{"id":384161,"date":"2026-01-02T20:05:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T20:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/384161\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T20:05:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T20:05:19","slug":"rio-verde-foothills-water-supply-woes-end-as-new-water-station-opens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/384161\/","title":{"rendered":"Rio Verde Foothills: Water supply woes end as new water station opens"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Facility Facility restores water for Rio Verde Foothills<\/a> <\/p>\n

It has been years since residents in the Rio Verde Foothills area battled a water supply crisis, and to kick off 2026, a new water facility has opened to serve residents in the area. FOX 10’s Kenzie Beach reports.<\/p>\n

RIO VERDE, Ariz. – After a years-long water crisis for residents in Rio Verde Foothills, the fight to secure a permanent solution has come to an end as a brand-new EPCOR water station opened on Jan. 1.<\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

For years, some Rio Verde Foothills residents used a water hauling service that delivers water twice a month, with residents paying per gallon.<\/p>\n

Back in 2021, area residents received a notice<\/a> from the City of Scottsdale, stating that Scottsdale Water will restrict water hauling to only residents within city limits as a result of a water supply shortage and the resultant Stage One activation of the city’s drought management plan.<\/p>\n

While many of the properties in the area have well water, some 500 homes relied on the Scottsdale water. According to a memo<\/a> published by Scottsdale city officials in December 2022, the city provided approximately 117 acre-feet of water to the Rio Verde Foothills\u00a0area annually, which translates to over 38 million gallons of water.<\/p>\n

Water supplies were subsequently shut on Jan. 1, 2023. While there was an effort to start a new Domestic Water Improvement District for the area, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted against it<\/a> in August 2022.<\/p>\n

What’s Happening Now:<\/p>\n

After years of uncertainty, a brand-new EPCOR standpipe was completed in six months.<\/p>\n

The company’s Vice President of Developer Services, Frank Metzler, said residents who use an average amount of water should expect to pay $130 a month. That is 16 cents per gallon of water, plus a $75 monthly fee. Paying the water hauler is decided by the hauling company.<\/p>\n

“1,400 homes. 1,400 families who didn’t know whether or not they had a reliable source of water, and it’s a great feeling to know that it’s been addressed,” Metzler said. “We have a solution in place, and we’re open for business.”<\/p>\n

Local perspective:<\/p>\n

Residents are relieved, but apprehensive about the bill.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, there’s excitement, but you know, there’s trepidation also,” said Amy Schugar.<\/p>\n

“I’m cautiously optimistic right now. I’m happy to have it. Concerned about the cost, because we’re still not sure,” said Wendy Ashland. “I have livestock. So I have a concern about the cost of having water for them.”<\/p>\n

The Source: Information for this article was gathered by FOX 10’s Kenzie Beach, with supplemental information gathered from previous, relevant FOX 10 news reports.<\/p>\n

Drought<\/a>Maricopa County<\/a>News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facility restores water for Rio Verde Foothills It has been years since residents in the Rio Verde Foothills…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[3308,49,48,6091,295,36147,44,66,182],"class_list":["post-384161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-az","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-drought","tag-environment","tag-maricopa-county","tag-news","tag-science","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}