A building moratorium needed in this water crisis

Since I live just one block from the Rockaway Hills storage tank site and own Cave Creek property about a quarter mile away, neighbors invited me to participate in their meetings to oppose the new tank. Of interest to me was that the town would use water stored in this tank to facilitate development on Continental Mountain.

Many of us, including town officials, fought very hard in 2001 to defeat the proposed monstrous development planned on that mountain. We all watched and cried as hundreds of giant saguaros were torn from their roots, the killing of desert wildlife, and bulldozers cut high, steep grades into the mountainside. So, yes, I became involved.

It is incredulous how this very same town council could approve, in the last 18 months, hundreds of new condos, thousands and thousands of new commercial square footage and many new home developments. How could they look the Rockaway Hills homeowners in the eye and say “there is not enough water storage, the lines are breaking, we have a lack of water pressure to serve the few fire hydrants we have, there is a safety issue and we need this larger storage tank?”

If the Cave Creek Water Company is in such disrepair, then where is the building moratorium? If true that the town cannot meet the water demand to provide public welfare and safety for present citizens as stated by the Rural/Metro fire marshal, why isn’t there a curtailing of growth?

If water supply deteriorates even more so and existing customers become impacted, it is inequitable to expect existing customers to make painful cuts in water use and, at the same time, add new users. There isn’t a court in the land that would not uphold this town’s decision for a building moratorium, considering that public safety and welfare is greatly jeopardized with a failing, falling down, broken water infrastructure.

Additionally, crucial disclosures were being kept secret from all of us as to why this storage tank was not going in at the Phoenix Mine Site as planned. We were told one thing by the town management, only to learn that information was false. Inevitably, it brings to mind the exchange between Claude Rains and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, which aptly gives essence to this dispute over the Rockaway Hills water tank:

Captain Renault: What in heaven’s name brought you to Casablanca?

Rick: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.

Captain Renault: The waters? What waters? We’re in the desert.

Rick: I was misinformed.

Anna Marsolo
Cave Creek