A Quiet, Isolated Desert Neighborhood Finds Out First-Hand Why CAP Is Crap. By Vicki Hart IT WAS AN idyllic spot, 20 miles from central Tucson, in a beautiful desert hard against Saguaro National Park West. Only 12 families lived there, and they all seemed to want the same things--isolation and the quiet, starry nights it brings. They made agreements to preserve this little bit of Heaven: to bury their power lines, dig their own wells, and eschew outdoor lighting at night in order to preserve the soothing tranquility... ...And then along came the Central Arizona Project. Residents describe the CAP's arrival and its expansion near them as an on-going nightmare. The most recent aggravation is a diesel recharging pump, installed in October 1996, that runs 24 hours a day. They say it sounds like a big tractor. Individually and in groups, residents have taken their complaints to scores of government officials. Yet the pump runs on and on, its noise now a constant accompaniment to their once-quiet lives. And the residents complain their lives have become a series of meetings, calls and faxes trying to address the problem. They've complained to Tucson Water officials, BK Wong Farms (which uses the CAP water for irrigation), the Pima County Supervisors, the Pima County Attorney's Office and the Pima County Sheriff Department. They've also met or traded faxes with the Avra Valley Citizens Committee, Pima County Manager Chuck Huckleberry, Tucson City Manager Luis Guitierrez and anyone else they could think of--and still the pump rumbles and grumbles away. Valerie Orstedt, who lives closest to the pump, says the whole thing has been emotionally devastating. She says when she purchased her land in 1969, she never dreamed this beautiful area would be destroyed by a giant canal delivering water to all of Tucson. Officials condemned four-tenths of an acre of her land and plowed out the nearby Brawley Wash. Her once pristine desert vista is now marred by an ugly canal with its high fencing and "No Trespassing" and other warning signs. Orstedt complains wild animals get caught in the fencing while trying to reach the water. THE RESIDENTS RECALL their first fight when the CAP came in the '80s. Canal-building crews showed up with huge machinery and enormous spotlights to work 24 hours a day on the project. After many complaints, the residents got them to agree to work only during daylight. But that was only the beginning. While the current pumping project began with a 20-acre basin and one diesel pump that floods the 20 acres and lets the water "perk down," three more 20-acre basins, with additional diesel engines at each site, will be going in soon. With each of these comes the construction, the security lighting for the pumps, the fencing around them, and the additional flooding. Even more disturbing to residents is the fact that the city's ill-conceived CAP recharge project may eventually be expanded to include up to 42 pumps. Also, city plan calls for the replacement of the current 6-cylinder pump with 12-cylinder pumps. Orstedt ridicules the whole project, pointing out that nature had already provided for recharge in the series of dry riverbeds snaking through the land. Her opinion is seconded by Jerry Juliani, spokesman for the anti-CAP Pure Water Coalition, who says, "We should do something sensible and use the recharge basins Mother Nature already made for us--the dry riverbeds. We didn't need CAP to build these ponds, nor did we need the huge bureaucratic mess." Juliani adds that he's also concerned about possible contamination of the soil these ponds are being built on, claiming some of the area is composed of old cotton fields once sprayed with DDT and Agent Orange. Residents say several concerns must be addressed immediately: • The noise problem could be helped with the installation of an electric pump. Residents would also like to see pumping ceased from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. They'd like to have a noise-wavelength evaluation and believe an earthen embankment would help absorb the noise. • With warm weather coming, the residents are concerned about potential mosquito problems with the flooded, open field. It's a concern that's gotten very little response from city or county officials, they complain. (When The Weekly asked the Pima County Health Department how mosquito problems are dealt with, the terse answer was: "Clorox.") • With the advent of more pumps, the residents would like city officials to assure them that they won't install any more security lights at the pump sites. • They'd like the city to assume liability for contamination from recharge activity that may occur to their private wells. In an April 9 memorandum of response, County Manager Huckleberry wrote: "This is an area where we do not have a great deal of regulatory control. However, issues of common sense and courtesy should take hold, with the city trying to do as much as possible to minimize the adverse impacts of this operation on the surrounding area residents." Huckelberry wrote the county code apparently doesn't cover noise pollution, but he promised to call Southwest Gas to see if the diesel pump, which runs on natural gas, can be fitted with a muffler. He added the city apparently decided on diesel because electric pumps cost more. The diesel engines cost around $60,000 each, not including installation. The county would also enforce its outdoor lighting code, Huckelberry told the residents. The code contains prohibitions against certain types of lights within certain distances of astronomical observatories. "This may lessen the glare impact of the outdoor lights, but would not prohibit it," he wrote. He also said the county may require the city to conduct a mosquito abatement program. Also, officials of Empire Power Systems, which is bidding to supply the 42 new pumps, say they're considering providing a "critical" muffler for the current pump as a "goodwill gesture." In the meantime, the pump runs on and on and on, mosquito season is on its way, and construction of the other sites is to begin soon. And Orstedt doesn't see an end in sight to her neighborhood's CAP aggravation.

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