2nd Green Valley Water Line Proposed

By TONY DAVIS

FICO, developer behind planned rival for Rosemont line

The Central Arizona Project water pipeline that would serve the Rosemont copper mine and Green Valley water companies has a competitor.

A major farming company and a big developer are proposing a new pipeline to serve the Green Valley area as an alternative to the earlier pipeline. The first pipeline is being paid for by the company that would run the Rosemont mine.

Farmers Investment Co. and developer ANC of the Las Vegas area announced Monday that they intend to build a pipeline to bring in CAP water, pumped uphill from the Colorado River. Both projects would bring CAP water from the canal’s endpoint at Pima Mine Road to the Sahuarita and Green Valley areas.

FICO has operated pecan groves in Sahuarita for many years. ANC is proposing a 4,200-acre, 15,000 home project called Mission Buttes, just west of Sahuarita.

The pipeline operators will face the same future, long-term competition for CAP water as would the Rosemont pipeline. That supply ultimately may not or will not be available to either pipeline as population and water demands keep growing statewide.

There are, however, other, potential long-term water supplies available from Indian tribes in Arizona and other sources, such as desalination of salty groundwater and seawater, officials of the water project said Monday.

The new pipeline is behind the earlier pipeline proposal, which is getting a public airing tonight at a federally run meeting in Green Valley. The existing project, a joint effort of Rosemont Copper and the Community Water Co. of Green Valley, is slated to start construction early next year and start delivering water in 2010, water company officials said Monday.

But the newly proposed pipeline will be a much more comprehensive effort, aimed at solving the entire Green Valley area’s groundwater overdraft, said Nan Walden, vice president and general counsel for FICO.

Walden and her husband, Dick, FICO’s president, said they are open to having any entity in southern Pima County as a participant in this pipeline effort except for the Rosemont Copper Co. The Waldens oppose the mine.

Proponents of the earlier pipeline “welcome” participation of the other companies proposing the new pipeline, said Tim Taylor, Community Water Co.’s board chairman.

“We expect it will complement the other effort that Community Water Co. has started,” Taylor said.

Jamie Sturgess, a Rosemont vice president, declined to comment on the new pipeline proposal.

Community Water Co. officials say they also believe in a regional approach, and that by making the two projects complementary, the broader community’s interests will be better served.

Rosemont has agreed to pay for a 36-inch-diameter pipeline costing $15 million to $18 million and delivering 30,000 to 40,000 acre-feet of water annually. An acre-foot will provide up to three families with water for a year.

There is no cost estimate, construction timetable or planned size for the new pipeline. The Waldens said their pipeline’s capacity would be gradually upgraded over time. The project’s first phase might start out at as little as $5 million to $10 million although it could ultimately cost $15 million to $20 million, they said.

CAP officials said Monday they don’t see a need for the total water deliveries that these two Green Valley-area pipelines could ultimately bring and they hope there won’t be two separate pipelines.

“We’ve looked at it and it’s going to max out at 30,000 to 40,000 acre-feet of new water (needed) down there,” said Larry Dozier, deputy general manager of the three-county agency that runs the CAP.

IF YOU GO

* Public meeting for the proposed Central Arizona Project pipeline for the Green Valley area by Community Water Co. of Green Valley.

* Sponsored by the federal Bureau of Reclamation.

* 5 p.m. today.

* At the Green Valley Recreation West Center, 1111 S. Villa Arco Iris, Green Valley.

* Contact reporter Tony Davis at 806-7746 or tdavis@azstarnet.com.

Originally published by TONY DAVIS, ARIZONA DAILY STAR.

(c) 2008 Arizona Daily Star. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.