Was on KJLL (1330 AM) radio this morning and discussed the water situation down in the Green Valley area and the Rosemont issue about water.

The show is hosted by the Southern Arizona Green Chamber of Commerce.

By way of background, I worked on Capitol Hill for Mo Udall back in 1967 on the Central Arizona Project legislation, came back to Arizona and got a law degree and spent the next 40 years involved in water issues in Arizona.

Rosemont has a permit from the ADWR to pump 6,000 acre feet of groundwater a year for its proposed mine.

By contrast Farmers Investment Company (FICO) pumps close to 30,000 acre feet a year for its pecan groves and has been doing so for over 50 years.

The mines west of Green Valley pump another 40,000 acre feet a year.

Green Valley and Sahuarita’s private water companies pump around 6,000 acre feet a year for residentrial use and another 5,000 acree feet a year is puped to irrigate golf courses.

There is a massive groundwater overdraft in the Green Valley area.

The Central Arizona project has a 30,000 acre foot capacity CAP recharge facility at the north end of Sahuarita next to the San Xavier Indian Reservation which recharges water for the Indians and the city of Tucson.

But with over 80,000 acre feet of pumping, the deifict for recharge is still 50,000 acre feet.

Community Water Company in Green Valley wants to construct a new CAp recharge facility father south in the area and recharge 30,000 plus acre feet of water and Rosemont has agreed to pay a big share of the cost of this project and recharge the 6,000 acre feet a year t would pump for the mine.

Oddly FICO has been opposing the Community Water project, even though FICO is one of the most vocal opponents of the mine.

I am the executive director of the Center for Sustainable Development and am involved in the Green Valley area water issues. I do not work for Rosemont.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 16th, 2011 at 6:04 am and is filed under environment water and energy, politics. Tags for this post: CAP, central arizona project, Commmunity Water Company, Farmers Investment Company, FICO, green valley, groundwater recharge, Roemone Copper Company, rosemont, rosemont mine, Sahuarita. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.