You have seen it if you have driven through Queen Creek’s older neighborhoods on the right day. A whole lot sitting under standing water, grass poking up through it like a rice paddy.
That is flood irrigation. The water shows up on a schedule, fills the yard, and soaks in. It is one of the oldest ways to water land in this valley.
And for a lot of Queen Creek households, it is about to change hands.
On October 7, the Queen Creek Town Council approved an agreement to start moving the town’s irrigation customers to the Queen Creek Irrigation District, which most people around here just call QCID.
If that is you, here is what it means, what it does not mean, and the one meeting worth putting on your calendar.
Who this is about
This is about the town’s irrigation service. Not your tap water.
Some Queen Creek properties get two kinds of water from the town. Potable water is the treated water that comes out of your faucets. Irrigation water is the water that floods the yard.
If you only get the first kind, this change does not touch you.
If you get both, it touches half your water.
What the council approved
The agreement starts the process of transferring the town’s irrigation customers to QCID.
The town’s case for it is short. Irrigation is the primary service QCID provides, and QCID’s service boundaries already overlap the town’s irrigation boundaries. The district already does this job, on the same ground.
Why it matters right now
This lands in the middle of the water resource fee debate.
Quick recap. The town has proposed a water resource fee of $3.07 per 1,000 gallons in year one. It pays for the Harquahala water the town bought and the infrastructure to move that water here, and it would ultimately replace the CAGRD assessment on your property tax bill. We walked through the whole thing in the Queen Creek water charge hiding in your property taxes.
A fee charged per 1,000 gallons is easy to shrug off at kitchen-sink volumes. Flood irrigation is not kitchen-sink volume. Putting a whole lot under water moves a lot of gallons, and a per-gallon fee follows every one of them.
That is the part irrigation customers care about. Based on the planned move to QCID, the town says its water resource fee will not be applied to irrigation customers for their irrigation use.
What does not change
You are still a town water customer for your drinking water.
The town remains your potable water provider. The water resource fee, if council adopts it, applies to the replenishment of that potable water, the same as it does for everyone else.
So think of it as two kinds of water with two different answers. Irrigation water is set to skip the town’s fee. Tap water is not.
The honest parts
This is a starting line, not a finish line.
The agreement only begins the transfer. The town says the process may require review and approval by the Arizona Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Those are two agencies the town does not control, and they work on their own clocks.
The fee is not law yet either. Council holds a public hearing with possible action on Wednesday, November 18. If it passes, the earliest it could apply is January 2027, showing up on bills in March 2027.
And the town’s page does not say what happens to irrigation customers if the transfer stalls partway through. If you flood irrigate, that is a fair question to bring to the meeting below.
Go to the October 27 meeting
The town is holding an informational meeting just for irrigation customers.
- Tuesday, October 27, at 5:30 p.m.
- Zane Grey Room, Queen Creek Library, 21802 S. Ellsworth Road
Bring a recent bill. Ask what the transfer means for your delivery schedule, what you will pay QCID, and who you call when the water does not show up. The town’s page does not answer those yet, which is exactly why the meeting exists.
Other ways to weigh in on the fee
If your question is about the water resource fee itself, there are more chances before the November 18 vote.
A public informational meeting is set for Tuesday, October 20, at 5:30 p.m. in the Community Chambers, 20727 E. Civic Parkway.
Open house hours run at the Municipal Services Building, 22358 S. Ellsworth Rd, in the San Tan Conference Room. Walk in and ask.
- October 20, noon to 2 p.m.
- October 28, 4 to 6 p.m.
- November 5, 10 a.m. to noon
- November 9, 3 to 5 p.m.
- November 17, 4 to 6 p.m.
Council takes public comment at its meetings on October 21 and November 4, and holds the public hearing on November 18. All three start at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Chambers.
You can also reach the town’s Customer Service team at MyUtilities@QueenCreekAZ.gov or 480-358-3450, Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Everything here comes from the town’s own page, Securing Queen Creek’s Water Future, checked October 14, 2026. If you flood irrigate, go read the irrigation section yourself, then go to the library on the 27th.