Government
Is Keeping Tombstone, Ariz., From Accessing Drinking Water
Tombstone, Arizona, once dubbed
“The Town Too
Tough To Die,” may finally have met its match in the Obama Administration.
According to a lawsuit filed
against the United States Department of Agriculture, Secretary of Agriculture
Tom Vilsack, and the USDA Forest Service by the Arizona-based Goldwater
Institute, the Forest Service is endangering the town’s supply of safe drinking
water and ability to fight fires by cutting off the famous city’s access to the
mountain springs that has provided the desert town with water since the 1880s.
In documents filed with the United States District Court in
Tucson, the Goldwater Institute on behalf of the Town of
Tombstone accuses the federal government of “enforcing fealty to an arbitrary,
capricious and unlawful interpretation of federal law [the Wilderness Act] by requiring
Tombstone to use hand tools and suggesting using horses to restore its water supply.”
The problem began after the Monument Fire in 2011 ravaged the Huachuca Mountains home to the pipelines that carry the town’s water down from the source in the Miller Canyon Wilderness Area.
In July of that year, rains
were so heavy that enormous boulders (“some the size of Volkswagens”) careered
down the mountains destroying the waterlines (some segments are reportedly
buried beneath 12 feet of mud) and choking reservoirs, effectively leaving
Tombstone high and dry.
So devastating was the effect
of the storms that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer
declared a state of emergency specifically including
Tombstone within the emergency zone. Later, the state legislature appropriated
funds to help the town restore its water supply infrastructure damaged by the
deluge.
In the months since the
record-breaking storms, the federal government has thrown up one roadblock
after another blocking Tombstone’s attempts to send machinery up the mountain
to repair the pipes and clear the debris that is threatening the lives and
safety of its nearly 1,600 residents.
So aggressive have been the
Obama Administration’s efforts to impede Tombstone officials from accessing the
affected area that plaintiffs in the case aver that the Forest Service has
demanded that nothing more sophisticated than a wheelbarrow and hand tools be
used by workers hired by the city to haul away the car-sized boulders.
Citing provisions of the
Wilderness Act forbidding the use of heavy machinery, the USDA Forest Service
is making unreasonable demands on the town of Tombstone and is daily
multiplying the risks of irrevocable harm the government’s opposition is posing
to residents.
The Obama Administration’s obstinacy is even more inexplicable in light of the fact that the water rights granted to Tombstone by the previous title owners predate the enactment of the Wilderness Act by about 80 years.
Why is the Forest Service
determined to destroy Tombstone? The fact that there is no discernible answer
to that question is perhaps the most perplexing aspect of the federal
government’s posture in this case.
Despite the filing by the
Goldwater Institute of a Freedom of Information Act request for relevant
documents, the Forest Service has refused to comply with the request unless the
Goldwater Institute pays nearly $80,000. The Forest Service demands the payment
of the exorbitant fee because it argues that the Institute has “a commercial
interest” in the information sought in the petition thus disqualifying it for a
non-profit fee waiver.
What does the Obama
Administration have to hide? Why would they take such a inveterate stance
against a town with no other agenda than the repair of critical water supply
lines?
Could it be that the government
is protecting some sort of endangered species? Is the saving of some animal’s
natural habitat more important to the government than saving the lives of
hundreds of Arizonans who are being deprived of the life-giving liquid?
If the feds have their way
these important questions will go unanswered unless the Goldwater Institute
pays the $80,000. Hence the lawsuit.
Fortunately, there are few
groups as equipped to pursue this legal remedy as the Goldwater
Institute. Founded in 1988 and named for the late Arizona
Senator Barry Goldwater, the duly registered 501(c)(3) organization believes
“in the power of the states to restore America to the founding principles that
made it a beacon of opportunity, prosperity, and freedom.” To that end, the
Institute researches and develops programs that aid states in protecting their
sovereignty through the application of constitutional principles of liberty.
In its suit against the Forest
Service, the Goldwater Institute is representing the City of Tombstone and is
asserting the town’s right to repair the pipelines and reservoirs by invoking
the Tenth Amendment reservation to the states (and by association any
subdivision thereof) of all powers not specifically granted by the Constitution
to the national government.
The Tenth Amendment reads:
The
powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited
by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the People.
Accordingly, the Goldwater
complaint points out that the Constitution does not grant to the federal
government the authority to prevent a town from “using and enjoying their
property in order to fulfill the essential functions of protecting public
health and safety.” Particularly, it should be mentioned when the federal
government adamantly (and illegally) refuses to disclose its purpose in taking
preposterous position that it may place a deadly choke hold around a city’s
water supply.
In an article chronicling the affair published on its website, the Goldwater Institute summarizes its
principal argument against the Forest Service:
The 10th Amendment protects
states and their subdivisions from federal regulations that impede their
ability to fulfill essential health and safety functions. Just as the federal
government cannot regulate the States, it cannot regulate political
subdivisions of the States, like the City of Tombstone. And despite what power
it may claim, the Forest Service certainly has no power to regulate Tombstone to
death.
Hugh Holub, the late water rights expert
and Arizona resident, expressed his learned opinion of the relationship between
rapine rights and the federal government’s usurpation of public land in this
way: “Though the water may originate on National Forest lands, Bureau of Land
Management lands, and other federally managed lands, the rights to that water
belongs to the farms and ranches and cities.” Apparently, lawyers for the Obama
Administration disagree.
As relief, the plaintiffs are asking Judge Frank Zapata to immediately enjoin the defendants from interfering with Tombstone’s efforts to conduct the necessary repairs to the water supply infrastructure (including the use of all necessary heavy machinery) and that he issue an order requiring the appropriate agencies of the federal government “to immediately issue the necessary or modified permits under its emergency jurisdiction without unreasonable restrictions….”
Otherwise, as Nick Dranias, the
Goldwater Institute’s constitutional policy director, explains, “If there is a
reason for the Forest Service to threaten the lives and properties of Tombstone
residents, the federal government should tell us what it is.”
Source: http://thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/11228-federal-government-is-keeping-tombstone-arizona-from-accessing-drinking-water
Comments:
The Agenda 21
plan here is to force homeowners from their property and bankrupt them to
boot. Where will they go ? They will find a government
subsidized apartment to rent in a transit village in a large metro
area….comrade.
Norb Leahy Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
No comments:
Post a Comment