Corporation Commission examines CAP deal

The Arizona Corporation Commission plans to come to Green Valley- Sahuarita on Wednesday to hear about the proposed pipeline to bring Central Arizona Project water to the area.

And Tuesday, a day before that meeting, the Pima County Board of Supervisors will consider a resolution aimed at impeding construction of the pipeline.

The proposed pipeline is a divisive issue here.

Rosemont Copper Co. has said it would build a 20-inch pipeline from the end of the CAP pipeline at Pima Mine Road to the GV-Sahuarita area at no cost to Community Water Co. for its water use or recharge. Rosemont plans to develop an open-pit copper mine east of the nearby Santa Rita Mountains.

Opponents, including Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll, warn there are unspoken strings attached.

State Corporation Commission member Bill Mundell said last week the meeting is designed to make sure there’s full disclosure on the issue should the commission later be involved in decisions about the proposal.

Mundell and Supervisor Carroll had pressed for release of the letter of intent between the water company and the Rosemont’s parent company, Augusta Resource Corp.

The letter, with financial figures blacked out, has since been released.

Also last week, Corporation Commission member Kristen Mayes said the trip here is strictly for fact-finding.

No votes are planned.

She said information gathered here would be useful if Community Water later seeks a rate increase.

That possibility could happen, she said, if, for example, the water company is required to finance the pipeline or faces water treatment costs.

Mayes said the commission has taken no stance on the project.

Commissioner Mundell also said it’s not certain all five commissioners will attend the meeting.

The meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the American Legion Hall, 1560 West Duval Mine Rd., Sahuarita.

Community Water Co. President Arturo Gabald—n has said the pipeline and recharge facility will be built with Rosemont money.

He said Community Water approached Rosemont with the idea.

Speaking by phone from San Antonio Friday, Gabald—n said there are some inaccuracies in the proposed Pima County resolution.

At one place, the resolution says there “appears to be no requirement that Augusta Resource Corp. funding will be committed to the pipeline extension if the mine is not permitted.”

Gabald—n said that under the agreement, the company will fund the pipeline whether or not the mine is developed.

Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry told county supervisors in October that the proposed 20-inch line would be inadequate to meet GV-Sahuarita’s eventual needs.

Huckelberry said a 72-inch pipeline would be needed to cope with the long-term water demands in the Santa Cruz Valley.

Besides local growth and agricultural and mining water users in GV-Sahuarita, there are several large housing developments planned upstream all the way to the Mexican border that will impact the aquifer.

Also Nogales, Sonora, with about 250,000 to 300,000 people, and Nogales, Ariz., with about 30,000 residents, both get their water from the Santa Cruz River aquifer.

Water company President Gabald—n said his company uses about 2,854 acre-feet of water a year and the proposed 20-inch line would deliver about 7,000 acre-feet. (An acre-foot of water amounts to about 325,851 gallons, about what two urban families of four use in a year.)

The nearby mines and pecan groves use an estimated 70,000 acre-feet, according to a recent Community Water Co. newsletter.

Gabald—n has said the 20-inch pipeline is just a start to meet the area’s water needs, and that further action will be needed in the future.

He has also said the corporation commission meeting Wednesday won’t be looking at the proposed mine, just the issue of the pipeline.

Rosemont Copper Co. has drilled a large well at Sahuarita to provide water for the mine. County Supervisor Carroll went to the site to protest the well and the dust created by heavy equipment. Some nearby residents fear that the big well will ruin their private wells.

Rosemont is required to put back into the Tucson aquifer the amount of groundwater it will draw out for the mine’s construction and operation. Originally, Rosemont planned to deliver that replacement water to a Marana recharge facility, but now it will replenish the water locally with CAP water.

The mine will be dug on private land on the Santa Rita’s east slope, and the mine waste will be stored on National Forest land, legal under a 19th century federal mining law. That law is currently under congressional review.

Some residents have objected that the mine will destroy scenic vistas along State Route 83.

jlamb@gvnews.com | 547-9749

Details

What: Arizona Corporation Commission meeting on CAP water deal.

Where: American Legion Hall, 1560 W. Duval Mine Rd.

When: 1 p.m. Wednesday

Information: Contact Community Water Company of Green Valley at 625-8409.