Desert Messenger

2 Community comes together 3 Local author dies 6 Editorial 7 Letters to the Editor 8 The Salvation Army updates 9 Restaurants 10 Traveling with Gypsy Jane 11 Torch Run 12 Sherri's Turn 14 Adventures with Rocks 16 Assessor's Corner 18 Puzzles 19 Salome High 20 Churches 22 Classifeds 22 Paul Winer Cartoon www.DesertMessenger.com • "Quartzsite's FREE Community Paper" • 928-916-4235 WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017 VOL. 13 # 257 Now in our 13 t h YEAR! Alwa y s FREE! WHAT'S INSIDE SEE RUN PAGE 11 ����� | S���� B���C�� Council moves forward with CAP water lease By Shanana Rain Golden-Bear Monday, May 1st during a special meeting Quartzsite Town Council voted 4 to 2 to approve a lease of the Town's Colorado River Water Enti- tlement to the Central Arizona Wa- ter Conservation District (CAWCD) with an initial 25-year term. Council members Gerald Kinkade and Steve Schue voted against the lease, want- ing to wait until snowbirds return. Quartzsite has a 1,070 Acre Feet (the amount of water covering 1 acre to a depth of 1 foot) of Colorado River Entitlement that it has never used because of the high cost to build a pipeline to transport the water roughly 20 miles to the east and to treat it for potable use. The lease agreement requires one- time cash payments of $1,819,000.00 and an additional $30,000.00 for engineering the new well at Kofa. The Town relies solely upon ground- water, but needs capital to fund im- provements to its water system and to meet future demands. The Town's annual Water Consumer Confi dence Reports indicate that the groundwa- ter supply is safe and meets all fed- eral and state requirements. In May 2016, Quartzsite experi- enced a 14-hour long outage of its water delivery system due to a mal- function at the Kofa Water Produc- tion facility. Reclamation and the Arizona Department of Water Recourses (ADWR) recently agreed to allow the Town to extend the term of its Colorado River contract if it developed a plan to use the water. Quartzsite's 2014 Water utilization Plan iden- tifi es three pipeline alternatives, with costs ranging from $29-$38 million. The Town also evaluated conveying or leasing the entitlement to a third party; these were identifi ed as the preferred alternatives. In early 2015, various representa- tives from the Town began contact- ing CAWC to discuss options for Quartzsite to utilized its entitlement. The lease of the Town's 1,070 acre feet Colorado River entitlement to CAGRD for replenishment purposes. The agreement would be for 25-years with a renewal provision for an addi- tional 25 years. Any agreement must be approved by the Town Council and the CAWCD Board. The Town and CAGRD will then submit a trans- fer application to the Arizona Dept. of Water Resources and if a positive recommendation is obtained, will ap- ply for a Section V contract from Rec- lamation. This water has historically been di- verted by CAWCD each year as part of the excess pool. CAGRD has long relied upon the excess pool to meet its replenishment obligations. Trans- fer of the Quartzsite entitlement to CAGRD does not result in any physi- cal change in the diversion at Mark Wilmer pumping plant or use of this water supply in central Arizona - it simply improves the reliability of the supply for CAGRD and provides much needed funding for improvements to the Quartzsite water system. Located where the Colorado and Bill Williams rivers meet, just below Highway 95 on the La Paz County side of the Bill Williams Bridge, the eight level plant was initiated in 1973 and completed for a cost of $63.8 million. Benefi ts for Quartzsite include com- pensations for the fair market value of the water, provides funding for need- ed improvements to the town's water production facilities, provides fund- ing for upgrades to the water produc- tion facilities to meet future needs, retains ownership and the opportu- nity to evaluate the best utilization of the entitlement at the 25 and 50 year marks. The Town of Quartzsite will also have the right of fi rst refusal at the end of the 25 year term. The CAWCD Board meets May 4, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. to approve the agreement with Town of Quartzsite. Torch Run for Special Olympics

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