Water coalition seeks unity

The Citizens Water Action Coalition urged leaders of four local water companies Friday to work together in a Joint Powers Authority to try to protect the local water supply.

Peggy Bonthron, leader of a meeting at the library, said more than government agencies are needed to protect the area’s groundwater.

About 50 people listened to the water company executives describe their companies. Many asked questions.

Bonthron said the Joint Powers Authority, or JPA, would be comprised of area water companies and the major water users in the basin, including the Phelps Dodge Sierrita Inc. copper mine and the Farmers Investment Co., pecan groves.

Farmers Water Co., which serves 2,200 customers, was one of the four water companies at the meeting. It was represented by CEO Dick Walden.

The other companies there were Green Valley’s Community Water Co., headed by Arturo Gabald—n, the Green Valley Water Improvement District, headed by Larry Hoffman, and Rancho Sahuarita Water Co., headed by Mark Seamans.

Green Valley Community Water has 11,500 customers, Rancho Sahuarita serves 10,000 houses and Green Valley Water Improvement District serves 4,700 customers and four golf courses.

There are government agencies, including the Tucson office of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, which are concerned with maintaining water supplies.

State regulations state that a developer can’t start building unless he as an assured water supply designation, that it has enough water to serve the development for at least 100 years.

The local aquifer is declining two to four feet a year, and water use continues to grow. The aquifer flows south to north here, and areas south of Green Valley are also growing.

Gabald—n was questioned extensively about his company’s deal with Augusta Resource Corp. that would bring Central Arizona Project water to the Green Valley area.

Augusta which plans to develop a copper mine at Rosemont on the east side of the Santa Rita Mountain has offered to build the pipeline that would deliver Green Valley Community Water’s CAP allotment of about 3,000 acre-feet per year to Green Valley. An acre-foot of water amounts to about 326,000 gallons, or about what two urban families of four use in a year.

The nine-mile line from Pima Mine Road to a Green Valley recharge location would cost an estimated $9 million to $15 million.

Augusta would use the water as payback for the water it would consume at the mine.

Under the 1922 Colorado River Compact, Arizona is entitled to receive 2.8 million acre-feet per year. It takes 1.5 million acre- feet for the CAP pipeline and the other 1.3 million is left in the river for the communities there.

Walden suggested that state leaders in both Arizona and California should work toward developing desalted ocean water in California, leaving more CAP water for Arizona. He said Arizona could help pay for such a development to make it work, and he said he hoped there were statesmen and far-sighted individuals to make it work.

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