Cave Creek terminates contract with Harquahala Valley for water rights

By Jeff Wendt
Mail

The Cave Creek Town Council on Tuesday night terminated its contract with Harquahala Valley Landowners LLC to purchase water rights to help the anticipated shortage the town will be seeing in 2027.

The council unanimously determined there were too many unknown costs in order to import, clean and transfer the water to the town through the Central Arizona Project.

The town would have received 500 acre-feet per year for 100 years at a price of $11.25 million. In October, the town placed an earnest deposit of $50,000 to do its due dillegence on the project.  With the termination, the town will receive the $50,000 earnest deposit back.

With town staff and  state water lawyers, it was determined there were many features of the project that were still unknown, including operational costs, land management costs, entitlement costs and other needed information, utilities director Shawn Kreuzwiesner said in his presentation to the council.

"While the town still believes that working with Harquahala Valley is still a viable option, at this time too many uncertainties remain to stay in the project," Kruezwiesner said.

Kreuswiesner added the town has more than 3,000 acre-feet of water credits built up that can hopefully buy officials time in finding more viable water options.

"That 3,000 acres should get us out three to four years," Kruezwiesner said. "We're working with two of three other agencies and give us access to those water credits.

"But the real access is getting to the access to Arizona Water Banking Authority credits in the two CAP facilities," Kreuzwiesner added. "That could get us seven to 10 years of bridge to meet the town's needs."

Public comment was mixed between termination, delaying the process and staying in the process.

Mayor Robert Morris made the motion to terminate the contract.

"This is not the end of water purchase," Morris said. "We'll be back, It's smart to come back. The town depends on it coming back."

"We just got a call before the meeting from the Arizona Water Banking Authority just before this meeting. So we are in no danger of running out of water," Morris added.

Councilmember Cynthia Driskell commented that even though she voted for the purchase in October, she understood the need to terminate the contract.

"I had supported the October motion to enter into the purchase of Harquahala with the intent of learning more about this option," Driskell said. "We were excited because it had potential to be a good option and still does. And it should stay on our radar.

"It was well worth the time of the staff and consultants and resources of the town to look at the detail of the opportunity," Driskell added. "So even if it doesn't work to our benefit at this time, we learn, move on and analyze and investigate what our other options are going to be."

Councilmember Tom McGuire praised Kreuzwiesner and their team for the effort put forth on this project.

"Termination seems like a good idea," McGuire said "Shawn, you've done a wonderful job. Consultants, you've done a wonderful job as well. There's been a lot of thought that has gone into this, also by my fellow councilmembers.

"We put together a great team of council and our consultants, and it's not yet what we need," McGuire added.

Vice Mayor Kathryn Royer also praised the efforts but understood what was at stake.

"I too would like to thank the staff and the attorneys and consultants who were involved and doing their due diligence," Royer said. "We knew going into it, it was going to be an extraordinary financial investment, not only for the water resources, but for the infrastructure required to transport the water.

"We knew we would have to be absolutely sure about all the details related to the project prior to making a final decision," Royer added. 

Councilmember Dusty Rhoades said the need to come back to Harquahala Valley in the future will likely still be necessary.

"We're going to have to at some point reevaluate Harquahala and probably buy into it," Rhoades said. "We'll probably also have to buy into Bartlett Lake Dam. We will also have to probably have to buy into any water resource we can get our hands on.

"Right now the issue is we get 90% of our water from the Central Arizona Project," Rhoades added. "The wells we have in town, those living on those wells, that can't sustain us. So the fact that we are living in  a desert is going to require us to find more water resources.

"So I do agree we were probably premature on this, and I agree that we should terminate the contract," Rhoades concluded.

Jeff Wendt
Reporter | Phoenix/Cave Creek

jwendt@iniusa.org

Meet Jeff
Jeff Wendt started at Independent Newsmedia in January 2023, after 25 years working for Gannett and The Arizona Republic. Started as a high school sports scoretaker, worked up to reporting high school sports and then became an associate high school sports editor in 2002. Also worked in the Design Studio as a copy editor.

Community: Jeff serves on the Board of Elders at his local church.

Education: Arizona State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication

Random fact: Attended Game 2 of the 2001 World Series.

Hobbies: Playing video games (yes still the kid in me), watching reality TV, playing poker.