There may be a lot of dry river and stream beds here in the desert.
It doesn’t matter so much how they exist today but rather their condition on Feb. 14, 1912.
If a river was considered navigable on the day Arizona gained statehood, then the land under the river or waterway would belong to the state.
If not, it would be private land, to the middle of the river from the highwater mark.
On July 15, people from around the Verde Valley filled a meeting room at the Cottonwood Recreation Center to see how ongoing legal wrangling might affect property rights along the Verde River.
Eddie Slade, an assistant attorney general with the Natural Resources Section of the Arizona State Attorney General’s Office, offered an update on where things stand on what constitutes a navigable river.
The Arizona Navigable Stream Adjudication Commission has been looking at the issue since it was established in 1992.
Any rulings made have no effect on water rights.
The commission has been looking at thousands of properties around the state.
To read the full story, see the Wednesday, July 22, edition of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
