UPDATE: The City of Scottsdale announced Friday it will begin providing water for transport to residents living in the Rio Verde Foothills area. According to the release, the water will not come from the city's own water resources and will receive an additional allotment of CAP water and provide it to haulers at the Pima Road Fill Station.
"We were hoping to have water by the end of the month, which we've missed that date by a few days already,” said Meredith DeAngelis, board chairwoman for the Rio Verde Foothills Standpipe District.
Where's the water?
That's what residents and state leaders are wondering after Rio Verde Foothills was supposed to get water by the end of September.
DeAngelis tells ABC15 she expects to have water by the end of the week.
"Right now working with our partners just to secure that water. There are a few options on the table right now that are being worked through both with EPCOR and the City of Scottsdale. So, we hope that they work together and that we can get water done by the end of this week," explained DeAngelis.
Water supply from Scottsdale was cut off on January 1st, however a new law passed months later, required the creation of a Standpipe District to get water to residents.
But into October, the woes continue.
Rep. Alex Kolodin (R), Scottsdale (LD-3) tells us, “I know that everybody's just very eager to get this behind us."
Representative Kolodin, whose legislation addressed the Rio Verde situation, says he’s working with other leaders on a long-term solution.
"Anybody that depends on Colorado River water, groundwater, to some extent, you know, has exposure. So, that's not a few communities. That's us as a state,” Kolodin said. “We really got to start taking this issue seriously."
We reached out to EPCOR who is working to supply the water. They tell ABC15:
There are two parts to the water solution: short term and long term. Working with the district to send water through the Scottsdale-owned standpipe is a short-term solution and that water, which is new water that is not coming from Scottsdale’s water portfolio, will be a combination of sources like CAP and the Verde River. The longer-term solution requires building EPCOR-owned infrastructure and that will take several years. We’re working with SRP on the long-term water.
Now that the agreement with the standpipe district is completed, we’re focused on finalizing the short-term water supply. We’re working as quickly as possible – we don’t have a date but as soon as we complete all of the right steps we can start moving water through the pipes.
