By Joanna Dodder Nellans | The Daily Courier
Ranchers at a public hearing Thursday said the Verde River is not navigable, while conservationists and recreational users disagreed.
The Arizona Navigable Streams Adjudication Commission conducted the meeting to gather testimony about whether the Verde is navigable.
Arizona gained title from the U.S. government to the land beneath navigable waters when Arizona gained statehood. However, the state didn’t try to figure out which waters actually were navigable until it created the commission in 1992.
So the commission is trying to figure out whether the Verde and other watercourses were commonly navigable in 1912, not counting human diversions. If it concludes it was, then the commission will determine that the state owns the land underneath it and the public generally has permanent access to the river.
