Arizona City's Landscape Committee Wants to Tone Down Proposed Water Code

Skeptical about whether Chino Valley, Ariz., needs a stringent water code, local landscape contractors and homeowners said they want the town to slowly phase in conservation plans.

Of the dozen participants who attended a Landscape Committee meeting at town hall, a majority believes in saving water but not at residents' expense.

In August, Chino Valley Water Resources Director Mark Holmes presented a water code draft to the town council that focuses on recharging as much water into the Big Chino Aquifer as what is removed from it by restricting most outdoor watering.

Holmes assured the committee the council wants to find common ground among the stakeholders before approving any ordinance.

Rather than hand out his draft, Holmes distributed a short list of water conservation concepts for committee members to review.

At the committee's next meeting at 4 p.m. Oct. 16 in-side council chambers, members will bring back the ideas they want to see in the code's final draft.

To simplify the process, the town has combined its four original water committees into two - including one for landscape architects and nursery workers, and another for citizens, developers and contractors.

Holmes first outlined why Chino Valley needs to restrict its water use.

He said the 65-square-mile town has no control over the water flowing through its 7,000 exempt wells. Compounding the problem is that most of the town's land is dry.

Chino Valley sits within Arizona's so-called Sun Corridor, where economists say 80 percent of all growth in the state will occur in the next 50 years.

By 2050, Holmes said Arizona State University's Morrison Institute predicts 500,000 people will live in Yavapai County, including 67,000 in Chino Valley by 2058 if growth continues at 5 percent annually.

Prescott landscaper Charlie Hildebrant said Holmes painted a "morbid picture" of the outlook.

"Why even write a code that accounts for so much growth?" he said. "We don't know your theory. People taking four-minute showers and banning gardening is not practical."

Ken Lain, another Prescott-based landscaper, said that with technology changing every year, it's possible that it will be easier to conserve water in the future.

"Let's not write a code that goes out to 50 years," Lain said. "It may be hard for the community to swallow this today. Let's start with requiring conservative use instead of making one gigantic leap."

Essentially, Holmes said, the town has no desire to see more residents drilling exempt wells and developers creating lot splits.

Instead, Chino Valley is planning for mixed-density growth. But as the water table shrinks because of overdraft in the Prescott Active Management Area, domestic wells will begin drying up around town.

The Arizona Department of Water Resources reports that wells on the town's fringes are already becoming exhausted.

Assuming Chino Valley receives the 3,000 acre-feet of historically irrigated groundwater it is supposed to get from a ranch in the Big Chino Aquifer near Paulden, the town will have 3,700 acre-feet at its disposal.

But that likely will not be enough to meet demand.

Chino currently has a population of 14,000, meaning the town wants to plan "smart growth" now and shoot for each resident using no more than 57 gallons per day of the irrigated water.