By Mike Sunnucks | Phoenix Business Journal
The Salt River Project utility is in a legal fight with a group of farmers and landowners over water permits for five Arizona dams built in the 1920s and 1940s.
The legal tussle centers around the legality of water permits granted by the state of the Arizona to SRP for those dams and reservoir along the Salt and Verde rivers.
How the issue plays out could impact whether SRP’s water rights pre-empt downstream farmers and developers and whether they can be challenged.
The Phoenix-area landowners’ legal challenge examines whether SRP has valid water rights and permits for the dams and how the Arizona Department of Water Resources should handle the issue and the utilities applications.
