(Dr. Robin Silver claims) In my humble Opinion he is a liar. Or is telling a LIE or is anti-American and anti-Military and wants the military to leave Huch-a-chuch. But then there would be NO SV or anything else in that place, having served there when there were only trailer parks in SV.
Thanks for the post - I drove thru there last month on a visit, still nice as ever.
Silver IIRC is the one that said "people need to get over the outdated notion of private property" or words to that effect.
As far as the water is concerned, independent research shows conditions will get worse, growth or not.
http://www.srnr.arizona.edu/nemo/newsitems/SVHeraldKoehlerSP.pdf.
http://www.tucson.ars.ag.gov/salsa/news/meetings_and_events/ahs_symposium1998.html#anchor296350
http://www.tucson.ars.ag.gov/salsa/news/meetings_and_events/ahs_symposium1998.html (for many more papers on the San Pedro river system)
From the Bisbee Times
Saying there are "tons of information already available," Childress said more data may have to be obtained before the committee can make a conclusion to present to all the partnership's members.
Without scientific conclusions, the group's policy makers, which include Sierra Vista and Cochise County elected officials and himself, cannot make logical decisions, Childress said.
Close prediction
A former county hydrologist Rick Koehler predicted that the Charleston gauge would go dry in 2006. Childress said he was a year off.
Koehler, who was hired by the county in July 1997, advised many times that growth and Mother Nature caused decreasing flows in the river. In 1999, Koehler noted that monsoon flows lessened and the summer rains were starting later.
With a delay in the summer monsoon, more water from the area's water table is used, especially by vegetation along the river, Koehler once said.
In 2000, he said the lessening of the water flow passed the Charleston gauge "doesn't appear to be a problem - yet."
In a Jan. 11, 2000, article in the Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review, Koehler said groundwater pumping is part of the river's problem.
Koehler now works for a federal agency in Colorado and could not be reached for additional comment.
Biological Diversity Center Board Chairman Dr. Robin Silver immediately jumped on the first report of the river drying up at the Charleston gauge.
On July 9, he sent out a news release stating "excessive deficit groundwater pumping on the Fort Huachuca/Sierra Vista (area) is now directly affecting (the) an Pedro River base flow."
According to figures from The Nature Conservancy, water flow that passed the gauge in six Junes - 1999 to 2004 - was normally less than 2 cubic feet per second, except for 2001 when it was slightly more than 3 cfs. A cfs equals 71/2 gallons of water going past a specific point in a second.
From what I can tell Koehler and Silver have crossed swords more than once. Silver makes the Fort as the primary villian, Koehler sees wider issues. Koehler did independent studies of the San Pedro to get his Doctorate, and developed a new raster based charting schema to show the decline in water flows over time. Real science.
