PHOENIX - Dec 26

 

Arizona Public Service Co. is trying to use its eminent domain power to wrest ownership of 7,000 acres in Navajo County from a historic ranching company.

APS officials said the company needs the land to ensure a steady water supply for its Cholla Power Plant near Joseph City. The state's largest utility has been pumping water from land owned by the Aztec Land and Cattle Company for nearly 35 years under a lease with the ranch.

That lease expires in August and the two big companies have been negotiating a new one for months. But with no end in sight, APS spokesman Steven Gotfried said the company was forced to sue to take over ownership.

APS sued under the state's eminent domain law in Navajo County Superior Court and a hearing is set for July. APS is allowed to use the law because as a state regulated utility it needs the ability to force the sale of property needed to supply electricity to its customers.

Aztec president Steve Brophy said he'll fight to keep the water and property rights his company has owned for more than 100 years.

The Cholla plant consumes about five billion gallons of water a year, about 70 percent of which comes from wells on land owned by Aztec. APS already owns about 3,500 acres from which the remainder is supplied.

Brophy said loss of the land and its water supply would prevent future development of the land company's other properties in the Little Colorado River Basin, which total more than 220,000 acres.

Aztec is willing to extend APS's lease on the well field, Brophy said, but wants rates comparable to what another buyer would pay, as much $150 per acre foot. APS has paid $6 per acre foot under the expiring lease, which he believes has been "a wonderful deal" for APS.

"It wasn't such a great deal for us, but that's what we negotiated in the 1970s, and we have lived with our mistake," Brophy said. "Now we want them to pay us what municipal and industrial water is worth. This is an extraordinarily valuable water supply."

An acre foot of water is 326,000 gallons, enough to supply two average homes for a year.

Brophy said the acreage APS wants is the prime water producer in the region. Groundwater in other parts of the basin has high mineral content. Navajo County is sparsely populated now, but has the potential to grow, Brophy said.

"Whoever needs water in the county will have to knock on APS's door," if the utility succeeds, Brophy said. "The ultimate irony is that one patient land owner with a vision of the future is being thrown into the street, and newcomer APS is trying to get control of the water."

Gotfried said the two firms have been negotiating a new lease for about a year, but the two sides are now at an impasse.

"This is about providing reliable and sustainable electricity while protecting ratepayers and being fair to Aztec," Gotfried said.

___

Information from: East Valley Tribune/Scottsdale Tribune, http://www.aztrib.com