By Cindy Barks
The Daily Courier
An agreement that obligates Prescott and Prescott Valley to put several million dollars into expanded groundwater examination in the Big Chino Sub-basin got unanimous local approval this week.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Prescott City Council and the Prescott Valley Town Council jointly approved an agreement with the Salt River Project (SRP) that calls for years of groundwater monitoring and modeling in the Paulden-area Big Chino Sub-basin.
The SRP board approved the agreement earlier this month.
Representatives from all three of the participating parties praised the cooperative effort that went into drafting the agreement.
Prescott Valley Mayor Harvey Skoog, for instance, emphasized local officials’ ability to work with SRP. “There was a time when we were challenged in that department,” he said.
John Sullivan, associate general manager and chief resources executive for SRP, said the agreement would lead to information that would be useful for future Big Chino decisions.
“We’re going to learn some things about the Big Chino that we don’t know yet,” Sullivan said, citing the capacity of the aquifer and its relationship to the Verde River as examples of that anticipated information.
