Water availability will be the subject of a Friday morning meeting between Scottsdale officials and water haulers in the northeast Valley, as some residents worry about the future of hauled-water service.
The haulers use a fire hydrant on Dynamite Road near 120th Street as their water source. The haulers then take the water to residents outside of northeast Scottsdale.
Those residents store the water in large, outdoor tanks. The hauling is necessary because hundreds of homes do not have piped water service or working wells, according to Damon Bruns, owner of the hauling outfit Dynamite Water Company.
Bruns said he got word Wednesday that the city will cut off their access to the hydrant later this month.
The change comes after the city received a complaint regarding the safety of the current location, according to Nicole Sherbert, a city spokesperson. Water trucks, including Bruns’, pull onto Dynamite Road from a stopped position and must accelerate to near-highway speeds, which has raised safety questions, Sherbert said. Bruns said that, after filling up his truck, he only drives downhill on Dynamite Road and waits for a safe opportunity to pull onto the road.
Bruns worries that the city’s new water dispensing location, on Pima Road near Jomax Road, will suffer from overcrowding and he will not be able to fulfill all of his customers’ orders because of long wait times.
"[Customers are] looking at this as, if they don't have water, they're going to lose their house,” Bruns said.
Sherbert said no one will be without water and the city wants to reach a solution with the water haulers that might include expanding the number and size of the taps at the new dispensing location.
