A possible Rio Verde Foothills water deal is good news, even if it solves nothing

Maybe cooler heads will prevail in Rio Verde Foothills, after all.

For weeks, Arizona has taken a beating in the national press over about 500 homes in this unincorporated community that had lost access to hauled water from neighboring Scottsdale.

Those headlines turned Rio Verde Foothills into a political football as elected officials publicly blamed each other for some residents’ dry taps.

But behind the scenes, work was happening on middle ground to help these homeowners without tying up any of Scottsdale’s existing water resources.

What’s been proposed is not a perfect deal and certainly not the ultimate solution for what ails Rio Verde Foothills.

But it’s still a step forward.

Officials dug in their heels, threw bombs

The problem took root years ago, as a steady stream of homes were built in Rio Verde Foothills without first proving they had secured an assured water supply.

For years, many of these homes had hauled water from Scottsdale. A proposal to form a district that could purchase water elsewhere bitterly divided the community.

And the hauled water ended in January, after years of warning from the city that it would cut off access once water shortages on the Colorado River were declared.

A step forward:Scottsdale OKs talks with county on water

That’s no small thing for Scottsdale, which is more reliant on Colorado River water than most other metro Phoenix cities. Presuming its supply is cut as deeply as some expect in the next round of negotiations, the city may soon be forced to take some deeply unpopular water-saving actions.

I suspect that’s why the mayor ratcheted up the rhetoric about not helping Rio Verde Foothills, no way, no how.

But his hard stance only exacerbated strained relations with the county supervisor and lawmakers who also represent the area, and everyone dug in their heels, seemingly more set on settling scores than solving the problem.

Scottsdale, county would make compromises

That’s why this deal, if it actually flies, is significant.

Before everyone started throwing bombs at each other, efforts were underway to find water temporarily for Rio Verde Foothills without involving Scottsdale’s supplies. The idea had long been to secure this water, have Scottsdale treat it and make it available via the standpipe that haulers had previously used.

That, essentially, is now what’s on the table.

Scottsdale would agree to find 200 acre-feet of water per year – or up to 600 acre-feet over three years – that it would make available for Maricopa County to haul to Rio Verde Foothills residents. The county could either deliver the water itself or contract with certified haulers to do so.

That also would be a departure for the county, which had previously argued that it had no power to help residents find water. Or to stop additional homes from being built without a water supply.

The state attorney general has since clarified the county’s powers, noting in a recent opinion that “… counties have the power to preserve public health and sanitation by contracting with a utility or another government entity to provide water on an emergency basis.”

Scottsdale’s proposal also stipulates that the county “attempt” to enact a moratorium on growth in Rio Verde Foothills – a controversial and complicated move that according to state law, can only be done for 120 days at a time.

Rio Verde Foothills deal fixes nothing

So, no, none of this really fixes anything.

It’s simply meant to sustain Rio Verde Foothills until a more permanent water source can be found, without digging the demand hole deeper with additional homes.

It won’t be cheap.

Scottsdale is proposing to charge the county $1,000 per month, plus another $21.25 per 1,000 gallons, to find and treat this water – all costs that would be passed on to the Rio Verde Foothills residents who choose to purchase it.

That’s roughly three times what Rio Verde Foothills residents paid the city for water last year.

But the days of finding cheap water are over. Even if EPCOR gets the OK later this spring to permanently serve Rio Verde Foothills, the privately owned water utility has warned that its solution (whatever that ends up being) is expected to be just as pricey.

Can they live with it? That's the question

And in the meantime, a gazillion things could go wrong to delay Scottsdale’s temporary water delivery and the effort to put a lid on home construction, which despite all the warnings about no water, inexplicably continues in Rio Verde Foothills.

So, no, nobody “wins” with this deal.

But that shouldn’t be the question that (hopefully) cooler heads on the county board of supervisors contemplate, now that the Scottsdale City Council has given the proposal a unanimous thumbs-up.

The question, as with so many other water issues, is whether this is the deal all sides can live with.

And whether they are willing to continue working on more permanent solutions – like maybe finally changing that definition in state law that allows homes to be built without first proving they have an assured water supply. (Lawmakers, to their credit, at least appear eager to close the loophole that allows build-to-rent homes to skirt water-supply requirements.)

If so, that’s probably about as good as it’s going to get.

Reach Allhands at joanna.allhands@arizonarepublic.com. On Twitter: @joannaallhands.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Scottsdale water deal solves nothing. But it may be the best we've got