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Central Arizona Project water could be flowing to the Green Valley and Sahuarita area in about two years under a deal to build a seven-mile pipeline.

The surprise announcement came last week with another twist: The pipeline, estimated to cost between $9 million and $15 million, would be paid for by Augusta Resource. The Canadian company is behind a controversial proposal to dig a mile-wide open-pit copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains east of Green Valley.

The day after reports of Augusta's offer showed up in the newspaper, county Supervisor Ray Carroll hammered away at the proposal, which he said had been negotiated "under the cover of darkness."

The deal will "make the destruction of the Santa Ritas more possible," he said in a news release issued Friday.

"If this backroom deal is allowed to go forward, the residents of Green Valley will be drinking CAP water, as opposed to the groundwater currently serving residents," said Carroll, an outspoken opponent of the mine proposal and who represents much of the Green Valley-Sahuarita area.

20-inch pipeline planned

Officials with Augusta and Community Water Co. of Green Valley said they have negotiated a letter of intent to build a 20-inch pipeline over the next two years from the end of the CAP canal just southwest of Pima Mine Road and Interstate 19 to an area near Sahuarita's southern boundary, said Arturo Gabaldon, the water company president.

The deal calls for the companies to "form a definitive agreement" within 120 days, while Community Water negotiates for a suitable location for the facility that will recharge the CAP water into the aquifer, Gabaldon said in a July 19 announcement.

Ideally, that would be near the Santa Cruz riverbed, probably near Duval Mine Road and west of I-19, he said in a later interview.

The deal has been in the works for a while now, and officials with the two companies "decided we needed to go public with it, in order to negotiate for purchase of land," Gabaldon said.

If built, the pipeline would deliver a total of 105,000 acre-feet over 15 years — about 7,000 acre-feet annually, he said. An acre-foot equals about 326,700 gallons, enough to cover an acre of land with a foot of water.

That would go a long way toward relieving the overpumping of groundwater that is making the area's water table drop by as much as 2 feet per year.

The problem is aggravated by a plume of sulfates from mines west of Green Valley that threatens to spread into the area's groundwater, diminishing its quality.

Water experts for years have argued that the CAP terminus should be extended to the south to replenish groundwater being pumped from the aquifer before Green Valley and Sahuarita.

"I've been supportive of extending the CAP to the Sahuarita-Green Valley area for some time," said Ken Seasholes, Tucson Active Management Area director with the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

"I'm pleased to see what appears a substantive step toward that extension," he said.

'Public-relations ploy'

Joyce Finkelstein, executive director of the Green Valley Community Coordinating Council — an unofficial governing body for the unincorporated community — said last week she didn't know much about the proposal yet, but "it seems like a good thing.

"Water has always been an issue here, so getting CAP water into our aquifer could be very beneficial for the valley," she said.

But the council's executive board has not endorsed Augusta's proposed Rosemont copper mine because of environmental concerns, Finkelstein said.

Nancy Freeman, a Green Valley resident and longtime advocate for water conservation and groundwater recharge, said she suspects Augusta's offer is intended mainly to gain favor for the company and its Rosemont mine proposal.

Augusta's proposal to dig a mile-wide open-pit copper mine in a scenic and ecologically sensitive area on the eastern flank of the Santa Ritas has generated strong opposition from area residents and public officials.

Both the county Board of Supervisors and the Sahuarita Town Council have passed resolutions stating opposition to the mine.

"It's just a public-relations ploy," said Freeman, executive director of the Groundwater Awareness League.

Mine needs water, too

Not so, said Gil Clausen, Augusta's president and CEO.

The company stands to gain some good will from the offer, "but that's not our fundamental intent," Clausen said in a telephone interview from Boston.

"We're meeting our obligations as a good corporate citizen," and also helping solve the groundwater-overpumping problem in the Sahuarita-Green Valley area, he said.

"We've pledged in our plan of operations to not impact water in the Cienega Basin," beneath the land where the copper mine would be excavated.

"So we will be using water from the other side of the range, from the Green Valley side."

Augusta proposes to pump the approximately 100,000 acre-feet of water that would be needed for the mine from the Sahuarita-Green Valley area and send it eastward in another pipeline to the mine site.

Augusta formally submitted its mining plan to the Forest Service on July 11.

The agency has 60 days to review it, then schedule more public hearings and other proceedings.

If the plan is approved, Augusta could begin work on the mine in 2009.