Cochise supervisors approve $300,000 land purchase for Bisbee effluent recharge project over one dissent

Cochise County supervisors voted 2-1 to approve a $300,000 purchase agreement for two parcels intended for the Bisbee effluent recharge project, the county's flood control district meeting heard. The parcels are listed as 10474101D104-80-0013A and 10474010B; the buyer is the county and the sellers are recorded as Mark Nabel and Kathleen Haines.

Supporters told the board the purchase is a necessary next step for a years-long effort to return treated effluent to the San Pedro River watershed. “We know from over 25 years of monitoring that groundwater and surface water flows in this segment of the river have been declining severely due to drought and pumping in Mexico,” said Mark Appel, who said he worked on the project and represented the Cochise Conservation and Recharge Network.

The city of Bisbee also urged approval. “The city of Bisbee is all in on this,” said Steve Pauken, city manager for Bisbee, noting the city secured a $2 million WIFA grant to locate a pump house near the city outfall and that engineering work on the pipeline design is underway.

Opponents urged caution over water quality and regulatory compliance. “Please don't poison our wells,” said Jack Ricky Vial, who said he feared contaminants including PFAS in effluent could affect dozens of wells. Vial and other speakers referenced an estimate that the project could affect about 64 wells within the subflow.

Rancher John Isaacson, representing more than 110 people who live within a mile of the San Pedro, described family reliance on shallow groundwater and surface flows: “The river runs through our property,” he said, and added concerns about impacts to organic beef operations and multi‑generation family use of the river.

A board member, Supervisor Crosby, moved to table the purchase for about three months to allow a broader review of county water issues; that motion received no second and was not considered. The original motion to approve the purchase then carried 2-1. The transcript does not record which supervisor cast the single dissenting vote.

County staff and the board clarified that the vote covered only the land purchase; supervisors said future project work, including pipeline routing and effluent transfer, will be addressed in upcoming work sessions and must comply with EPA and Arizona Department of Environmental Quality rules if discharge occurs. County staff noted prior steps completed for the site, including appraisal, title search, environmental assessment and preliminary hydrologic analysis funded in part by Fort Huachuca, and that the board previously approved a 25-year effluent lease with the city of Bisbee.

Public commenters and several supervisors requested that Bisbee and other partners be included in forthcoming technical briefings and work sessions. An attendee who identified herself as Allison Morse asked the board to clarify how speaker-request forms are handled and noted that many submitted forms indicated support or opposition without requiring public reading of names into the record.

The purchase approval preserves the county's option to acquire a property the board and partners said was hard to find after six years of searching; speakers warned a delay could jeopardize the sale. County staff said if future regulatory or technical work prevents proceeding with discharge, the county could sell the parcel.

The board moved on after the vote; the flood control district meeting was adjourned to the jail district meeting.