In an unexpected move, a Cochise County lawmaker, State Rep. Lupe Diaz joined House Democrats to try to kill a bill aimed at bringing relief to the nearly 500 families in the unincorporated Rio Verde Foothills community of Maricopa County. The community has been in a struggle for water with Maricopa County and the City of Scottsdale.
The bill, HB2561, sponsored by Rep. Alex Kolodin and Rep. Joseph Chaplik, and mirrored by Sen. John Kavanagh who introduced Senate Bill 1093, could have led to a resolution of the situation which started
on Jan. 1 when the commercial haulers who provided Rio Verde Foothills with potable water had their access to Scottsdale Water fill stations cut off, despite obtaining water from the city for years.
The bills specifically “directs a municipality to provide water service through a standpipe until 2026 to up to 750 households that lack access to sufficient water if those households had previously received water service from the municipality, the municipality is reimbursed for providing water service and providing this water does not reduce water available to the municipality or the households.”
According to the Legislative Overview:
“In response to a declared shortage on the Colorado River, the City of Scottsdale ceased providing water for hauling to Rio Verde Foothills in 2023. This unincorporated community borders the City of Scottsdale and contains about 2,000 households. Most residents use wells for a domestic water source, but approximately 500-700 households depend on the delivery of hauled water. One source of hauled water was a filling station operated by the City of Scottsdale, which provided about 117 acre-feet of water to Rio Verde Foothills annually.
In August 2021, the Bureau of Reclamation declared a Tier 1 shortage on the Colorado River. The City of Scottsdale’s Drought Management Plan required that when a Tier 1 shortage occurred, any water hauling operations would cease unless the customer could prove the hauled water was being directly supplied to a resident or business within the city’s limits. In August 2022, the City of Scottsdale notified all water hauling customers that water service would cease on January 1, 2023 unless the customer could prove the hauled water was used within the city’s limits. The City of Scottsdale terminated water service on January 1, 2023.
Diaz’s vote to deny water to the struggling Rio Verde families stunned his fellow Republicans. However, Kolodin was able to preserve the bill by voting against it at the last minute. Kolodin’s “no” vote is a legislative tactic that places him on the winning side of the vote tally, which allows him to bring the bill back for reconsideration within 14 days.
Two Democrats blamed inequity for their decision to deny families water.
“Us indigenous people have been neglected from this floor and the senate floor for a long time,” said Rep. Peshlakai. “I grew up in a time when I had to carry water in a little bag from a spring that was five miles away. And we know that water is a renewable resource. At the same time, we must know that water is essential and a very sacred source. And now there’s 9,000 people that are asking for water here in Phoenix area. But in my district, LD6, we finally found a way. Mother nature gave us a way where we realized that we were living without the proper infrastructure in many ways. We finally got water in just the last five years. I’m not trying to be hard, I’m just trying to make people realize that water is sacred, and with that I vote no.”
“I’m going to piggyback on Rep. Peshlaki’s talking points,” said Rep. Stahl-Hamilton. “As a very young child is where I learned the inequalities of how water is distributed in this state. There is still inequity when we deal with water. It’s the essential thing to life. And for there to be an emergency clause on this I think first and foremost it needs to be removed. Where was the emergency a century ago (referring to the Navajo Nation). Where was the emergency fifty years ago?”
For his part, Diaz did not explain his vote against the bill, but Capitol observers don’t believe his reasons mirror the Democrats. “The Democrats seem to be settling a grudge and have taken the attitude that since no one cared about us 100 years ago, we’re not going to care about Arizonans now. I don’t think that’s going to be the case with Diaz, I mean the guy’s a pastor for crying out load, so I don’t think he wants people to actually have no water to punish them for someone else’s century-old sins.” said one lobbyist who is not working on this issue.
HB 2561: city water provider; requirements; service
| Cesar Aguilar | N | Lorena Austin | N | Leo Biasiucci | Y |
| Seth Blattman | N | Selina Bliss | Y | Flavio Bravo | N |
| Andrés Cano | N | Michael Carbone | Y | Neal Carter | Y |
| Joseph Chaplik | Y | Lupe Contreras | N | Patricia Contreras | N |
| David L Cook | Y | Oscar De Los Santos | N | Lupe Diaz | N |
| Timothy M Dunn | Y | John Gillette | Y | Travis Grantham | Y |
| Matt Gress | Y | Gail Griffin | NV | Nancy Gutierrez | N |
| Liz Harris | Y | Justin Heap | Y | Laurin Hendrix | Y |
| Alma Hernandez | NV | Consuelo Hernandez | N | Lydia Hernandez | N |
| Melody Hernandez | N | Rachel Jones | Y | Alexander Kolodin | N |
| David Livingston | Y | Jennifer L Longdon | N | David Marshall, Sr. | Y |
| Teresa Martinez | Y | Christopher Mathis | N | Cory McGarr | Y |
| Steve Montenegro | NV | Quang H Nguyen | Y | Analise Ortiz | N |
| Barbara Parker | Y | Jacqueline Parker | Y | Jennifer Pawlik | N |
| Kevin Payne | Y | Michele Peña | Y | Mae Peshlakai | N |
| Beverly Pingerelli | Y | Marcelino Quiñonez | N | Athena Salman | N |
| Mariana Sandoval | N | Judy Schwiebert | N | Keith Seaman | N |
| Amish Shah | N | Austin Smith | Y | Stephanie Stahl Hamilton | N |
| Leezah Elsa Sun | N | Laura Terech | N | Stacey Travers | N |
| Myron Tsosie | N | Justin Wilmeth | Y | Ben Toma | Y |
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