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Members of the Green Valley Community Coordinating Council's executive committee have gone on record opposing a Canadian mining firm's offer to build a water pipeline into the area.

Committee members last week approved by a 5-0 vote, with one abstention, a statement opposing Augusta Resource Corp's July 19 offer to build a 7-mile pipeline for the Community Water Co. of Green Valley from the Central Arizona Project terminus north of Sahuarita to an area in southern Sahuarita, near Green Valley.

The proposed route from the terminus would follow La Cañada Drive north to El Toro Road, then east on El Toro to the east side of Interstate 19, then south to a point near Nogales Highway or Duval Mine Road.

Augusta officials have offered to build the pipeline, estimated to cost $9 million to $15 million, at no cost to the water company, a nonprofit co-op that serves 11,500 homes in the area.

If built, the pipeline would deliver 105,000 acre-feet of water annually over 15 years, which would offset the overpumping of the area's groundwater.

The pumping is causing the water table to drop by at least 2 feet each year.

An acre-foot equals about 326,000 gallons, about as much as two four-member households use annually.

But many area residents, and many more in the greater Tucson area, oppose the pipeline because they suspect it's a ploy by Augusta Resource officials to gain favor for its controversial proposal to develop a copper mine in an ecologically sensitive area of the Santa Rita Mountains.

Augusta officials said the pipeline offer is not dependent on the company's gaining federal approval for developing the mile-wide open-pit copper mine in the Rosemont Valley on the east slope of the Santa Ritas. They've said the offer is a gesture of the company's intention to be a "good corporate citizen."

If the project gets the go-ahead, Augusta plans to pump 100,000 acre-feet from a well field in the Sahuarita area and transport the water to the mine.

Other Sahuarita-Green Valley area residents said Community Water should move ahead on Augusta's offer because the water company has been unable to find any other source of funding for the pipeline to deliver the company's annual allocation of 3,000 acre-feet of CAP water.

Tom Ward, a member of the community council's executive board, spelled out the issue in a memo to the board during its Aug. 8 meeting:

"The arguments can be summarized in two well-worn phrases: Those against Augusta's proposal said, 'You're giving aid and comfort to the enemy.' Those in favor of the proposal said, 'Take the money and run.' "

Ward's memo to the board commends Community Water's efforts to find funding for the pipeline and urges the company to seek other ways to pay for building the CAP water pipeline.

The board's adoption of a statement opposing the pipeline deal is a victory, if symbolic, for opponents of the pipeline and the mine, said Joyce Finkelstein, the council's executive director. The statement, however, is nonbinding.

Any official stance taken by the council must be approved by its Board of Representatives — a panel that represents all of Green Valley's homeowner associations, Finkelstein said.

That group is not scheduled to meet until next month.