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 Ten conservation groups form coalition to save the Santa Ritas
The Santa Rita Mountains provide a
paradise for hikers, bicyclists and bird-watchers — and a home
for wildlife that is being squeezed on all sides by a growing
human population. But the Santa Ritas and surrounding
areas are under threat, mainly by mining and development,
according to a new coalition of 10 local conservation groups
trying to sound th The diverse groups that have formed the
Santa Rita Mountains Conservation Coalition will share their
concerns in a public forum to be held Saturday in Green Valley.
"We're all interested in the same thing: trying to preserve the
beauty and ecology of the mountains and the (Santa Cruz)
valley," said Thomas Purdon, a member of Friends of Madera
Canyon.
Members of Save the Scenic Santa
Ritas will outline their case against a proposed mile-wide,
open-pit copper mine that mainly would affect the other side of
the mountains. The Rosemont Mine not only would devastate
the scenery and ecology of the eastern slopes of the Santa Ritas,
but it also could hurt water quality and quantity on both sides
of the mountains, said Gayle Hartmann, the group's president.
"We're coming together as a sort of umbrella organization to
have a forum, to show people what's happening all around the
mountains," she said.
A third group involved in organizing
the forum, the Green Valley-based Committee to Save the West
Desert Preserve, will make the case for preserving a 2,000-acre
swath of land west of Green Valley. "There are quite a few
different groups in the region interested in conservation, and
the thought was that we should get together and support each
other, because there's a lot of overlap in our interests," said
Bill Adamson, committee president.
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Mountain bikers to attend
Martha Lemen, president of the
Sonoran Desert Mountain Bicyclists, said her group will be at
the forum to emphasize the mountain bikers' perspective.
"Outdoor spaces should be important for all of us," Lemen said.
"We're interested in working with other user groups to highlight
the responsible use of places like the Santa Ritas.
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Bill Adamson
inspects a rare crested saguaro, which
has unusual growth at the top. He and Marylee Adamson,
left, were hiking last week in the West Desert Preserve,
near Green Valley.
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Paul Green, executive director of the Tucson Audubon Society, said his group's role in the forum will be to outline small- and large-scale impacts of developments in the area to accommodate a growing population. The smaller-scale concerns involve two proposed high-density developments south of Green Valley: the 2,600-home Las Mesas, near Tubac, and the 6,800-home Sopori Ranch, near Amado. The developments, which the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors approved in December, are contrary to the principles of smart growth that state and Pima County officials have been trying to establish, Green said. The developments violate the principles that promote regional planning and discourage developing rural areas far away from workplaces, Green said. "Most of the people in those developments will have to travel by car to go to work, adding extra traffic to I-19 and more carbon to our atmosphere," he said. The bigger concern is over the impact of these and other developments on wildlife habitat, especially critical habitat linkages — large, contiguous areas where animals live and roam. Such developments fragment habitat, which is one of the biggest concerns over another development — Cielo Madera Estates, a 180-home subdivision that has been proposed for an area at the foot of Madera Canyon.
Watershed concerns
Purdon said he will outline those
concerns at the forum, and others — including effects on water
resources and night-sky brightness — that he said would be
caused by the development. Likewise, he said, the Rosemont
Mine would negatively affect an area beyond the eastern slopes
of the Santa Rita, where a Canadian-based company wants to
develop the mile-wide open-pit mine. Purdon echoes
concerns expressed by county officials that the mine could
diminish, and possibly contaminate, the Cienega watershed, which
feeds Cienega Creek, a source of water for Tucson.
A more immediate concern is the
mine's potential impact on water on the west side of the Santa
Ritas, in the Santa Cruz basin, he said. Hundreds of Sahuarita
Heights residents have expressed alarm over several wells being
drilled in their area east of Sahuarita by Augusta Resource
Corp. and its Phoenix-based subsidiary, Rosemont Copper Co.
If the federal government gives the
go-ahead for the mine, the companies intend to pump at least
100,000 acre-feet of water over 20 years from that area just
east of Sahuarita and send it by pipeline to the mine on the
other side of the Santa Rita Mountains.
Mining company officials say they
will replace the groundwater with Central Arizona Project canal
water, even though they are not legally required to do so. But
the company has not provided details on the so-called recharge
facilities, and it only recently began a detailed hydrological
study of the mine wells' impact.
● Contact reporter Tim Ellis at 807-8414 or tellis@azstarnet.com.
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