EDITORIAL: An opportunity to agree

(Gazette Blog editor's note: Below is the first editorial for the first Payson edition of the Mogollon Connection by Editor Matt Brabb.  If you doubt the need for a second paper in town, please read this editorial carefully.  In it, Matt explains why you aren't getting the whole story from "another local paper."  The first issue of the Connection is on the streets, and we are compiling a list of locations where you can find it. Look for it on the blog soon.)

At long last the town councils of Star Valley and Payson have agreed to negotiate an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) to solve their on-going dispute over water rights. We salute members of both councils for unanimously passing the resolution that will open the lines of communications between officials from both towns.

It is important, however, to note that the resolution as passed doesn’t actually commit either town to any particular action at this time. The reality is that Payson has all the leverage in this conflict. That fact is made clear by the first item noted in the resolution: The Town of Payson has title, right and authorization to use certain groundwater resources, some of which access a deep aquifer, a portion of which transverses under real property located within the incorporated Town of Star Valley.

In plainer language, Payson has the legal right to take water from Star Valley’s watershed. Quite a bit in fact, as Payson is entitled to 855 acre-feet per year via the Tower Well.  To put that number in context, it is nearly twice as much as the 500 acre-feet per year that has been set aside for all of the small communities in Rim Country other than Payson that will eventually be available from the CC Cragin (Blue Ridge) pipeline. As of today, those 855 acre-feet are roughly one third of Payson’s safe yield, a measure of how much water the town can safely remove from the ground and expect will be replenished by Mother Nature in a given year.

One of the goals of the resolution passed by the councils is to develop an agreement that will limit withdrawals under Star Valley to amounts that will not exceed agreed upon yields as determined by the IGA. This goal will certainly be the most contentious item being negotiated, as well as the most important one. It is at the heart of the dispute between the two towns, and Payson holds all the cards.

The reason the safe yield figure is so important is that a town must stay below that number in order to continue with commercial and private development. Despite the claim in an editorial in another local paper that “Payson’s water use remains well below the sustainable yield of its current wells- without even turning on the Tower Well,” the facts don’t bear that out. According to a town of Payson Water Status Report, before the acquisition of the Tower well the town regularly used upwards of 90% of its safe yield. In 2000 it was 93%, 2001 90%, 2002 99%, 2003 92%, 2004 88%, and 2005 93%.

It wasn’t until Payson acquired rights to water from the Tower Well that the number dropped to 63% in 2006, where it has roughly remained ever since. Clearly, without the Tower Well, construction in Payson would have ground to a halt. Of course, it virtually has ceased anyway, but that has been due to the severe economic crisis we are still very much in the middle of.

To be sure, water from the Cragin Pipeline will go a long way toward solving these issues. It will more than double the safe yield for Payson, and will allow for major development of the town. However, that water isn’t going to be here until late 2015 at the earliest, almost six years from now, and that is assuming everything goes off without a hitch. As we are all well aware, it is certainly not uncommon for government infrastructure projects such as these to run behind schedule.

What that means is that virtually all of the development in Payson until then, plans for the construction of a four year college for instance, will come at the expense of water from Star Valley. To their credit, to this point Payson has used water from the Tower Well sensibly. They haven’t come near the 855 acre-feet that they are entitled to. In fact, they have used the well so sporadically that the surrounding wells in Star Valley that drop when the Tower Well is turned on have been able to recover. It is a delicate balancing act, one we hope the town will be able to continue to carry out.

We believe that there are sincere, civic-minded councilors sitting on both town councils, willing to roll up their sleeves and come up with a meaningful agreement that both towns can live with. If not, we hope the voters will remember it when they go to the polls. With the imminent arrival of water from the Cragin Reservoir, it is our hope that the leaders in both communities will set an excellent example and come to an agreement that guarantees that all Rim Country residents never have to worry about water when they turn on the tap.