Payson will sell water to Brooke for Mesa del

But forest roadblock could force trucking

By Matt Brabb
Mogollon Connection Editor
It appears that the small, unincorporated Rim Country community of Mesa del Caballo will not have to suffer through another summer of severe water restrictions. The Town of Payson, working with Brooke Utilities, has agreed to provide water to residents of Mesa del when the need arises.

The agreement would be a win-win for both communities. Payson, which is in sore financial straights, could reap the benefits of selling up to 86,400 gallons of water a day, and Mesa del could avoid the severe water rationing that residents were forced to endure last summer. Payson has agreed to sell the water at its normal residential rate.

“There will be no discount for bulk delivery,” Payson Water Director Buzz Walker said at the Payson Town Council meeting at which the measure was approved.

There are two potential methods of getting water from Payson to Mesa del. The first and more attractive alternative is the construction of a temporary four-inch pipeline from a hydrant connected to the Payson city water supply. The hydrant is located at Houston Mesa Road and Highway 87, and could be linked to the Brooke owned storage facilities in Mesa del.

However, the Forest Service, which naturally has a say in how the land along Houston Mesa Road is used, has yet to sign off on that option.

That could make a second, less desired alternative a reality. It may be necessary for Brooke to haul water up to Mesa del using tankers, as it did last summer. Still, it would be easier and less expensive to haul water this year than last, since the tankers could fill up at the hydrant on Houston Mesa Road rather than make the long trek up from Gisela.

One reason the hauling alternative is less appealing to residents in Mesa del is that water would probably be delivered less frequently than by means of delivery through a pipeline, most likely only when necessary to reduce conditions from stage four to stage three. The pipeline, on the other hand, would likely result in residents being under the more lenient condition of stage two during most of the summer.

Brooke is compelled in any case to provide the community with more water than it did last year. The Arizona Corporation Commission ruled that the utility would have to provide an extra 60 gallons of water per minute to residents in Mesa del this summer. That is in addition to the 39 gallons per minute they provided last summer, and amounts to some 86,000 gallons of water a day.

A third alternative does exist for the residents of Mesa del. It is just possible that the abundance of moisture seen in Rim Country so far this year will hold up, making all of the costly backup plans unnecessary. That would be a most welcome change for the residents of Mesa del.