HomeVideo Archive2023-10-14 The Big Chino Pipeline VS the Verde River

The Verde River is 2,500,000 years old, but the Big Chino pipeline could destroy it in decades. “The Big Chino Pipeline VS the Verde River,” explained how legally authorized groundwater pumping in the Big Chino Valley threatens the upper Verde River. Using the best available science, presenter Gary Beverly spelled out why the upper Verde River is one of the most valuable public resources in the southwest.

The presentation integrates geology, hydrology, cultural history, ecology, economics, and public policy into a story about the past and future of the Verde River. The proposed pipeline project would import water from the Big Chino Valley into the Prescott Active Management to support growth and development. This would devastate the upper Verde River and diminish the few existing incentives for Prescott and Prescott Valley to conserve our aquifer for future generations. The pipeline can supply 50,000 or more additional houses, and over 100,000 additional population – a gift to wealthy landowners and developers that is, once again, being actively pursued by Prescott and Prescott Valley.

Population growth in Paulden and expanded agricultural irrigation also threaten the river, which has recently declined to record low flows. Protecting the river is a regional responsibility, and there are regional solutions.

DAILY DROPLET

  • "Ranchers need clean water for their stock, farmers need it for their crops, every employer needs it to stay in business, and every living thing needs it for life... The law needs to be clear to protect water quality and the rights of landowners."
    Mark Udall

  • "Water is the driver of Nature."
    Leonardo da Vinci

  • "When the well is dry, we know the worth of water."
    Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1746

  • "...and since flow of information is to spirit what water is to life, we'd best think about how to keep the pipes free and unclogged."
    Raphie Frank

  • "In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water along with other resources has become the victim of his indifference."
    Rachel Carson

  • "We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one."
    Jacques Yves Cousteau

  • "Water is life's matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water."
    Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, 1937 Nobel Prize for Medicine

  • "Water is everywhere and in all living things; we cannot be separated from water. No water, no life. Period..."
    Robert Fulghum

  • "It's the water. Everything is driven by the water."
    Mike Thompson

  • "Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over."
    Mark Twain