Weekly Legislative Update: Republicans

It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time for the weekly Legislative update, in which we hear from state lawmakers on the latest activity at the State Capitol. This week it’s the Republicans turn. Republican Senator John Kavanagh joined Ted to discuss the latest issues including the water situation in the Rio Verde Foothills.

Rio Verde Foothills is an unincorporated community that recently lost access to water.

“Because it’s an unplanned community, most of the lots came about, not by big planned development, but by small lot splits, which, under state law, the developer does not have to provide an assured water supply,” said Kavanagh.

As Kavanagh pointed out, there are approximately 600 homes in the Rio Valley Foothills that do not have access to water. This was caused wells that either ran dry or were connected to an unreliable aquifer. In some homes never built a well and received water via truck delivery.

The trucks would load up with water at stand pipe owned by the city of Scottsdale. However, the Rio Verde Foothills were not in the city’s municipality. About two years ago, Scottsdale canceled this service to conserve water.

Those without water in the Rio Verde Foothills attempted to create their own water district. But they were met with various levels of success.

“The people who had wells did not want this because they were afraid that someday they would be forced to join,” said Kavanagh. “Or they were afraid the distract might someday forget the stand pipe and start drilling wells and take their water from the ground.”