Spring Valley water customers chafe under severe restrictions - The Prescott Daily Courier

More than 210 people left a community meeting in Spring Valley Wednesday night with little more information than when they came about water shortages in the Spring Valley area.

District 2 County Supervisor Tom Thurman called the meeting after he received complaints from residents of Spring Valley and Bensch Ranch about Stage 4 water restriction notices they received earlier this month from Bradshaw Mountainview Water Co. Thurman said he asked those connected with the water service to meet at Spring Valley Community Church so people could have their questions answered.

Unfortunately, he said, neither Tim Kyllo, owner of Bradshaw Mountainview Water Co., or representatives of the Corporation Commission, which oversees small water companies in Arizona, would attend the meeting.

"I'm trying to squelch some fears and rumors that are going around," Thurman said. "I have tried diligently to get people who are in authority in the water company to get here, and they didn't show."

Instead, he said, Kyllo sent a written statement about the water situation.

Kyllo's statement said his company was having a difficult time keeping up with the demand for water, but that storage water levels had rebounded from zero to almost 50 percent since Stage 4 restrictions went into effect the first week of June.

The restrictions prohibit residents from using water for virtually any outdoor use - watering landscaping, washing cars, filling pools or spas, or any other water-intensive activity.

The statement says Bradshaw Mountainview Water Co. first became aware that well production was beginning to decrease on May 13.

"We noticed that one of our wells was not producing as much as normal, so we began sounding all of our wells and discovered the depth to water while the pump was running had lowered, and therefore the production of the well had diminished. We immediately curtailed construction water and began monitoring well production on a daily basis," the statement read.

Representatives from Sundt Construction, ADOT, Mayer Fire and Yavapai County answered questions from the audience.

One of the most contentious issues was the sale this past year by Kyllo of water for the construction of the I-17/Cordes Junction Interchange project. The project used nearly 14 million gallons of water in 11 months, piping the water from the Spring Valley area. Project manager Brent Freeman said Vastco/Sundt Construction contracted with BMVWCO for the water.

Audience members asked why Kyllo was allowed to sell the water for construction. Thurman said Kyllo was within his rights as long as he adheres to Corporation Commission regulations for water supplies.

"I went to Gary Pierce at the Corporation Commission, and he said their investigations show that (Bradshaw Mountainview Water Co.) is well within their boundaries of running their operation," Thurman said.

Greg Gentsch, ADOT district engineer, said ADOT stopped using the water as soon as they heard about shortages.

"We knew the project would take a lot of water from the get-go. When we recognized there were going to be some severe conditions here, we worked with the contractor to back them off (using Bradshaw Mountainview Water Co. water)," he said.

Gentsch said the company is far enough along in the job that they now will find alternate water supplies from different sources to finish, including the well at the ADOT yard at Cordes Junction.

Bradshaw Mountainview Water Co. in its statement asserts that the company feels the water sold for the interstate project did not cause the current shortage.

"It is a well-known fact that water flows downhill," the letter states, "and the water that was pumped out of the ground last month would not defy gravity and stay around so we could pump it out of the ground today. If you are looking for water use that affects our area it would make more sense to look upstream."

Another factor that could be affecting water stores in the Bradshaw Mountainview Water Co. area is ongoing trenching and placement of conduit by RACE Grading, a company contracted by Arizona Public Service, so APS can replace 34,000 feet of aging electrical line.

APS spokesman Damon Grose said this past week that the work was necessary, but the Bradshaw Mountainview Water Co. cannot locate some of their water lines, and the construction company has had difficulty getting accurate Blue Staking. That has resulted in at least 15 water line breaks. Additionally, residents said, RACE has been getting water from Bradshaw Mountainview Water Co. for the construction, even after the Stage 4 restrictions went into effect.

Thurman said on Thursday that he contacted APS after the meeting and Community Development Consultant Matt Meierbochtel assured him that RACE no longer would use water from BMVWCO until the restrictions are lifted.

Mayer Fire Chief Glenn Brown said the water restrictions would not affect fire service.

"We bring our own water with us, and we have ways of working around the issues as far as fire protection," he said.

Brown explained that firefighters did not use water from Bradshaw Mountainview Water Co. to fight two recent fires, the Gladiator Fire and a median fire on I-17 south of Cordes Junction. Instead, they used water from an industrial park in the Dewey-Humboldt area. Additionally, the Mayer Fire Department main station across from Bensch Ranch has its own well.

One audience member pressed Brown, stating that all of the water comes from the same table. That brought up another bone of contention with residents who cannot currently water their landscaping. Mayer High School also has its own well and has been watering its athletic fields day and night.

Mayer School Superintendent Dean Slaga said the school drastically cut back on watering after he heard about the restrictions. The school cannot pull enough water at night to efficiently water the fields, he said, so it had been watering during the day as well. But after attending Wednesday's meeting, he planned to issue an order to shut down watering of the fields altogether.

Slaga said the grass on the fields will die, and the district will have to reseed and build them back up when the water crisis is over.

Thurman encouraged residents to contact the Corporation Commission with their concerns about Bradshaw Mountainview Water Co. Meanwhile, there was no word Thursday about when the company will lift the restrictions, and in more than 100-degree days, residents are either hauling water or watching their landscaping die.