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Staff outlines outreach and 2024 baseline supplies for long‑term water management plan
Summary
City staff presented outreach work and draft 2024 baseline supply figures for Prescott’s long‑term water management plan, including a 2024 breakdown of supplies and a request to add precipitation overlays and regional breakdowns for public outreach.
Prescott staff gave a status update Sept. 2 on the city’s long‑term water management plan, describing ongoing public outreach and the consultant’s draft 2024 baseline supply accounting used for planning.
Leslie Grazer, Water Resource Project Manager, said staff published a project landing page and two information sheets and have launched Facebook outreach to direct the public to participatePrescott. “We built the water resource management page… and participate Prescott was built for the public,” Grazer said, describing the outreach steps and that the second information sheet, the 2024 baseline on demands, posted the prior week.
Grazer summarized draft 2024 supply figures and legal categorization: “On the last line on this chart. The ground water, it was 68% was pumped as ground water, 16% was recovered surface water, and legally, 16% was recovered effluent,” she said. Staff emphasized the difference between physical supply types and how water is legally classified in the Department of Water Resources reports.
The presentation reviewed wellfield sourcing (about 80% Little Chino and 20% airport in 2024), surface water variability tied to precipitation and runoff, and reclaimed (effluent) recovery versus long‑term storage banking. Grazer and subcommittee members discussed the unusually high 2020 withdrawal bar in historical graphs; Grazer said staff double‑checked metering and state filings but did not have a definitive single cause. The subcommittee asked staff to overlay precipitation and snowpack data so the public can relate supply variability to weather patterns; Grazer agreed to add that layer.
Staff and the subcommittee also reviewed how the Arizona Department of Water Resources estimates withdrawals for exempt domestic wells (historically averaged at roughly 0.5 acre‑feet per exempt well in modeling). Grazer noted ADWR model estimates and that those estimates are sensitive to changes in population and well status.
Council members asked for additional regional breakdowns and for staff to include bulk water distribution volumes and nonpotable deliveries as part of future charts. No formal action was taken; staff will refine graphics and include additional data layers for public outreach.
