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AZ suburb sues City of Scottsdale over water supply

RIO VERDE FOOTHILLS, Ariz. (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - Time is running out for one Arizona community that's no longer a part of Scottsdale's water supply plan.

Residents in the Rio Verde Foothills announced a lawsuit against the city as they count down the days until their taps run dry.

For further context, a water crisis in Arizona as thousands of residents are about to be without water.

The water war hitting those in the Rio Verde Foothills, a small but fast-growing area just west of Scottsdale.

Two weeks ago, the city of Scottsdale stopped the transportation of water; making good on a year's worth of warnings that municipal water supply was running dry.

About 500 homes, including some mid construction, are now counting down the days until their water runs out.

"We have about 5 to 7 days of water left," said one Rio Verde resident.

Fighting city hall

Last week, Rio Verde residents took their fight from the steps of city hall to the first meeting of the year for the Scottsdale City Council.

"In a matter of days. Our water tanks in our homes will be dry, but this is avoidable. We just need Scottsdale to process that water," said another Rio Verde resident.

Scottsdale had been warning residents that the supply of water, brought in by tankers, could be cut off, noting developers of Rio Verde bypassed a state law which, on the books, would have required them to prove a guaranteed supply of water for the next 100 years.

But the supply of water in the greater area continues to drop; a decades-long drought, depleted groundwater sources and reservoirs at record lows.

This leaves Rio Verde Foothills, an unincorporated town without its own supply of water, high and dry.

Rio Verde residents filed a lawsuit against Scottsdale last week, saying the city violates state law and must resume providing domestic water services to the town.

Conserving the water

Now only days away from being left out to dry, residents are doing what they can to conserve the little water they have left.

"I just can't believe a group of people would look at their neighbors and say we are slowly going to kill off your community," said another Rio Verde resident.

Residents are looking to send these water tankers to other cities; not only acquiring that water is costly, but the transportation of it is too, all of this jacks up someone's water bill.

This is giving an alarm bell to future developments, too; a massive new project just broke ground less than three months ago. Also outside of the greater phoenix area, 100,000 homes set to be built.

The developer says it's seeking to help meet the housing demand of Phoenix. However, a report released by the governor says there is an inadequate water supply to sustain that development. This raises serious questions about that new project's viability.

Article Topic Follows: Arizona News

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Dillon Fuhrman

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