The Middle Verde Water Advisory Committee met last week to reaffirm their organizational rules, and to discuss their response to a letter from Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake calling on Verde Valley officials to come up with a long-term plan to protect the Verde River.
The committee is part of a larger overall water committee that represents various stakeholders in the preservation of the county’s water resources, of which the Verde River plays a prominent role.
The city of Cottonwood recently decided to pull out of the localized group, electing to participate only when the entire countywide committee meets as a whole.
Still, the Middle Verde committee maintains representation for other towns and governments in the area, including Clarkdale, Camp Verde, Jerome and the Yavapai-Apache Nation.
At its July 17 meeting at the Yavapai County Administration Building in Cottonwood, the committee stated that only government representatives would be members of the committee.
Other groups and experts can contribute to ongoing discussions, said committee coordinator John Rasmussen, but they can’t vote on committee decisions.
Regardless, the committee itself can only make recommendations about water issues.
It remains up to individual government bodies to set policy ….
For the full story, see the Wednesday, July 24, edition of The Cottonwood Journal Extra.
