Chamber hosts water forum in Green Valley

The Green Valley Sahuarita Chamber of Commerce is hosting a community forum on groundwater and how development, agriculture and mining affect water issues in southern Pima County.

The Forum on Water Issues, sponsored by Rosemont Copper, is from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Green Valley Recreation West Center, 1111 Via Arcoiris. The forum features six speakers with a variety of viewpoints on groundwater who will answer questions from the audience.

Rosemont, which is proposing an open-pit copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains east of Green Valley, is listed as sponsor because it underwrote the cost of renting the meeting place, said Randy Graf, who organized the event as the chamber’s government relations liaison. If approved, the mine would be among the biggest water users in the area.

The water table in the valley is dropping because more water is being pumped than is being recharged, and projections by the Upper Santa Cruz Providers and Users Group (USC/PUG) find that trend is likely to continue over the next 20 years. Currently, users take 30,000 acre-feet per year more than is recharged. An acre-foot is about 325,000 gallons of water, enough to supply three single-family homes a year.

Forum speakers include:

Mike Pearce of Maguire & Pearce, attorney for Rosemont Copper