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A bill signed into law on Wednesday reflects the difficulties of life in a desert where competing interests squabble eternally over a small supply of water.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Burns, R-Tucson, is the most recent attempt to come to terms with the water needs of Fort Huachuca, an Army post, and Sierra Vista, the burgeoning city adjacent to the base.

Both entities want to grow, and both need water to make that possible. The problem, which Burns' bill valiantly seeks to resolve, is that every gallon pumped out of the ground eventually depletes the amount of water in the already threatened San Pedro River.

The San Pedro, which would be regarded as little more than an anemically flowing creek in other parts of the country, is remarkable in Southern Arizona because it usually carries enough water all year long to nourish a ribbon of tall cottonwood trees and a remarkable abundance of wild animals and bird life.

Which is why a portion of the river between the Mexican border and St. David is protected as a national conservation area operated by the federal Bureau of Land Management.

What every Southern Arizona politician and environmentalist knows — and Burns' bill finally codifies as law — is that there is a connection between the river's flow and whatever happens below the surface. Pump enough water out of the ground for farming, military, commercial, mining and residential use and eventually you end up with a dry ditch like Tucson's Santa Cruz River.

Over the years there have been numerous attempts to deal with this potential dilemma. Both Sierra Vista and Fort Huachuca have adopted conservation measures. At the end of 2005, Sierra Vista reported that in the previous four years, the water used by each resident dropped from 180 gallons per day to 157 gallons.

But whether these conservation efforts are enough to save the river remains in dispute.

The new bill that Gov. Janet Napolitano signed into law on Wednesday passed with strong bipartisan support. It sets up a nine-member board to create a comprehensive plan to conserve and reuse water and to seek ways to augment the area's available water supply.

According to a story in the Star by Howard Fischer, it would also figure out "how to organize a permanent water district, how to elect members, how much it would cost to meet its goals and how to raise that money." The final decision on what is done will be up to voters in the Sierra Vista area.

The bad side of the new law is that too much has to happen before one drop of water is saved. The good side is that Burns was at last able to get a large number of disparate groups — the Sierra Club and the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association, for example — to agree that steps must be taken for the benefit of everyone.

Sierra Vista has a population of a little over 40,000 and remains a popular retirement community for Fort Huachuca's military and civilian employees. Roughly 13,000 people work at the fort.

Burns' bill became law less than a week after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released its newest biological opinion about Fort Huachuca. A Star story by Tony Davis quoted Steve Spangle, the service's Arizona field supervisor, as saying, "The fort has done a superb job with endangered-species conservation and continues its remarkable stewardship — going beyond compliance. We anticipate that they will continue their unparalleled record of water management during the years to come."

That report concluded that the fort can add as many as 3,000 more employees without causing harm to the river.

The problem with this report, and indirectly one of the reasons that Burns' bill is so important, is that the Fish and Wildlife Service was not allowed to examine the combined impact on the river by the fort and Sierra Vista. This is a point raised at various times by Robin Silver, a Phoenix physician who for many years has monitored all aspects of San Pedro River management for the Center for Biological Diversity

"On post, they're definitely reducing water use," Silver declared. "Most of the effects of Fort Huachuca occur off-post," a reference to the 70 percent of fort employees who live away from the base.

The legitimate fear that environmentalists have, and which everyone should share, is whether growth and water-management strategies will be developed soon enough to keep the San Pedro from becoming another Santa Cruz.

Burns says, in effect, that her bill is a bridge and not a goal. Nevertheless, she said, "We have to start or we're never going to get there."