Upper Bill Williams Partnership

1. Upper Bill Williams Partnership “Manage and protect our water resources, water quality, and water rights” Vol 1 Issue 2October, 2002 • NEXT MEETING: • January 30, 2003 7:00 pm Skull Valley Community Center • One Person’s Thoughts: • The current drought in the Southwest should be a wakeup call for all of rural Arizona. As the urban sprawl grows out of its water resources, where will the developers and politicians look for water? Jim Combs, Skull Valley • Preliminary Water Use Estimates: A Summary Over the past several months Dave Smith and I have put together a preliminary water use estimate for the Upper Bill Williams watershed. We pooled available information, then applied some standard water use calculations. The full study (about 7pages) is available from Allison Dixon or myself. • The water use study attempts to quantify the amount of water used by humans and the groundwater use of phreatophytes. Phreatophytes are the trees and grasses located near a stream or body of water that draw their water supply directly from the groundwater table. In essence, they act like little well pumps. The Upper Bill Williams watershed consists of the Kirkland Creek drainage and encompasses three subwatersheds: Upper Kirkland Creek (Yarnell, Peeples Valley, etc.), Lower Kirkland Creek (Kirkland to Muleshoe Ranch), and Skull Valley Wash (including Tonto and Woolsey washes). It includes the communities of Skull Valley, Wilhoit, Kirkland, Kirkland Junction, Yava, Peeples Valley and Yarnell. Hillside and Wagoner/Walnut Grove are outside of the watershed. • About 2,500 people live in the watershed, and there are over 1,000 production wells. According to the Department of Water Resources, about 580 of these are small domestic wells. The Department of Revenue data shows that there are 1,588 residences in the watershed. Water used in houses and small business total around 366 acre-feet per year or about 130 gallons per person per day. This is comparable to the water use per person in the Prescott area. The irrigation survey was completed by mapping the irrigated areas on satellite imagery taken in 2000. A good amount of interpretation was required and Dave Smith’s first hand knowledge really helped out. Approximately 1,340 acres were irrigated during the year 2000, using 3,720 acre-feet per year. Irrigation constitutes the highest sector of water use. Phreatophytes were mapped in a similar fashion to the irrigated lands, but a bit more estimating went into calculating the area and water use – mapping trees is trickier than mapping distinctive field boundaries. Overall, nature’s little pumping plants used approximately 2,800 acre-feet of water per year, almost as much as the irrigated agriculture itself. These statistics provide a baseline for what is going on now, and provide part of the framework for some additional examinations. For instance, can the various basins in the watershed sustain the current use of water for a long period of time? This can help area residents decide how they may want to manage the future use of the water resources. John Munderloh, Yavapai County WAC Rural Watershed Website:www.water.az.gov/adwr USGS Water Website: water.usgs.gov/waterwatch Inquiries or comments on this newsletter may be directed to Allison Dixon. 928-442-9843. Allison@jakesrun.com

2. Upper Bill Williams Partnership Vol 1 Issue 2, contOctober, 2002 Water Budgets Like any other form of accounting this implies a balance between incoming and outgoing. In this case, inflow of water to a specified area, and outflow from it. In an undisturbed area, the factors involved are few: A percentage of rainfall and subsequent runoff manages to infiltrate to an aquifer, or groundwater flows into an area in the subsurface. On the outflow side of the equation water-loving plants transpire directly from the groundwater, evaporation occurs where the groundwater table intersects a stream channel, and surface flow starts. Water can then exit the area as either surface water or groundwater.  Human activities add to the outflow side. In the Upper Bill Williams area, outflow amounts to about 15,000 acre feet per year. It follows that the inflow must also be about 15,000 acre feet per year. However, preliminary estimates suggest that the inflow may be about 14,000 acre feet per year. How can this be? A number of reasons come to mind: 1) The numbers are all estimates anyway, 2) We missed or double counted something, 3) Mining of groundwater is occurring. A hydrologic study would involve inventory and measurement of water levels in wells and measurement of well and stream discharges; this would help to ‘fill in the blanks’ in our water budget.Bill Remick, ADWR Hydrologist Arizona Rural Watershed Conference Dec 3, 4, 5 The Arizona Rural Watershed Conference will be held Dec 3, 4, and 5 at the Apache Gold Conference Center near Globe. The intent of this Conference is to bring together rural watershed stakeholders from across the state to ‘cuss and discuss’ everything from water budgets to funding options to State Legislative Proposals 2003. The Conference host, the Arizona Watershed Alliance, hopes to create a cohesive rural watershed position that can “hold its own” in future state-wide debates. This Conference is a rare opportunity to learn about other rural watershed groups, to gain a larger perspective on water issues, and, most importantly, to be AT THE TABLE influencing water policy at the state level. Skull Valley property owner Marilyn Petrich has volunteered to attend this Conference on behalf of the UBWP. Marilyn’s costs will be about $300 – we are seeking donations to assist. Please contact Allison Dixon if you can help.