The Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings began an administrative review this past week of an earlier ruling by the Arizona Department of Water Resources on Prescott's use of Big Chino water. ADWR determined in November that Prescott is entitled to pump 8,067 acre-feet of water from the Paulden-area Big Chino Basin.
Prescott hired groundwater consultants to produce a groundwater model for a 220-square-mile section of the Big Chino sub-basin. The City argued that the Big Chino Water Ranch [right credit, City of Prescott] which they purchased for its water is about 20 miles from the headwaters of the Verde River and will not have adverse impacts to the flow of the Verde.