A real nightmare before Christmas as 500+ homes will have water cut off.

[StarryNite]

January 1st the City of Scottsdale is cutting off the water source to the community of Rio Verde Foothills just north of Scottsdale. This will affect approximately 500 homes who rely fully on hauled water and another 200 that have underproducing wells and use hauled water too. Some of the homes have been there for decades. Others are much newer with new homes still being built and permits being issued with no source of water. "Wildcat" subdivisions consisting of 5 or fewer homes that are not required to have water. Many of the homes in this area are multi-million dollar homes. Many are more modest. There are horse ranches too. People are afraid and with good reason.

While Mayor Ortega is using the drought as his excuse the city of Scottsdale is allowing builders to continue to build within their city limits on a very large scale including huge condo complexes and single family homes in mega subdivisions.


No dice, mayor tells Rio Verde Foothills
By J. Graber, Progress Staff Writer Dec 18, 2022

Scottsdale Mayor David Ortega said he will not be ruled by compassion for approximately 700 Rio Verde Foothills households that are likely to lose their water source Jan. 1, when the city shuts the stand pipe servicing the community.

“There is no Santa Claus,” Ortega said in a written statement released Dec. 9. “The mega-drought tells us all – water is not a compassion game.”

[link:https://www.scottsdale.org/city_news/no-dice-mayor-tells-rio-verde-foothills/article_e9866be2-7d7f-11ed-a457-3723dd1a908c.html|


No Santa Claus but there is a Grinch!

[Jilly_in_VA]

1. A bushel of coal

in Ortega's Christmas stocking! What an asshole! Bah humbug!

[in2herbs]

2. I wonder if Scottsdale ever considered shutting off the water to businesses and resorts for

their water features and to the golf courses? Oh, silly me, that would affect corporations and their profits and what is that compared to the lives of humans and animals?

Frankly, I think this is a political power grab. Years ago Scottsdale tried to annex that area but the owners did not want it. By shutting off the water does Ortega think these homeowners are now ripe for an annexation and will agree to it? Watch the movement --- if this happens suddenly Scottsdale will have enough water for the newly annexed RVF homeowners.

[StarryNite]

3. There is something going on.

Some have believe they will wait until people have to leave and foreclose on their mortgages then investors will buy up the homes for next to nothing. Then comes the annex and the price skyrockets on the homes the investors just bought.

A group is trying to gather money for attorneys and a lawsuit and have a temporary restraining order slammed on Ortega/Scottsdale next week. The wildcat subdivision issue is a state issue but Ducey won't try to stop what's going on. The private water company, EPCOR has said they will build a standpipe and get water but that will take 2 to 3 years. In the meantime those people need water.

[FakeNoose]

12. You may be right about that

But it doesn't change the fact that they don't have enough water for all these people. Why were houses allowed to be built there? Why are businesses (including resorts with pools, golf courses, etc.) allowed to continue hogging the water?

The people of Arizona have to face these shortages and make some tough decisions. There will be financial losses and some will probably have to move to another state. If businesses close then people lose there jobs and income, so how is this going to go? I'm glad I don't live there, since it seems that nobody is facing the problem squarely.

[former9thward]

4. Golf courses and "water features" in AZ use non-potable water.

They are not affecting the lives of humans and animals.

[StarryNite]

5. Yes, many of them recycle the water.

But there are tons of swimming pools in Scottsdale and the valley in general. Filling them up initially is just the beginning. Then there is backwashing and adding water to them all the time due to evaporation.

[former9thward]

6. And??

Are you suggesting eliminating swimming pools?

[StarryNite]

7. Swimming pools generally are not a necessity.

It seems a tad hypocritical to me for Ortega to blame the drought for cutting families off from water but at the same time allowing permits for hundreds of new swimming pools. Residents of the RVF are scrambling to figure out how they will bathe, do laundry, flush toilets, water their animals, etc. while across the road people will be adding water to pools they rarely use but boy, they sure make a backyard look pretty, don't they?

[StarryNite]

8. Also, a few years ago a spokesperson for Scottsdale

water stated in a letter that they would not cut RVF people off from water. And more recently the city told the RVF community that if they had a plan in the works they would allow the standpipe to remain open until the permanent plan using non-Scottsdale water was producing. There is a plan, EPCOR but Ortega is not going to honor what was stated by the city water spokesperson. And there is another plan to get water on a temporary basis but they would need to run it through the Scottsdale processing to make it safe and use the standpipe for filling the water trucks. This would not even be water allocated to Scottsdale. But nope, Ortega will not lend a hand.

[former9thward]

9. Well it sounds like a lot of behind the scenes politics are involved.

And nothing to do with a drought. I hope it gets settled.

[StarryNite]

10. Yes, I agree, seems like behind the scenes politics in play.

I hope they can get it settled soon too.

[in2herbs]

11. The $5 billion desalinazation plant that a private

group of investors is in discussions to build in Mexico and then ship the water to AZ would make Az contractually liable to pay whatever cost these investors place on the water and you can guarantee they will want their $5 B investment paid back without haste. The current price per acre foot for water in AZ is about $3.05, the water developers are suggesting $2,000 per acre foot.

So swimming pools will likely be eliminated as too expensive a luxury for the middle class.

[StarryNite]

13. Things are going to get real interesting when it comes to our water issue.

And we haven't even mentioned how Saudi Arabia is growing hay for their cattle and sucking up humungous amounts of our water.

[former9thward]

14. Swimming pools are not going to disappear in AZ

Middle class or no. AZ does not have a serious water problem for its residents. Any water shortages will affect primarily agriculture. No one is going to pay 700 times their current water bill for anything.