Tombstone Arizona – The “town too tough to die” is being killed by the feds
The Obama Administration is “getting even” with Arizona…..again.
A new fight has developed in the American West over water, where strategies to use the liquid gold routinely are litigated and challenged. But in one case, according to a legal team, the result literally could kill the historic town of Tombstone, Ariz.
The Goldwater Institute today told WND it has filed a motion for a preliminary injunction that would allow town officials to go into the Huachuca Mountains to repair the collection system – pools, pipes and related equipment – that provide the town with much-needed water in the desert climate.
The federal government has said no.
Nick Dranias, head of the Joseph and Dorothy Donnelly Moller Center for Constitutional Government at the institute, said the issue is far larger than just a dispute over whether trucks and tractors can be used to repair city-owned property inside a federal land preserve.
“This is a case of egregious federal overreach,” an institute report on the conflict said. “If the Forest Service can effectively seize Tombstone’s 130-year-old water rights during a state of emergency – rights that the service recognized as valid in 1916 – no state or local government will be safe from the feds.”
In the arid West, most cities and towns, including Cheyenne, Wyo., and the Denver metropolitan area, draw at least some of their water from collection systems on federal lands. In other parts of the nation, municipalities have their wells and other critical infrastructure sometimes on federal properties.
“By denying Tombstone access to its water, the Forest Service is threatening to directly regulate Tombstone to death,” the institute said.
The shortage developed because of the Monument Fire in 2011, which denuded the hillsides of vegetation. After the fire, record-breaking monsoon rains hit the region, triggering huge mudslides that left boulders the size of cars tumbling down hillsides.
The slides crushed Tombstone’s mountain spring waterlines and destroyed reservoirs for the town’s main water supply network.
“In some areas, Tombstone’s pipeline is under 12 feet of mud, rocks and other debris, while in other places, it is hanging in mid-air due to the ground being washed out from under it,” the institute reported.
However, instead of allowing repairs as has happened in the past, “federal bureaucrats are refusing to allow Tombstone to unearth its springs and restore its waterlines unless [city officials] jump through a lengthy permitting process that will require the city to use horses and hand tools to remove boulders the size of Volkswagens.”
Dranias told WND the organization expects to hear a decision on its request for a preliminary injunction by the end of next month.
He called the skirmish just the “tip of the iceberg.”
Our Federal government. Too arrogant, Too controlling, Too big. You need not declare a dictator, to rule with an iron fist. Overbearing regulations will do nicely.
Tags: constitutional government, goldwater institute, tombstone ariz, water rights
Boy, do I ever hate this racist, socialist CCO that we elected, who only represents 20% of the population. Was it Jefferson who said something to the extent that “A government big enought to give you everything is big enough to take everything away.”? Ignore Congress, ignore the Constitution and ignore the law; why, being a Chief Community Organizer is a piece of cake! And he gets to eat that, too!