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PHOENIX (AP) - Maricopa County has paid out $23.7 million in a years-old dam dispute to settle one of the longest-running lawsuits in recent county memory.

The Arizona Republic reports that the payment was made in December. According the Republic, $4.6 million came from the county's self-insured risk trust fund and $19.1 million from the Flood Control District.

More than a dozen landowners along the Gila River in 1995 sued then-owners of the Gillespie Dam and the Maricopa County Flood Control District over flooding on their property that occurred when the dam broke two years prior.

The court judgment imposed a 10 percent interest rate, but statutory changes since then lowered the interest rate on judgments to 4.5 percent. The interest dispute likely will be heard in Maricopa County Superior Court.