Williams News Logo
Grand Canyon News Logo

Trusted local news leader for Williams AZ and the Grand Canyon

House bill 2772 signed into law
United States Geological Survey staff talks water

Patrick Whitehurst/WGCN <br>
Hydrologist Don Bills (standing) speaks to Williams City Council members during their regular meeting May 22.

Patrick Whitehurst/WGCN <br> Hydrologist Don Bills (standing) speaks to Williams City Council members during their regular meeting May 22.

Officials with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) recently offered some insight into the flow of water beneath the Williams area during the regular meeting of Williams City Council May 22. The meeting came on the heels of recent water woes for the city concerning the Dogtown I and III wells south of the city. Williams City Manager Dennis Wells informed council members during the meeting that House Bill 2772, already passed in the Senate and House, was signed into law May 20. Wells said the law would go into effect 90 days from May 20 and said the passage of the bill was thanks in a large part to help received from Virginia Turner, a lisaon from the Governor's Office.

"I wanted to thank Virginia (and) I spoke with Representative Lucy Mason. She is the person there at the state legislature that really championed, sponsored and pushed this bill through," Wells said. "She took a lot of barbs and arrows down there to get this thing through."

Members of the Sierra Club expressed some opposition to the bill, which passed through the Senate by a narrow margin.

House Bill 2772 was designed after officials with the city of Williams learned the Dogtown I and III wells were drawing water from the Verde River Basin - water that does not technically belong to Williams. The Arizona Department of Water Resources originally permitted the Williams wells. With the passage of the bill in both the Senate and House, Williams officials will be able to use the wells under a number of provisions that include a population cap and the understanding that water can only be pumped from the wells as a last resort, among other stipulations.

Officials with the USGS, meanwhile, said a detailed water study in Williams could take anywhere from three to five years. Don Bills, a hydrologist with the USGS Arizona Water Science Center, explained the role of the USGS to council members, as well as to a number of realtors and property owners that were in attendance at the recent meeting.

"In the '50s and '60s the Santa Fe Railroad conducted some ground water exploration," he said. "Some of that early exploration looked at developing deep wells in the Williams area."

Most of that exploration, Bills added, turned up nothing more than dry soil.

"In the '70s and '80s, there were a number of consultants working in this area to evaluate ground water potential for the community of Williams," he said. "Basically the result of those studies indicated there was shallow-perched water in this area, but not enough to meet the municipal demands for the community of Williams, but there is a deep regional aquifer underlying the Williams area."

USGS was also approached in the 1990s by city officials to conduct a geophysical evaluation in and around the Williams area. The study looked at how geologic structures beneath the ground could be used to track water flows and groundwater. Most recently, USGS partnered with city officials for a hydro-geologic framework evaluation on the Coconino Plateau.

"In that framework we basically defined two regional groundwater flow systems," Bills said. "The 'C' Aquifer and the 'R' Aquifer, the Redwall Muav Aquifer."

He said the R Aquifer is where the regional flow system for water in the area can be found. Water is fed to the R aquifer via "leakage" from the C Aquifer and other areas, though the C Aquifer itself is not present in the Williams area, Bills said.

"Most of us that are familiar with the deep wells out at Dogtown know that when the city drilled those wells, they did not encounter water until 3,200 and deeper, in some cases," Bills said. "Basically you have rainfall, precipitation, snowmelt that falls on the higher elevation areas, some of that water is evapo-transpirated back to the atmosphere, some of that water is recharged to shallow-perched water bearing zones, fairly close to land surface and some of that water moves deeper into the subsurface to become part of this large regional flow system. There is a ground water mound in close proximity to these high elevation areas near Bill Williams Mountain. Some of that water moves southward down into the Verde Valley and some of that water moves northward to discharge zones along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon."

Bills said preliminary efforts should focus on getting a better understanding of how the ground water operates in and around the Williams area, as well as how and where recharge occurs in the area. Bills said the USGS would develop a proposal based on the desires of staff from the city of Williams.

"Most of the surveys that the USGS conducts like this typically run on a three to a five year time frame," he said. "

Mayor Ken Edes asked Bills if he would be willing to take part in a work session to determine exactly what city officials should do next.

"The council probably needs to form a work study session to discuss where we need to go and how to do it," Edes said.


Donate Report a Typo Contact