[Domangart]

This is going to be an interesting case. On the one hand the city has several wells that have had the buried pipe to the water supply washed out. The feds say that you must do the work by hand. Everyone knows that if you run a tracked vehicle over these areas you wikk get vast washouts. Patton ran his tanks over the Mohave and you can still see the tracks. That area of the Southwest has flash floods all the time. What a mess.

[DesertRhino]

Your argument only makes sense if you assert the feds have the final word. Read up on this. This was the Tombstone water supply a few decades before there even was a national forest. Hell,, it was Tombstones water before Arizona was a state.
The last one to the party does not get to assert the rule there. They must honor water rights, period. And asserting that you can only use hand tools is a “taking”.
They can stamp their feet all they want, but the feds will lose this one. This is childish to worry about one pipeline repair when a whole city has lost it’s water.

[Mr Rogers]

The Huachacua Mtns are not arid desert. It wouldn’t harm squat to use heavy equipment to remove tons of debris.

“Several weeks ago, the Forest Service stopped Tombstone from bringing in a wheelbarrow for the repairs.

Why on earth?

Rangers say the Wilderness Act prohibits “motorized” or “mechanized” equipment because it might damage the wilderness and disturb endangered species...The rangers insisted the wheelbarrow was “mechanized” because it had a wheel.”

Good article on CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/10/us/tombstone-water-fight/index.html

The water pipes were installed in 1881 - and no, this is NOT a real wilderness area. In places in Arizona, paved roads were removed so that the government could pretend a place qualified as ‘wilderness’. This is the arrogance of the USFS - an organization I worked for 30 years ago, back before it became a haven for radical environmentalists.

“The city now insists it owns all 25 springs outright, and has the right to maintain five acres around each one, as well as 25 feet on either side of the pipeline. The city says it doesn’t need anybody’s permission to work on its own property.

“We had to fight to buy that water line in 1947, and we won,” Sosa said. “We own that water line. In 1977, we had a similar fire, and we went in and made the repairs. In 1983, more fires again, and we’re still here.” Miller Peak became a federally protected wilderness in 1984.” - CNN

[AZHSer]

The sad thing is the Feds use machinery up there all the time to maintain the trails and roads and the BP and Forestry guys use ATVs off road to chase illegals. If its good for the goose...The wash outs won’t be any worse than what was caused after the fires and just maybe they can help restore the areas.