Ditch Assoc. to end water supply by 2028; carp can’t be relocated
The major focus of Yavapai County’s open house on Sept. 3 was the future of the Verde Village Pond, located at 3901 E. Del Rio Drive. The pond is privately owned and maintained by the Verde Village Community Connection, formally known as the Verde Village Property Owners Association, a 501(c)(4) a volunteer-run nonprofit.
However, the pond’s water is supplied by the Cottonwood Ditch Association. To comply with state law, the ditch association approved a policy change restricting non-agricultural use that does not allow water for decorative ponds, but granted the VVCC a five-year extension for use until 2028.
On Nov. 19, the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors unanimous decided to allow county staff to investigate the process of accepting the 4.22-acre parcel with the goal of eventually making it a county park like the future Windmill Park in Cornville after the water is gone.
“The VVPOA board made a motion that did carry that they said they were no longer going to pursue options for finding an alternative source of water for the pond,” Yavapai County Supervisor Nikki Check [D-District 3] said at the meeting. “That’s when we started to engage in what’s the best way to look at things moving forward without a water source.”
Matt Chmiel, the Arizona Game & Fish Region 3 aquatics program supervisor made a brief comment to residents that the fish in the pond, the common carp [Cyprinus carpio], are not moveable because it is a species that AZGFD “doesn’t want in other locations.”
Common carp are an invasive, non-native species from Eurasia that can outcompete native Arizona fish species and can lead to water quality degradation.
“We actually remove them from other locations, so the department coming in and removing them isn’t an option,” he said. “Also, we typically wouldn’t do it on private property, so you’d want to hire somebody to remove them.”
Chmiel’s recommendation is that the community hold a fishing clinic and harvest the fish because “you can’t move them away from the pond alive.”
Moving any fish to another body of water also largely isn’t feasible because AZGFD would have to euthanize “at least 60 fish for testing to make sure they are disease-free and to ensure they are safe to move into a different body of water.”
“The best pathway forward is if the community wants to put on a fishing clinic, then you can utilize those fish so they don’t go to waste,” Chmiel said.
“I will do anything I can to keep this pond with water, I’ve lived in Arizona since 1988, and all of a sudden the water is gone,” resident Sandra Edgerton said. “But they didn’t think about that when they started building all of these homes and everything. This is a small community, but it’s a great community, and I love it here. And people are sincere, but we need to save these ducks. And I will do anything I can. I’ll go on any board, whatever you want me to do. I don’t want a park I want the ducks.”
VVCC held a follow-up discussion meeting about the pond on Sept. 16 at the Verde Village Community Center. For more information contact info@vvcc.life or call 928-646-6505.
“Community members are encouraged to review the background history and recent research on the pond at vvcc.life/pond prior to the event to help formulate their questions,” VVCC spokeswoman Cheryl Kasdorf wrote.
