Where's Wyatt Earp when you need him?
by:Bob Unruh
Historic Western Town Fights Feds over very existence:
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.”
He said there is evidence that the Forest Service under Barack Obama’s leadership is adopting a comprehensive plan “to clear federal lands of any private or non-federal uses.”
read more: http://www.wnd.com/2012/04/historic-western-town-fights-feds-over-very-existence/
Seems a new gang of bullies is
terrorizing the good citizens of Tombstone, Ariz. -- cutting them off
from their primary source of drinking water ... stealing water rights
adjudicated nearly a century ago.
And the name of this gang of water rustlers? The U.S. Forest Service.by:Bob Unruh
Historic Western Town Fights Feds over very existence:
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 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.”
He said there is evidence that the Forest Service under Barack Obama’s leadership is adopting a comprehensive plan “to clear federal lands of any private or non-federal uses.”
read more: http://www.wnd.com/2012/04/historic-western-town-fights-feds-over-very-existence/
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