RIO VERDE FOOTHILLS, AZ — After years of uncertainty over their water supply, Rio Verde Foothills residents will have a permanent solution starting Thursday.
EPCOR Utilities Inc. will open its new water filling station off 176th Street on January 1, 2026, at 7 a.m.
The community, northeast of Scottsdale, was cut off by the city in 2023, after being warned for years that this could happen under a drought contingency plan.
Since then, EPCOR has stepped in to temporarily provide water until their permanent solution was finished.
"Promise made, promise kept," said Shawn Bradford, Senior Vice President of Regulated US Water for EPCOR. "We were asked to step in and solve the water challenge facing Rio Verde Foothills. We assured the community we would deliver a permanent water solution, and we did.”
Local John Hornewer has lived in the community since 1999 and brings water in trucks to hundreds of homes in the community through his business, Rio Verde Water.
"We're in a remote area. There's no infrastructure here, so the water either has to come from a truck or it has to come from the ground,” Hornewer said. "Water shouldn't be a luxury. It is a basic necessity. It should be something that everybody has access to.”
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Karen Nabity said she is concerned about the utility and water-hauling costs.
“It's great that we have water, but the cost is outrageous,” Nabity said. “If they use 6,000 gallons a month, they'll be paying with the cost of water and hauling, they will be paying $6,400 a year.”
The utility’s prices are regulated by the Arizona Corporation Commission. The utility will look into the true cost of operations before applying for future adjustments.
“All of those hard costs we’ll be looking at reconciling that against hookup fees that were brought in those sorts of things,” EPCOR Strategic Manager Rebecca Stenholm said. “We expect to be pretty, pretty close to where we were when we started this whole project."
Residents will need a customer account and access code to get into the water station.
