Houston Mesa Rd. canary dying a slow death

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Despite the onset of what could be a decent monsoon season, the Rim Country is potentially years away from the end of the current drought. Don't let a couple of rains and the Roundup's growth at any cost articles lull you into a sense of complacency.)

This isn’t something the chamber of commerce or the town’s tourism department or the real estate community or the local pro-growth media is going to want to read, but the recent Fourth of July weekend was not all fun and games for the entire Rim Country.

While most of you were off having a good time, Mesa del Caballo residents sat parched in Stage 3, then Stage 4 conditions, hoping the water police wouldn’t mistake a bucket of water left outside for the dogs as an attempt to water a desiccated tomato plant.

You all know about the canary in the coal mine. Well Mesa del Caballo has replaced Pine as the Rim Country’s early warning system, and this particular canary is dying of thirst.

Here’s how it is for those of us living in Stage 4. When you leave Payson and drive down Houston Mesa Road, you go from lush green to dull yellow/brown in the space of just 1.8 miles. Brooke Utilities sends out regular patrols, and neighbors make jokes about keeping their plants alive by – well, you know.

Folks, we’re closer to Payson than you think. We’re a lot closer than Pine and Strawberry. And you won’t be happy living the way we’re living.

Mesa del residents have tried to do something about the situation – to actually work with Brooke Utilities to forge a system that allows people some choices about how they use what water they have. In return, the community agrees to pay for water that has to be purchased from the Town of Payson and hauled into Mesa del during the dry months.

It’s a model that could be replicated by other communities throughout the West. It’s a model through which citizens take control of their own destiny.

But our best efforts have been frustrated by a non-existent monsoon season in 2009 and more of the same so far in 2010. Combined, the two monsoon seasons have so far generated .5 inches of precipitation. Fifteen to 18 inches would be closer to normal.

Even more exasperating has been an Arizona Corporation Commission that has been sluggish and unresponsive. The agreement between the people and the water company can’t take effect without the ACC’s OK, and the ACC has had a problem finding a spot on its agenda to consider it.

So two months have passed because nothing can happen until the ACC decides it has time to meet on the subject – the two driest months of the year. You would think the commissioners would realize that people’s lives are on hold, but to date all entreaties – by Brooke and Mesa del residents – have failed.

Meanwhile in Payson, Star Valley, and, yes, even Pine and Strawberry, people are merrily watering away. That’s not to say I blame you. Or that I wouldn’t be doing the same darn thing.

After all, your leaders are telling you to go for it. They’re telling you we’ve got plenty of water. That Payson can double in size.

No, I blame the people who don’t want to face the harsh reality – that until we secure Blue Ridge/ C.C. Cragin – until the water is actually flowing down Houston Mesa Road via that pipeline – and, most important, until we see how reliable that source of water turns out to be during what many now believe is a 100-year drought – we have to encourage conservation from everybody.

But instead, water officials in most Rim Country communities have turned on the green light.

In others, people are becoming complacent. I recently talked to a few folks in Gisela who are complaining because they now have, for the first time, conservation stage signs in their community – even though those signs read Stage 1.

I’ve heard the same thing from folks in Star Valley. And yet Star Valley’s leaders are about to sign a water deal with Payson that doesn’t come close to making any sense or solving any problems.

Folks, we are not out of the woods yet – not by a long shot. We need to put pressure on the Payson Town Council to get moving on Blue Ridge. Every day we waste is a day we could be supplementing our precious groundwater.

We need to put pressure on the Star Valley Town Council to live by the LFR hydrology studies it paid good money for.

We need to put pressure on the Pine Strawberry Water Improvement District to produce a real source of water instead of paying half a million dollars for a well full of sand without an appraisal, and for giving residents a false sense of security by leaving the system at Stage 1 all summer despite storage tank levels that, according to a reliable source, suggest caution.

We need to put pressure on Brooke Utilities to continue to develop new sources of water and to fix faulty infrastructure – at the same time we encourage Brooke President Robert Hardcastle to use Mesa del as a model to work with residents in the other Rim Country communities Brooke serves.

And we need to let the Arizona Corporation Commission know that we’re important, that we matter, that we want them to serve us – even if it means working a little overtime to hold a hearing. We need to remind them that public servants are supposed to serve the public. Duhhh!

This is about a community – the entire Rim Country – that needs to come to grips with a nagging, festering water problem before, if you will allow me to paraphrase the famous line from “Jaws,” it swims up and bites us on the ass.