Tumacacori wilderness plan gets boost by Dems
Grijalva bill would protect 84,000 acres southwest of Tucson; TEP high-power line still an issue there, too

By Tim Ellis
Arizona Daily Star Tucson, Arizona
Published: 02.08.2007

Now that his party controls Congress, Rep. Raúl Grijalva says he finally may succeed in protecting the Tumacacori Highlands near Nogales. "It does make its chances of passage much better," the Tucson Democrat said last week of legislation he'll introduce in the next 30 days to designate as wilderness about 84,000 rugged, scenic acres 40 miles south of Sahuarita. That's good news to people who support the legislation, like Mike Quigley, wilderness campaign coordinator for the Sky Island Alliance. "We were optimistic before, and given the amount of support for the idea and quality of the land we're talking about, we're more optimistic than ever," he said. The rugged mountainous area surrounded by rolling grasslands is home to a wide diversity of plants and animals, including more than 70 species of rare animals and plants such as the jaguar, elegant trogon and Chiricahua leopard frog. The area also has numerous cultural and historic sites.

Designating it as wilderness would protect the scenic area and "its essential wildlife habitat and corridors," Quigley said. Grijalva said he's introduced the legislation in every session since he was elected in 2002, but because it wasn't favored by the Republican House leadership, that's about as far as it got.

This time, he said, "We're going to give it a full hearing — it's never had that before. It never went anywhere." The chances are even better since he was appointed last week as chairman of the House National Parks subcommittee, he said. On his first day in the new position, Grijalva introduced a bill to expand the boundaries of Saguaro National Park. But the Tumacacori wilderness proposal is nowhere near a done deal. Grijalva still must get his fellow lawmakers — and ultimately President Bush — to go along with designating the area as wilderness. That would prohibit mining and certain other uses, including operation of mechanized or motorized vehicles like mountain bikes and all-terrain vehicles.

Power line proposed

Many believe it also could complicate a proposal by Tucson Electric Power to build a big power line through the area to Nogales. The line would improve service to Nogales, which has been plagued in recent years by power failures and brownouts, said Joe Salkowski, TEP spokesman. Officials have proposed building the 345-kilovolt line with 140-foot-tall poles along one of two routes through the area, both of which would originate west of the mine-tailings piles west of Sahuarita and Green Valley. The proposals are now under review by state and federal officials, Salkowski said. Opponents of the proposed power line include environmentalists like Quigley, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and many local residents like Ellen Kurtz, who's been fighting the proposal since 2001. The opponents say that's more electricity than Nogales would need for the foreseeable future. TEP wants the 345-kilovolt line only so the company can sell electricity to power-starved Mexico, Kurtz said.

That's true, Salkowski said — TEP has been proposing that since before its parent company, Unisource Energy, bought the Nogales utility and other electrical and natural-gas assets from Citizens Communications Co. in 2003. But it still makes sense to build the bigger line, he said, rather than building a smaller line initially and then coming back to build a bigger line as demand grows. Because the Arizona Corporation Commission ordered TEP to improve service to Nogales — and, "recognizing that this review is going to take some time" — TEP officials are upgrading an existing power line that roughly follows the Santa Cruz riverbed east of I-19, Salkowski said. The company also built a small backup electrical-generating station near Nogales, he said.

"A Dinosaur"

Kurtz — who lives in Amado, just north of Nogales on the Pima-Santa Cruz county line — said the proposal hasn't gone anywhere because state and federal regulators see that the big power line is unnecessary. "The wilderness designation is not the reason the power line has been denied," she said. "It's been denied because it's not necessary, it costs too much, it doesn't serve the consumers, and it'll be a dinosaur."

Kurtz had hoped the power-line proposal was dead after it ran into strong local opposition and a rebuff from the Arizona Corporation Commission. In a hearing held a year ago, corporation commissioners questioned the need for a bigger power line. And they urged TEP to come up with another solution to improve service for Nogales. Opposition also has been expressed by officials with the U.S. Forest Service, which administers most of the land that would become wilderness, and Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the Pajarita Wilderness along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Kurtz, who lives just off Arivaca Road between the two proposed power line routes, said she and other opponents want TEP to build the power line along the existing route near the Santa Cruz River. Salkowski said company officials think that's a bad idea. For a second power line to be a reliable backup, they say, it should be built away from an existing line so that it's less likely that to be damaged by wildfires, for example, or lightning strikes. TEP officials have tried to accommodate residents' and environmentalists' concerns, and have put together proposals that wouldn't greatly disrupt a wilderness area, he said That's why company officials think approval of the wilderness designation for the Tumacacori Highlands does not necessarily mean the power can't be built through that area. "As we have developed this line, we have taken pains to ensure its compatibility with the environment," Salkowski said.

Contact Tim Ellis at 807-8414 or at tells@azstarnet.com.