Resident warns Sahuarita council Project Renew(s) won’t close water gap, urges a 'plan B'
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Summary
A public commenter accused Hudbay/Project Renew(s) of understating water needs and called on the town to establish contingency planning after presenting numbers that alleged a multi-hundred-thousand-acre-foot shortfall over coming years.
A public commenter used the meeting’s public-comment period to challenge claims made in a prior presentation about Project Renew(s) (Hudbay Minerals). The commenter said Project Renew(s) would rely heavily on Central Arizona Project (CAP) water and cited CAP and Colorado River allocations, Lake Mead storage levels, and the 2022 Colorado River pact as context for possible supply reductions.
The commenter read numerical estimates into the record: a claimed Project Renew(s) mining-extraction need of about 8,400,000 gallons per day (presented as 9,409.2 acre-feet per year / roughly 3,000,000,000 gallons — speaker expressed these as their calculations), and staff/project claims of recharge of about 7,000 acre-feet per year. The commenter concluded that the project would therefore leave a shortfall on the order of 2,400 acre-feet per year (about 782,000,000 gallons annually) and said the data presented to the community were "speculative and questionable." They urged the town to produce a contingency 'plan B' for securing adequate water instead of relying on Project Renew(s).
Council did not take action during public comment but the remarks were acknowledged by council and staff; the commenter said the community has "time growing short" regarding water-supply decisions.
