By Sasha Hupka || The Arizona Republic
Seventeen years ago, Amy Wolff moved to Rio Verde Foothills for the views.
From her house, which sits on 2.2 acres of pristine desert, she can see Four Peaks to the east and Tom’s Thumb to the south.
There were nearby hiking trails and regular wildlife sightings — javelina, coyotes and once even a coatimundi. The home was in an unincorporated area of the county and water was provided through a shared well, but Wolff, who was born and raised in rural New Jersey, was unbothered.
“I was in horse country there,” she said. “I had septic and well water. So this didn’t frighten me at all.”
Her shared well, which was improperly built, collapsed six months after she moved into her home, but she paid to have water hauled from nearby Scottsdale. Every few weeks, a large truck would bring several thousand gallons of water from a nearby filling station, navigating the dirt road to her house to fill up her underground tank.
“It was never a problem,” Wolff said. “And then it started becoming a problem.”
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