Lawyer lectures on state water law

Wes Jacobsen and Nicole Woodruff of Flagstaff spend the day along the Verde River with their kids, Haylie, Indiana and Savannah, on Saturday, Jan. 18. The Verde River Basin Partnership recently hosted an event on water laws in Arizona. This is important for the Verde Valley, as the Verde River flows through much of it, including Camp Verde, Cottonwood and Clarkdale.
Zack Garcia/Larson Newspapers

Water is life. In the Southwest, it’s always been somewhat of a contentious issue over who has the rights to it.

Jocelyn Gibbons, a lawyer who works with water law and has served as a policy consultant, gave a presentation last week at a meeting of the Verde River Basin Partnership to try and make sense of how water is managed in this desert state.

First, Gibbons said, there are the sources where Arizonans get their water.

The Colorado River provides about 41 percent of that water. Another 40 percent comes from groundwater pumping and about 16 percent comes from in-state rivers and streams.

For the full story, see the Wednesday, Jan. 22, edition of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.

Mark Lineberger

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