U.S. Water News Online
PHOENIX -- Legislation intended to protect the Army's Fort Huachuca by letting area residents chart their own course on protecting one of the state's few free-flowing rivers could be a model for use in other water-short areas of rural Arizona, the state's top water official said.
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 6-1 for a compromise bill that would allow residents of Sierra Vista and other nearby parts of Cochise County decide whether to create a special district to plan and provide ways to augment water supplies in the San Pedro River's watershed.
If enacted, the bill (HB2300) would establish a nine-member board charged with preparing a plan to be sent to voters in the proposed district in southwestern Cochise County.
Other rural areas with population growth pressures and challenged water supplies where similar approaches could be taken include western Mohave County, envisioned by some as becoming a bedroom community to Las Vegas, and the Yavapai County's Verde River valley, said Herb Guenther, state Water Resources Department director.
"This is the first of its kind," he said of the San Pedro River proposal.
The San Pedro region doesn't fit criteria established under a 1980 groundwater law for state-imposed regulation of groundwater pumping, Guenther said.
Arizona political, civic and economic leaders fear Fort Huachuca could be targeted in the next round of military base closings because of a federal law that links the installation's future to efforts to protect the San Pedro River and its sensitive habitat.
Fort Huachuca, a major Army base located in Sierra Vista, is one of southern Arizona's largest employers and is home to several Army commands as well as signals and intelligence brigades.
"We have to protect the river to protect the fort," said Rep. Jennifer Burns, the bill's sponsor.
Similar San Pedro watershed legislation was considered earlier during this year but was hung up over several concerns, including some lawmakers' insistence that local residents decide whether to create the proposed district and whether it should have taxing authority.
The revised San Pedro River proposal is the Legislature's latest effort on rural water concerns. Lawmakers have already passed bills this session to give rural areas new powers to tie development projects to adequate water supplies and to set up a new fund -- with no money in it initially -- to help pay for projects to augment communities' water supplies.
Though there's plenty of water in the aquifer to support population growth, continued pumping in excess of recharge levels will put the river's surface flow -- and the Army base -- in jeopardy, said Burns, a Tucson Republican whose district includes part of Cochise County.
Sierra Vista would become a "ghost town" if the base closes, Burns said.
Mary Ann Black, a Sierra Vista real estate agent and a board member of a local conservation district, said the new water district isn't necessary because the area can do more to meet its water needs through conservation and recharge.
"This whole thing is a scare tactic to create a taxing authority and power and authority for a certain elite group in our community," Black said.
Sen. Jake Flake, a Snowflake Republican who held out for a local vote on the district's creation, said it's essential to let the affected communities decide how to handle the problem rather than have the state impose mandates.
"In this state there is no one size fits all," Flake said.
The Appropriation Committee's vote for the San Pedro proposal jettisoned the bill's unrelated original contents and sent the new version to the full Senate for likely consideration. Senate passage would send it to the House for an up-or-down vote.
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