The Verde River Basin Partnership (Partnership) was authorized by federal legislation under Title IIof Public Law No. 109-110, the Northern Arizona Land Exchange, Title II and Verde River Basin Partnership Act of 2005. The legislation was passed by Congress and signed into law by the President in November 2005. Specifying hydrologic analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), it mandates the identification of the water resources within the Verde River Basin. Title II documents the Congress’s recognition that, in the face of a burgeoning population and the potential impact of a warmer and drier climate in the southwestern United States, the water resources of the Verde River Basin are threatened as never before. It also documents Congress’s recognition of the importance of critical new scientific work to guide water-management decisions in the Verde River Basin.

Congress created the Partnership in specific response to an intense outpouring of public concern expressed about the long-term health of the Verde Basin water resources during a series of meetings held by Senator John McCain on the Northern Arizona Land Exchange. The concern expressed by thousands of citizens over this issue was recognized by Senator McCain in his Cottonwood Journal (12/10/2003) statement: “I have never been involved with a more complex issue or more emotional issue than this for the State.” Senator McCain responded by creating and adding Title II to the Northern Arizona Land Exchange legislation. Title II to date is an unfunded promise to the citizens of Arizona to determine the extent and sustainability of Verde River Basin water resources.

Why is the Partnership’s mandate important? The Verde Basin’s surface-water resources are critically connected to its groundwater supplies, local economies, citizen quality of life, and private property values. They are also a visual reminder of the condition of groundwater supplies the eye cannot see. Besides providing surface and groundwater supplies presently to about 150,000 Verde River Basin residents (or a substantially larger number if the Town of Prescott Valley adds imported Big Chino Valley groundwater to its portfolio), wildlife, riparian habitat, and our national forests, the Verde River Basin contributes directly to the water delivered to more than 2.7 million people in the Phoenix area. In an Arizona Republic Article (12/2003) Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) Director Herb Guenther asked and answered: “Will there be an overdraft situation in the Verde River Basin if we continue the way we are? YES.” Doubtless all communities within the Verde Basin agree that overdraft—drawing more water from surface or groundwater than nature can replenish—will inevitably diminish both the economy and the lifestyle of the Verde River Basin.

Title II calls for "...a collaborative and science-based water resource planning and management partnership for the Verde River Basin in the State of Arizona, consisting of members that represent  (1) Federal, State, and local agencies; and  (2) economic, environmental, and community water interests in the Verde River Basin”. Accordingly, the Partnership sought membership from the counties and incorporated cities and towns within the Verde River Basin, Native American Nations within the basin, relevant state and federal agencies, the Salt River Project, and numerous agricultural, economic, environmental, and community groups active within the Verde River Basin. With the exception of Yavapai County and the Prescott-area city and towns, the Partnership effectively assembled the broad stakeholder representation mandated in Title II.

As far back as 2006, the City of Prescott and the Towns of Prescott Valley, Chino Valley, and Dewey-Humboldt declined to participate in the Partnership. Yavapai County joined the Partnership conditionally for six months but then withdrew consequent to the negative votes of two of the three County Supervisors. The continuing demands of the Prescott-area governments and Yavapai County were: (1) that voting representation must exclude members other than elected officials of the County and the incorporated communities within the basin; and (2) that the voting power of the incorporated communities must be proportional to their respective populations, assuring that the representatives of the Prescott-area city and towns would have more than double the voting power of their counterparts in the Verde Valley.

Attempting to ameliorate the Prescott-area concerns that “economic, environmental, and community water interests” might have disproportionate voting strength, the Partnership revised its structure. The economic, environmental, and community water interest groups, representing about twenty member groups, were aggregated into five caucuses—Agricultural Caucus, Economic Development Caucus, National Environmental Groups Caucus, Grassroots Environmental Groups Caucus, and Unincorporated/Community Water Interests Caucus—each of which has a single vote. (See the VRBP Membership page) In addition, Partnership representatives met with Prescott-area town and city councils in an attempt to promote reconciliation. All efforts failed; the Prescott-area jurisdictions have so far continued to reject membership in the Partnership.

