Colorado River Commission & 7-States Meeting Inside Info: Arizona

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i nt HKILUNA KLHUBLIC RIMU MI Wl= FROMW PAGE MONDAY, JUNE 27,20 . 05 A' L WATER CRISIS Photos by Mark Henle/The Arizona Republic es, the streets aren't paved and, in most cases, homes are connected to septic tanks, which can begin to trickle into the groundwater over time. IONAL DEVELOPMENT i aerial view of a new subdivision in Prescott Valley. Workers drill a well for new home in Dewey. Current laws allow individual landowners to build subdivisions that rely on unmonitored wells and developers to sell homes without guaranteeing a.lorWterm water supply. Haulhn water iff s way of rural life By Shaun McKinnon The Arizona Republic ASH FORK — Some nights, Tracy Hunter checks the levels in the water tank outside, then surveys the piles of clothes that need washing and picks out only what her husband, Eddie, three kids and she will need right away. "I think, 'If I wash all these clothes now, we might not have enough water to take showers the next day, "' she said. This is part of what it means to live in Arizona's water - hauling country, rural communities where there is no central water system and drilling a well isn't possible. The people who go to so much trouble to haul water came to these remote places looking for a simpler, independent lifestyle or a home in the mountains or simply a house they could afford. They repre- sent the extreme side of what it takes to get water in rural Arizona. State officials can't estimate how many people live this way — they're .a small minority — but it's not uncom- mon in northern Arizona. More than half of the people who live on the Navajo Reservation haul water, as do hundreds of people in areas surrounding Flagstaff, Wil- liams and Kingman. "It's a way of life in these areas," said Tom Whitmer, manager of state- wide water resources planning for the Arizona Department of Water Re- sources. The water - filling stations in Ash Fork, a tiny town west of Williams in northern Yavapai County, draw lines of trucks all day on the weekends. The town is served by a small water system, but most residents beyond a square mile or so must haul water or have it hauled in. "In Texas, we never really thought about water," said Eddie Hunter, a sometimes truck driver who moved his family to Ash Fork a year ago. "The kids filled pools, played with the hoses .." "Here, there are no water fights," Tracy said. "You really have to watch it. You don't want to run out when there's bad weather." The Hunters landed in Ash Fork because other family members lived there and helped them relocate. So they were willing to dwell in a place with no water. They have a 5,000 -gallon storage tank at home, enough for about three weeks. They pay 1 cent a gallon to fill a smaller tank that fits into the back of their pickup. Eddie is fixing up a trailer that will let them haul an even larger tank the three or four miles from town to their home. If for some reason . they can't get into town — if, say, Eddie is away on a long truck run —they can pay $60 per 2,000 gallons to have water delivered. To install a well at their house out- side Ash Fork would mean drilling down more than 2,000 feet, which just isn't practical for a homeowner. Williams has had to drill down about 3,700 feet to find water during the ongoing drought, which is why in- dividuals in the high country and plateaus have few options but haul- ing, said Whitmer, the state's water - resources planner. Ron and Roberta McElwain moved from Boston to the 40 -acre Juniper Wood Ranch south of Ash Fork to es- cape the big city, The ranch, which is on the far side of Partridge Creek from town, of- fered inexpensive land that put some room between them and anyone else,