out a press release letting everybody know that as of January 2023, they can no longer continue to serve the people on hauled water," says DeAngelis.
That date has been looming over their heads for nearly a year now.
There are about 500 homes that get their water from private companies, wells, or have it hauled in.
It's left residents in a heated divide.
"The first solution was a bunch of neighbors were working for a Domestic Water Improvement District, or DWID, and that was pretty much what the majority of the neighbors on hauled water were signing up for. There was some opposition to that," says DeAngelis.
At the end of August, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted against it.
Attorney Elizabeth Shaffer just recently issued an appeal.
"This is a desperate situation. There is no water after December 31, 2022. (75 days) The hope for the Appeal is that the Appellants - Rio Verde Foothills residents will get water and the Board of Supervisors could no longer block the DWID efforts to obtain water. The DWID was (and still is as long as the appeal is alive) the only solution that is on the table for Jan 1, 2023," read a statement from Shaffer.
On the opposite end, others are in support of EPCOR, a private water company regulated by the state that is willing to step in.
They have filed an application with the Arizona Corporation Commission. The problem is that there are still a lot of unknowns, including what the water source would be and the cost.
"There's a gap between when they can serve that area... I think it's as soon as 36 months. There's also an end date of how your home needs to be built by a certain date in 2024," says DeAngelis.
Some homeowners say they weren't told they could lose their source of water when they first purchased in that area.
ABC15 has heard that is unfortunately still happening.
"There's limited resources. You can't keep developing and developing and not have a long-term source of water," says DeAngelis.
