Arizona News Round-Up

Here are some headlines around the Grand Canyon State.

Starting in Kingman, at the northwest corner of Arizona, the politics of water resources and development are on the mind of local politicos.

The provisions of the bill, as put forth in the Senate fact sheet, allow “county Board of Supervisors, by unanimous vote, to adopt an ordinance requiring a proposed subdivision located outside of an AMA (active management area) to demonstrate an adequate water supply before the final plat can be approved.”

Trekking down the Colorado River to the Yuma-San Luis area, funding has been secured for the infrastructure to build a new Port of Entry at the U.S./Mexico Border

The bonds will finance infrastructure projects such as cable conduits, lift stations and electrical, telephone and sewer lines for the port, known as San Luis II.

The new $42 million facility will be built by the federal government five miles east of San Luis, Ariz. While the project itself was funded in the last federal budget, Chessum said the GYPA needed to prepare the infrastructure before it could go forward.

“We agreed to give 80 acres to the federal government for the port of entry. It was agreed that it would be a construction-ready site,” Chessum said. “That means there have to be utilities there they can hook into.”

Moving to the middle of the state where it’s hotter than the face of the sun right now, Casa Grande residents are combating the problem of illegal garbage dumps in the desert.

Illegal dumping, desert dumping, wildcat dumping – they all mean the same thing: “a huge problem for rural Arizona,” said Rick Gibson, director of the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension in Pinal County. Gibson was speaking at an Illegal Dumping Seminar last week at Central Arizona College.

Dumpers think no one will notice the old tires, cars, TVs, appliances, computers, furniture, yard waste, household waste, dirty diapers and toxic chemicals left in the desert, he said.

But a rancher notices when his $6,000 bull swallows a plastic bag and dies, said rancher Gerardo “Gerry” Gonzalez.

Speaking of environmental disasters, the Globe Silver Belt is highlighting efforts to clean up the copper tailings from various area mines – using cattle.

Patterned after a holistic land management system developed by Rhodesian ecologist, Allan Savory, the process takes the land through a life cycle. The whole eco-system is considered, and grazing cattle on the land is an important part of the cycle.

Heading north, over the Roosevelt Dam, to Payson we’re met with preparations for una fiesta grande that will happen this fall.

As Payson’s 125th anniversary celebration draws near, organizers are adding more features to make the occasion a memorable one.

New developments include a time capsule to be opened on the 200th anniversary, a golf tournament, a historic quilt display and performances by a miniature horse drill team.

The celebration begins on Tuesday, Oct. 2, and spans six days of activities designed to honor the town’s wild Western heritage.

And last, but certainly not least on the dust-devil trek through AZ, the Arizona Range News reminds valley residents around Willcox that Tuesday is National Hunger Awareness Day.

Food in Arizona is abundant and affordable for most of us, thanks to the work of productive farmers and ranchers. The Arizona Farm Bureau encourages individuals and communities across the state to donate to their local food bank in honor of National Hunger Awareness Day on June 5th.

[Editorial Blurb] I’m thinking about making this a weekly post – drawing from different town papers across the state. Whatdoyathinkaboutthat?

 

The Copper Belt in the News

I’ll update this post later, but wanted to drop a couple of news blurbs focusing on the Copper Belt here in Arizona – a region close to my heart since the family roots run deeply there.

First, the screwing that was attempted by GOPer Rick Renzi (AZ-01) to an area that he never visits, even though he supposedly represents them on the Hill.

SUPERIOR, Ariz. — As they dig for nickel, copper and other commodities in the far corners of the earth, the world’s largest mining companies, Rio Tinto PLC and BHP Billiton Ltd., are used to solving geological problems. Here, though, the problems they encountered were political.

North America’s largest copper lode is believed to be buried more than a mile beneath Apache Leap, the stark red cliffs that loom above this storied Old West town about an hour east of Phoenix. Resolution Copper Co., a joint venture between Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, wants to mine it. But first it needs Congress to approve a federal land exchange, under which Resolution would swap 5,000 acres of private land for 3,000 acres of public land near its planned mine.

In exchange for supporting the bill, the local congressman, Rick Renzi, a Republican, insisted on something in return: He wanted Resolution to buy, as part of the land swap, a 480-acre alfalfa field near his hometown of Sierra Vista, according to documents and people involved in the deal.

Wall Street Journal, via AZNetroots

And this, from the AssPress (yes! skippy coined that phrase too!)

Faded copper boomtowns in the Pinal Mountains, 85 miles east of Phoenix, are about to boom again.

Soaring copper prices have companies scrambling to open new mines in the mineral-rich Globe-Miami Mining District or restart older operations that were closed when metals prices plunged a decade ago. But the historic Gila County mining towns of Globe and Miami are not prepared to handle the renewed mining activity in the area and the up to 1,000 new jobs it is expected to bring.

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