Chino Valley presenters urge Prescott to join regional water authority talks as groundwater overdraft worsens

Mark Holmes, water adviser for the Town of Chino Valley, and Gary Beverly, president of the Citizens Water Advocacy Group (CWAG), told the Prescott City Council on May 27, 2025, that the Prescott Active Management Area is in long‑term groundwater overdraft and urged formation of a regional authority or IGA and a steering committee to plan capital projects and shared governance.

“I’m the bearer of bad news,” Gary Beverly told the council, summarizing long‑term monitoring that shows sustained overdraft and declining flows into Del Rio Springs and the Upper Verde River. He said ADWR data through 2019 show accumulated overdraft of roughly 600,000 acre‑feet and an annual overdraft near 21,000 acre‑feet then; he also reported that more recent ADWR data have not been published to the group.

Holmes and Beverly argued that existing state Active Management Area rules and multiple ad hoc organizations have not produced a sustained regional solution for safe yield, and that the region needs a new, long‑term governance body that can plan, finance and deliver large capital recharge and reuse projects. Holmes described national case studies where regional authorities and shared infrastructure (recharge districts, imported or recycled water and large interceptors) produced durable groundwater management.

The presenters highlighted…