City of Scottsdale cuts off Rio Verde Foothills residents from water supply

SCOTTSDALE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) - It’s not a happy new year for over 1,000 Rio Verde Foothills residents who are now cut off from the City of Scottsdale’s water supply.

A new year’s resolution at the Nabity household is to be “ultra conservative” with their water. It’s why Karen Nabity was thankful for Sunday’s rain. She placed at least seven containers around her house to collect rainwater to use inside her home.

“I’m using rain water in here to wash my hands with, to rinse dishes with before they go in my dishwasher. I’m using rainwater for flushing the toilets and I’m even capturing the water in the shower. The minimal water we use to take a very quick short shower,” she said.

Nabity said it might be how things are done for a couple of years since there’s still no solution to a new water source.

It’s been an ongoing concern for over a year, from a rejected proposal to create a Domestic Water Improvement District (DWID) to the possibility of buying water from the San Carlos Apache Tribe. The latter is an option still requiring approval and the municipality to pull water, process it, and serve it to water haulers.

There’s still the chance for EPCOR, a private Canadian water utility company, to come into play. The company sent in an application to Arizona’s Corporation Commission. Approval is pending, but if approved, it could take the company more than three years to serve water to residents.

For now, Nabity and her husband are considering installing tanks above or in the ground. They would capture rainwater, helping them stretch their water supply until a solution is found. It would also help save money since having water hauled in from other towns will cost them at least $200 more each month for an average of 3,000 gallons of water. “We’ve built this home just 7 years ago so we can move in and live our life until we die,” said Nabity. “We plan on living here forever, you know?”

Another resident declined an on-camera interview but sent Arizona’s Family this statement in regard to the cutoff

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