A Sierra Vista/Cochise County Water Authority Needed to Meet Sustainability Mandate

Legislation In Works to Create Upper San Pedro Water District

Tom Buschatzke, Water Advisor for City of Phoenix, contributed this Guest View. He can be reached at: tom.buschatzke@phoenix.gov

CenCarol Sanger, Executive Director, Upper San Pedro Partnership, contributed this Guest View.

The residents of the Sierra Vista Subwatershed have a difficult challenge — achieve sustainability in the Sierra Vista Sub watershed by September 2011 or lose their economic engine, Fort Huachuca, and very likely the beautiful, San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area (SPRNCA). This is because the residents are ultimately responsible for meeting the 2011 deadline affirmed by Congress in the Defense Authorization Act in 2004.

In 1998, a core group of organizations and agencies created the Upper San Pedro Partnership, binding themselves to “assist in meeting the water needs in the Sierra Vista Subwatershed...” From this, a 21-member consortium emerged, one that has been successful in securing federal funding to inform itself and others about the scientific nature of the problem so that member agencies might undertake appropriate management measures, develop reuse and recharge options, and reduce groundwater pumping.

The Partnership has many accomplishments to its credit. It has identified sensitive hydrologic locations appropriate for recharge and protection from development. Collaboration with U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Arizona’s SAHRA Institute has resulted in a state-of-the-art groundwater model and a companion user-interface Decision Support System. Dry wells, detention basins, toilet rebate programs, business conservation grants and Water Wise, the conservation outreach effort of the UA’s Cooperative Extension, are examples of ongoing Partnership programs.

A current project will reduce groundwater pumping by over 500 acre-feet per year through the transfer of treated effluent from Bisbee to water a golf course in Naco. In the fall, Huachuca City will start work on its wastewater ponds, building a pipeline to Fort Huachuca so that its treated effluent can be reused or recharged. The Partnership has developed a model water conservation ordinance, supported the County’s Water Overlay District that requires a high level of water conservation in new development.

Since 2002, these efforts have reduced the deficit in water budget terms by over 60 percent but they are not enough. Sustainability can only be achieved by moving water around within the basin or by importing it from outside. Remaining project options are large and complex and cannot be achieved within the current levels of delegated authority by the state.

In 2005, the Partnership entered into an agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to conduct an appraisal level study of 12 augmentation alternatives. After many months of meetings, the Partnership accepted its work group’s recommendation of three preferred alternatives. These are: capturing stormwater for reuse and/or recharge in an urbanized area of Sierra Vista; dewatering Bisbee’s Copper Queen Mine, treating and transporting the water to recharge or reuse near the SPRNCA; and seeking a Central Arizona Project allocation when the distribution is re-opened for negotiation which would require an extension of CAP from its terminus in Tucson into Cochise County.

Apart from the obvious cost, complexity and political sensitivity of these options, neither the City of Sierra Vista nor Cochise County has the authority to develop, own or operate this kind of infrastructure. This is the urgent issue that the Upper San Pedro Water District legislation seeks to address.

The issue of local water management authority has been identified in the Partnership’s annual report to Congress as a known legal impediment since 2004. It is widely recognized by civic leaders that without authority to develop and maintain water infrastructure, the congressionally mandated goal of sustainability cannot be achieved by 2011 and the loss of Fort Huachuca and the SPRNCA are likely.

At this writing it is too early to predict the chances for passage of this legislation, or what changes may be negotiated to create the district. If the Upper San Pedro Water District is established this legislative session, then what will be its relationship with the Partnership? How will it build on our tradition of using the best available science to inform decision making? There are many unknowns.

As the bill works its way through the legislative process, the Partnership stays focused on the goal of achieving sustainability in the subwatershed. We have not lost sight of the SPRNCA and how urgent it is to keep the San Pedro River wet. With over 350 species of birds nesting, migrating and wintering in the region, the

SPRNCA has hemispheric importance. Nor have we lost sight of the economic impact of Fort Huachuca — $1 billion locally, $2 billion statewide. Our verification and monitoring activities continue. We are pursing opportunities for conservation easements, supporting action by member agencies on conservation ordinances and overlay districts, and working hard to increase resources for residential and local business conservation programs.

2011 is only 42 months away!