December 9, 2004 Group sues notice it will sue city Says JWK purchase ‘condemns’ Verde River by CINDY BARKS THE DAILY COURIER PRESCOTT – Within 24 hours of the City of Prescott’s decision to buy land and water rights at the JWK Ranch, a lawsuit threat was already on record. Late Wednesday afternoon, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent to sue Prescott and Prescott Valley over their plans to pump water from the JWK Ranch. The notice came just one day after the Prescott City Council’s unanimous decision to go ahead with its purchase of the Paulden-area JWK Ranch. According to the notice, the communities’ commitment to buy the JWK Ranch “condemns the Upper Verde River to death.” Michelle Harrington, the rivers program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, stressed that the two communities have yet to come up with a plan to deal with what the notice terms as a “predictable and inevitable Upper Verde River dewatering.” “They don’t have a definitive plan (for mitigation),” Harrington said late Wednesday. “Who’s to say they’re going to be able to come up with a plan?” The impacts to the Verde River have been central to Prescott’s consideration of plans to buy water rights in the Paulden-area Big Chino Basin. A num-ber of people who turned out for Tuesday’s meeting voiced fears about the future of the Verde River, which originates in Paulden. Because the notice of intent to sue came in late Wednesday afternoon, neither Prescott Mayor Rowle Simmons nor City Attorney John Moffitt had yet read the notice Wednesday night. But both noted that the city is currently working on a plan for mitigation of any impacts to the Verde River. “The city – as Councilman (Bob) Roecker said at Tuesday’s meeting – as well as Prescott Valley, have always remained steadfast in their commitment not to impact the Verde River,” Moffitt said. And he termed as “ludicrous” the Center for Biological Diversity’s argument that the city must have a mitigation plan in effect before the start of pumping. “We can’t have a mitigation plan until we know what the impact is,” Moffitt said. “We don’t know the impact until we start pumping and monitoring.” Simmons expressed some surprise at the timing of the notice of intent to sue. “I’m a little surprised at how soon this has happened,” he said. And of the mitigation plan, he said, “we’re working on it. We have been up-front; there have been meetings. Quite frankly, I resent the implication that we’re not working on it.” Harrington said the notice of intent to sue should not have come as a surprise to local officials. “They’ve known this was coming,” she said. “We filed a (similar) notice in 2001.” Simmons maintained, however, that the earlier notice pertained to the city’s original plans to pump from its Dugan well in Paulden, which is much closer to the headwaters of the Verde River. City officials have long contended that pumping from the JWK Ranch would pose less of a threat, because it is about 18 miles northwest of Paulden. Prescott Valley Mayor Harvey Skoog said the notice is something the two communities will “have to take it in stride, and respond to it. There is always that jeopardy,” he said, “no matter what the town does, somebody decides it should do something different.” Added Skoog: “I guess we’ll just face this one with both barrels wide open and see what we can do.” Harrington explained that the notice is not a legal suit at this time. Prescott and Prescott Valley have 60 days to respond to the notice. If the two communities were to come up with a mitigation plan “that’s measurable and verifiable,” she said, the lawsuit may not be necessary. Along with Prescott and Prescott Valley, the notice also went to the U.S. Secretary of Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, the U.S. Forest Service Chief, as well as the Prescott, Coconino and Tonto national forest offices. The notice claims that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service “fail to obey mandated advocacy requirements to protect Verde River stream flow.”