Customers sue a water district, amid drought and surging demand
Nearly two years ago, officials with the Pine-Strawberry Water Improvement District seemed on the verge of finding a solution to their water woes. Located between Phoenix and Flagstaff, the water infrastructure of these two rural unincorporated communities of roughly 3,000 in Gila County was failing. … It spent millions fixing leaky pipes and failing wells. But if the community was to grow, it needed a new, more reliable source of water. In Pine-Strawberry, the community, like many rural areas around the country, is entirely reliant on groundwater, and the easiest solution would be to drill a new deep well. A hydrologist identified multiple locations they could choose from, but the district’s board members determined they were too expensive and would be too difficult to build on. Instead, the water district bought a house in a subdivision and in the summer of 2023 and began digging a new deep well. Then its customers sued the district.