The Cottonwood City Council approved a cooperative use purchasing agreement for the drilling of a new well at Verde Santa Fe and a well-sharing and access agreement with Verde Santa Fe Golf Partners during its Tuesday, Jan. 16 meeting.
During the summer of 2023, the Verde Santa Fe housing development saw an increase in water demand that exceeded the pumping capacity of the one well that serves the area and had to haul in water.
The Verde Santa Fe development is outside city limits but contracts with the city for water services.
Leakage continued to increase after a water reduction strategy was implemented. The city of Cottonwood has been responsible for delivering water to the Verde Santa Fe development since it purchased the private water company that supplied water to Verde Sante Fe in 2005. This purchase included one well, one 750,000-gallon reservoir and the supporting infrastructure, which serves about 1,000 properties.
The city trucked 75,000 gallons of water per day to the reservoir for eight days in June to bring it back to a comfortable level, which was reduced to 45,000 gallons per day thereafter and stopped at the end of July when the monsoon began.
At a community meeting in August, Utilities Director Tom Whitmer said that 74 water user accounts, or 30% of the users, were using over 15,000 gallons a month.
The average household uses between 3,000 and 7,000 gallons per month. The city has not yet identified the source or cause of the 2023 leakage, although the council previously discussed whether to locate the links or drill an additional well instead.
The new well will be located in the middle of the golf course and will be shared with Verde Santa Fe Golf Partners in order to avoid the city having to purchase the property, as it is required to own the property or have a permanent easement for the site. The deal will give the city access and a perpetual right to the use of the necessary parcel for the drilling, operation and maintenance of the well. In exchange for the easement, Verde Santa Fe Golf Partners will be able to purchase supplemental water from the new well once all demands for water in Verde Santa Fe are met.
The well will be drilled by KP Ventures Well Drilling & Pump LLC at a cost of $1,588,597.91. Whitmer said that the company can have a drill rig ready within three to four weeks to start the process and that the city can issue a notice of intent to drill within about three days.
