PHX restores river, Tucson hordes water for sprawl

PHX healed part of the Salt near downtown, while SoAZ's Santa Cruz remains an abused dusty ditch.

TUCSON -- If Phoenix can restore part of the Salt River, then we can restore the Santa Cruz River here in 'green' Tucson, right?

Full restoration of the Santa Cruz River should be a no-brainer, especially in the downtown area where it would be a big attraction to people and wildlife.

But even with our 'Rio Nuevo/New River' project, the forces of urban sprawl greed in Pima County want more water for development, not so much for river healing. We can't heal the Santa Cruz without putting enough water back in her.

Santa Cruz in 1942 (top) v. now (below)

Congressman Grijalva (D-AZ) is trying to help with federal funding to restore the Santa Cruz from downtown to the south, but clearly Tucsonans need to up the pressure on the City Council and County Supervisors to support real river restoration and quality of life, instead of just hording water for the next million people developers want to move in to metro-Tucson.

Tucson, Pima County, the state and feds can and should dedicate the water and money to fully restore the Santa Cruz.