We appreciate the Arizona Capitol Times for focusing on the complicated legal battle over the future of the Upper Verde River, but what needs to be emphasized is that Salt River Project is in no way attempting to expand the rights of our water shareholders — not in northern Arizona or any part of our water service territory.

What we continue to fight for today is to protect the property rights to the beneficial use of water that rightly and legally belongs to our water shareholders. As the agent for our shareholders, who make up most of the residents in the greater Phoenix area, we are simply fighting to protect water rights that were established by law beginning in the 1800s and remain the foundation of SRP’s water history.

Nearly 100 years ago, District Judge Edward Kent determined the relative rights of Salt River Valley Water Users’ Association lands to the water of the Salt River and its tributaries, including the Verde. Judge Kent formally recognized our normal-flow rights as early as 1869 and further affirmed the doctrine of prior appropriation — thus tying water to the land in the Salt River Valley.

In other words, by order of the Kent Decree of 1910, the vast majority of the water that flows from the Salt River and Verde River watershed belongs to lands with water rights within SRP’s boundaries. Part of that supply includes underground water legally regarded as surface water under Arizona law, some of which comes from the Big Chino groundwater sub-basin, which supports the surface water that flows from the watershed. SRP acts as the landowners’ agent in operating water facilities and is responsible for protecting those water rights.

Even though the volume of water delivered annually by SRP has not materially changed over time, we have been fighting for the maintenance and protection of water rights since SRP was established as the first multi-purpose Federal Reclamation project in 1903. Beyond the supply variables of precipitation and runoff, the legal aspects of water collection are equally important.

Although SRP and our shareholders have some of the most extensive senior water rights on the Salt River and Verde River watersheds, we recognize there are others with senior water rights as well. In fact, the Verde Valley also has numerous irrigation and ditch companies that have shareholders (landowners) with water rights. Some of these water rights even pre-date the rights of SRP’s shareholders. We recognize that and we will be one of their biggest advocates when those water rights are finally determined.

Today, through measures such as the Gila River and Little Colorado River General Steam adjudications, as well as various American Indian water-rights settlements resolved as part of that process, SRP is taking every available course of action to maintain the legal rights that protect the greater Phoenix area’s water supply while also working diligently to help rural communities facing water-resource challenges.

The most recent solution is in Payson, which soon will have a diversified portfolio of water supplies that will make it the envy of other rural communities. Payson’s growth put its residents in danger of depleting the town’s groundwater supplies and its future reliability. Payson considered drilling new wells within Forest Service lands, but these lands were set aside for watershed protection. SRP vigorously protested these actions but nevertheless worked with Payson to find a solution.

The result was the transfer of a portion of SRP’s water rights from C.C. Cragin Reservoir on East Clear Creek for use in northern Gila County. By acquiring the reservoir from Phelps Dodge, we were able to provide the mechanism for renewable water supplies to be delivered to Payson.

We also offered workable solutions in northern Arizona. SRP spent nearly three years working with Prescott and the Chino Valley Irrigation District to sever and transfer water rights from Watson and Willow lakes, and from the lands within the Chino Valley Irrigation District, to Prescott. It is unfortunate Prescott chose to withhold those water rights to maintain recreational water in the lakes rather than fully utilize those rights for drinking-water purposes. As a result, the city chose to build a pipeline from the Big Chino Water Ranch that threatens to deplete the Verde River.

SRP is not alone in this latest legal skirmish. In addition to the support of our water shareholders, the Yavapai Apache Nation, the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, the Sierra Club, the Arizona Center for Biological Diversity and the majority of northern Arizona residents share our principal interest of protecting the Verde.

That alignment among SRP, the Indian nations and environmental groups, much like our partnership with Payson, shows we have a track record of working with various watershed groups to find sensible solutions. Lately, we worked closely with these groups and U.S. Fish and Wildlife to produce Habitat Conservation Plans that protect SRP shareholders’ water resources as well as the birds and fish protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Real solutions to problems are never easy — not for the last 100 years and certainly not for the next century.

— John Sullivan is the associate general manager of SRP’s Water Group.