Nevertheless, during 2006, the Partnership formed its committees, developed its bylaws, and developed its initial scope of work with the USGS. Further, in spite of the Prescott-area objections, Senator McCain requested President Bush to include funding for the Partnership’s work in the administration budget for fiscal years 2008 and 2009. In neither year did the administration honor the Senator’s request.

An updated scope of work was developed with the USGS in 2009 to build upon work that has been completed since 2006 by the USGS in cooperation with the Yavapai County Water Advisory Committee. The revised plan is more strongly directed to providing an enhanced groundwater model for the upper and middle Verde watersheds (Figure 1) that will serve as a useful predictive tool for the guidance of water-management decisions. It promises a major advance in understanding the potential as well as the limitations of the Verde River Basin water resources.

In October, 2009, the Partnership sent letters to the members of the Arizona federal congressional delegation requesting their support for the allocation of $5.4 million for the four years of investigation and reporting specified in Title II. $5.2 million is requested to fund the USGS work in support of the Partnership under Title II, and $200,000 is requested for the Partnership’s reporting and administrative costs.

The proposed work would allow the USGS in conjunction with the Partnership to conduct the congressionally mandated hydrologic studies including: · Complete a preliminary water-budget analysis of the Verde Valley. · Analyze the potential long-term consequences of various water use scenarios on groundwater levels and Verde River Basin flows. · Prepare a preliminary report that sets forth the USGS findings and the recommendations of the Partnership regarding the long-term available water supply. · Create the water resource studies, hydrologic models, surface and groundwater monitoring networks, and other analytical tools helpful in the identification of long-term water supply management options within the Verde River Basin. · Submit a final report to the Partnership and, via the Partnership, to the Secretary of Agriculture and the Governor of Arizona.

It’s evident that the precise inter-relations between groundwater and surface water throughout the Verde River Basin are not well understood. Thus, critical relationships that clarify the strengths and weaknesses of our water resources and enable evaluation of the consequences of current and future water-management decisions are poorly known. The 2009 hydrology science plan developed by the USGS in cooperation with the Partnership offers a carefully designed plan to (1) fulfill the requirements of Title II and (2) to optimize the information and tools that water managers need for their decisions affecting long-term sustainability of the Verde River Basin’s water resources. Because sound water-management decisions in the Verde River Basin are so critical to the long-term success of our communities, the Partnership reinvigorated its effort, including initiation of a grass-roots citizen’s campaign, in support of federal appropriation for the USGS and Partnership under Title II. To date, Congress has been unwilling to appropriate the funding needed to carry out the USGS/VRBP work mandated under the 2005 legislation.

Private funding awarded in mid-June 2010 enables the USGS in collaboration with the Partnership to undertake a $300,000 study to collect and analyze critical data and publish reports consistent in outcome with the first deliverable specified under Title II of Public Law 109-110, the Northern Arizona Land Exchange, Title II and Verde River Basin Partnership Act of 2005. The work will begin in September 2010 and will be completed within 18 months (in February 2012). A grant of approximately $250,000 from the Walton Family Foundation and a USGS match of $50,000 together make this work possible. The Town of Clarkdale will administer the grant by receiving funds from the foundation, paying the USGS, and carrying out the accounting and verification that the grant requires.

The work plan was developed jointly by the USGS and the Partnership. For detail, see the USGS-VRBP Verde Valley Water-Resource Analysis Study. The study will take advantage of the newly developed USGS Northern Arizona Regional Groundwater Flow Model as a powerful tool to meet the requirements of Title II for analysis of (1) the water-budget for the Verde Valley including: (i) the inflow and outflow of surface water and groundwater, (ii) annual consumptive water use, and (iii) changes in groundwater storage; and (2) the potential consequences for Verde Valley stream flow and groundwater levels over the next 100 years of three water-demand scenarios recently developed by the Yavapai County Water Advisory Committee. Collection and analysis of new data collected both on the ground and by remote sensing will augment the water-budget analysis.

The study and resulting reports are expected to substantially enhance the understanding of water-resource strengths and limitations for the Verde Valley over the long term, and thus provide an important new basis for far-sighted decisions by water managers.

Prepared by Ed Wolfe