Upper Verde River on verge of earning state’s highest water quality protection level

The Upper Verde River is one step closer to being receiving the Outstanding Arizona Waters designation, the highest water quality protection level in the state.

The Governor’s Regulatory Review Council approved the proposal earlier this month.

The Upper Verde River is located north and east of Prescott in Yavapai County. The headwaters begin just east of Paulden and the river stretches down to the town of Clarkdale.

The Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter nominated this stretch of the Verde along with portions of Sycamore Creek in 2023.

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality independently evaluated the nomination and is now in the rulemaking process to make it official.

“It has excellent water quality. It is not impaired for anything,” Josephine Maressa, deputy director of ADEQ’s Water Quality Division, told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Thursday.

What is an Outstanding Arizona Waters designation?

Maressa explained what the Outstanding Arizona Waters designation means.

“It’s a surface water that receives Tier 3 antidegradation protection, which … is the highest level of water quality protection that Arizona as a state provides,” she said.

The high quality of water must be preserved, meaning no new pollutant discharges can enter the river.

“One of the things that an Outstanding Arizona Water designation ensures is that the Department of Environmental Quality can’t permit something that is going to permanently degrade that water quality,” Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter, told KTAR News.

Currently, there are no pollutant discharges happening in the river, which is why it was able to achieve the highest water quality designation.

“Actually, there are none. There are no Arizona Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits in these segments of water,” Maressa said.

However, this does not include natural or uncontrollable discharges like stormwater runoff.

When will Upper Verde River protection level be finalized?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has 60 days to approve the designation once ADEQ is done with the rulemaking process.

“And we can protect these extremely important resources, not just for recreational purposes, but ecological. There are threatened and endangered species in this area, and this type of protection is monumental and should be celebrated,” Maressa said.

The Upper Verde River is an important drinking water source for the state, plus it provides recreational activities and is a habitat to several endangered species.

“At the public comment session, there was no opposition and lots of support,” Bahr said.

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