Editor,

The October 29, 2006 Prescott Courier Talk of the Town “PV water auction a step toward safe yield” by Prescott Valley Mayor Harvey Skoog should cause a few alarm bells to go off. He begins by discussing safe yield: “Prescott Valley needs to reach safe-yield by 2025. Safe-yield essentially means a long-term balance between the amount of water users pump from the ground and the amount they recharge back into it from various sources.”

He then argues for importation of water from the Big Chino basin: “However, all of the current sources of recharge put together (including the reclaimed water Prescott Valley will produce in the near term) are inadequate to reach safe-yield. In fact, the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) concluded some time ago that Yavapai County can’t reach safe-yield without importing water from other areas.”

Alarm Bell 1 comes from reading the press release for the effluent auction on the Prescott Valley website: “…The effluent for auction, which includes the first generation of effluent produced from on-site use of the auctioned effluent, could support as many as 12,000 new homes within Prescott Valley.” Does that sound to you like Prescott Valley expects this effluent to be used for growth and not safe yield? It does to me.

But let’s be fair to Mayor Skoog. He goes on to say “The town now may sell that amount to raise the money for the Big Chino financing. In essence, it can use 2,700 acre-feet of reclaimed water to obtain 4,000 acre-feet of Big Chino water and better reach the goal of safe-yield.” Reading that might make you believe that Prescott Valley is going to allocate their 4,000 acre-feet of water from the Big Chino Water Ranch to safe yield. Will that in fact be the case?

That is where Alarm Bell 2 sounds. Again, reading from the press release for the effluent auction: “Prescott Valley is 85 miles north of Phoenix and is expected to grow from its current 35,000 residents to more than 79,000 residents by 2025. This growth, along with regulatory requirements that restrict groundwater use in the region, has increased the demand for alternative water supplies in Prescott Valley.” I read that as meaning growth, not safe yield, is their focus.

Oh, but Mayor Skoog would probably retort that I must be one of “A few [who] have criticized the concept either because they misunderstand it or they have other agendas.” Well yes, Mayor Skoog, I do have an agenda – it is to focus on what we really need to do to reach the goal of safe yield. And I do think I understand the concept – it boils down to selling water rights to the highest bidder, water rights developers must have if they want to build in Prescott Valley.

So which is Prescott Valley’s goal, reaching safe yield or sustaining high growth rates? Mayor Skoog would have you believe it is safe yield. I would say that the two alarm bells I have noted paint a different picture. But wait – Prescott Valley could use all the effluent (treated wastewater) generated from the 4,000 acre-feet of Big Chino Water Ranch water to reach safe yield. Not! Alarm Bell 3: Growth has previously been constrained by how available water was allocated to new housing units. Until recently the approach to allocating water supplies to new housing units was to require .35 acre-feet per unit (about 1/3 of an acre-foot per unit). Prescott Valley has recently proposed changing that to allocate 5 units per acre-foot! Yes, that means they could increase the building rate by 40 percent from 3 homes per acre-foot of water to 5 homes per acre-foot of water. How is that magic possible? Oh, it is those effluent credits again. Prescott Valley’s rationale is to account for the effluent produced by new housing and deduct that from the water normally required for a housing unit. Eureka – two more housing units per acre-foot! Is this legal? We will have to ask the Arizona Department of Water Resources to find out. However, Prescott Valley is trying to allocate effluent credits to growth, not to safe yield.

Well Mayor Skoog, you may hold out safe yield as your target but after the sounding of three alarm bells I think that go-go growth is the real goal.

Jack D. Wilson, Prescott