Pantano Wash could flow in Vail

One $4 million project would pay for construction of a pipeline to convey wastewater from a line that runs along South Houghton Road to Vail, about four miles to the east.

That would make the wastewater available for irrigating the Del Lago golf course and other potential users, like the Vail School District.

Another $4 million project would remove a structure that diverts Cienega Creek to supply the golf course with irrigation water.

The projects are among several for the Vail area that members of the Cienega Corridor Bond Coalition are trying to promote, said Rebecca Manoleas, a member of the group that seeks to "get the community together to have our voices heard collectively."

"Using the reclaimed water is a better alternative to using groundwater for irrigation," she said of the pipeline proposal.

That makes sense, said Chris Sheafe, a partner in Del Lago Golf, the company that owns the golf course in the Rancho del Lago development in Vail.

"We want to use effluent in this community as effectively as we can," Sheafe said.

"We need to preserve our groundwater as much as possible for domestic potable use," he said. "Water, in the desert, is life."

Calvin Baker, superintendent of the Vail School District, agrees.

"We'd love to have reclaimed water to irrigate our fields," he said.

The district spent about $40,000 last year for 6 million gallons of water "just to keep the football field green" at Cienega High School.

After the district installed artificial turf on the field last year, the amount of water needed for the field dropped to 1.4 million gallons, district officials said.

District officials haven't yet calculated the cost of buying treated wastewater rather than fresh water, he said.

Regardless, he said, "We'd much rather use reclaimed water for our fields, if nothing else because it's the socially and environmentally responsible thing to do."

County officials have long wanted the golf course owners to do the right thing — and construction of the pipeline would finally enable that, said Julia Fonseca, a county environmental official.

"We've been interested in negotiating with them on that for years," said Fonseca, environmental-planning manager for the county Regional Flood Control District.

Once wastewater is brought into the area, the golf course is required to use it. County officials included that as a condition for approving the Rancho del Lago development, she said.

Both Pima County and the city of Tucson have policies to promote the use of treated wastewater for irrigating golf courses, if it's available nearby.

The county Board of Supervisors last fall approved an amendment to the golf-course-zone ordinance that requires newly zoned golf courses to use renewable water — either reclaimed water or CAP water, said Kathy Chavez, county water-policy manager.

Golf courses that were approved under the previous ordinance are required to connect when renewable water is available within three miles, Chavez said in an e-mail.

The pipeline also would make wastewater available to other potential users, said Annie Wallace, executive director of the Rincon Institute, an environmental organization headquartered in the Rincon Valley.

That includes any golf courses that may be proposed for the northern half of the Rocking K development, she said.

Wallace was referring to the large development that officials with Diamond Ventures have been planning for years in an area along Old Spanish Trail east of South Houghton Road.

"The Rincon Institute absolutely supports this priority bond project," she said. "It'll definitely help protect the Cienega Creek Natural Preserve."

The preserve includes several upstream riparian enclaves south of Vail, where Cienega Creek empties into the Pantano Wash. It's important habitat that would flourish with the return of surface water flow, Fonseca said.

Another proposed bond project also would help bring surface water to that stretch of Cienega Creek and the Pantano Wash, she said.

That project, which also seeks $4 million in bond money, would remove a diversion of Cienega Creek built in 1910 to provide water to the many farms that existed in the area back then.

"This is really the only place in our area where you could restore a stream by just shutting off the diversion," Fonseca said. "This would be true restoration, where you're ceasing an activity that's causing stress to the ecosystem."

Both of the projects would yield big environmental payoffs, she said.

"There's the potential once the aquifer replenishes for a seasonal flow in the Pantano," Fonseca said. "Back in the early 1900s, the stream used to flow perennially for about five miles down from where the Cienega (Creek) is diverted."