The United States Forest Service has begun the process of revising The Coconino National Forest Plan. The process has just started with meetings for citizen input this October. There will be many more meetings and the process will take three years with a final plan to be adopted in March 2009.

This is a very important document to come before citizens in the Verde Valley, Sedona and Flagstaff areas. It will have a major impact on all the communities as far as tourism, land trades, resource management and conservation. It short, this revision will influence what happens to our communities and the surrounding Coconino National Forest.

Those of you who remember the revision of the current Forest Service Plan, known as Amendment 12, will recall that in the initial stages of planning the Forest Service proposed additional land trades. Citizens were very upset and loudly expressed their displeasure. The result was the Forest Service listened and eliminated the proposed trades.

The stakes will be even higher this time around because private land in the area is scarce and developers will lobby for trades.

Please attend the numerous upcoming meetings which will be announced in the newspapers and express your thoughts and ideas regarding this very important document.

Harry Easton

Four years aga a 58-acre farm off the Upper Red Rock Loop Road was sold. It had unparalleled view of Cathedral Rock, an historic residence and a small trailer park. Some of the property borders Caroll Canyon Wash and Oak Creek. BySynergy that bought the parcel announced it would build 212 homes on the site in townhouse fashion. The Red Rock Rural Community Association (RRRCA) became alarmed. The high-density cookie cutter housing units did not reflect the rural character of the area. And there was worry about water resources. Representatives of the RRRCA with the help of 4R members sat down with the developer to modify the proposal

Consequently the number of housing units was reduced to 106 to be sold as half-acre lots. A promise was made by the developer to pipe water from the Arizona Water Company down the hill to the development site. The county reviewed the plan, which is now known as Bella Terra. Bringing a water pipe required permission from the US Forest Service whose land it would encroach upon. The Forest Service made it clear that there was a precedent using the pathway provided by the Upper Red Rock Loop Road where a gas line was already in place. The developer preferred a shorter route down the old post road following the power lines down to the area; but the old post road would require an extensive NEPA process. The developer abandoned his plan and requested an amendment to the plat plan. He proposed to dig two deep wells to be operated by the Arizona Water Company.

At roughly the same time the community found that twenty shallow wells had gone dry within a few months; many of which had failed after a new well nearby had been dug by a new homeowner. The well digger had fractured the rock formation between the shallow aquifer and mid-sized aquifer such that the water drained from the shallower aquifer into the mid-sized aquifer. Fears of similar fate were aroused with the Bella Terra amendment to dig a still deeper well of 1,000 feet leaving those whose well depth was around 500 feet in jeopardy. The county supervisors voted 2 to 1 to approve the amendment citing that they had no jurisdiction over water issues.

Approval for wastewater disposal was now the next hurdle for the developer. A hearing on July 21 to obtain an Aquifer Protection Permit (APP) from the Arizona Department of Environment Quality drew a record number of citizens who expressed concerns about the proposed waste disposal facility. The developer proposed to use chlorination to “purify” the wastewater in a disposal field close to the wash. Over 200 people came to express their concerns; the library venue could hold only 100. The hearing lasted over five hours in two sessions. As a result developer proposed to amend the plan so that the effluent would be treated using an ultra violet process and dispose of the treated effluent in three disposal fields as well as periodic checks at the well head. A meeting about the revision took place on August 30. A hearing of that amended plan is set for Nov. 1 at the Sedona Red Rock High School Cafeteria.

There remain concerns about that “treated” water seeping back into the aquifer and into Oak Creek. Organic compounds, antibiotics. Hormones and other byproducts are essentially unaffected by the ultraviolet treatment and find their way back into the drinking water affecting humans, plants and wildlife. Unfortunately there are no standards set by governmental agencies to guide the process.

There continue to be concerns about the flood plain and its relationship to some of the building lots along the Oak Creek segment of the development. It is another long saga of land development and it’s relationship to water, wildlife and one of the remaining riparian areas in Arizona.

Sam Braun

The Red Rock Rural Community Association is concerned about A+ effluent from the Bella Terra development which expects to release 24,000 gallons daily. Through recharge this A+ wastewater can and will enter Oak Creek as well as the aquifer from which the 400 residents pump their water. The City of Sedona is considering a proposal to upgrade its sewage treatment facility and discharge A+ effluent into the aquifer. It's effluent is currently at a lower grade and sprayed onto the land.

Recently developed analytic methods can now detect contaminants at parts per trillion. A+ wastewater can contain traces of pharmaceuticals used by residents: antibiotics, anti-depressants, hormones from hormone replacement therapy, pain killers as ibuprofen as well as steroids, pesticides, hair dye and hundreds of other harmful contaminants. It is staggering to realize that roughly 100 new medications are developed yearly.

The effects of these contaminants on the environment and on the people who use this water are only beginning to be understood. In 2002 the US Geological Service published results of some of those man made contaminants including fertilizers and flame-retardants as well as pharmaceuticals. Animals that continually imbibe this broth are beginning to reveal abnormalities. Frogs and rats that develop infections and deformities when exposed to multiple pollutant even at extremely low levels. (Drugging the Waters by Elizabeth Royte in ONEARTH: Environment, Politics and People published by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Fall 2006 p. 28).

"We have the technology to take out everything," says Lynn Orphan, former President of the Water Environment Federation, which represents operators of municipal wastewater treatment plants. "We can use activated carbon or membrane filters with tiny pores. There is reverse osmosis filtration, which removes organic contaminants (in the article-cited p 31).

What kind of environment we want to live in and what we will bequeath to our children and grandchildren is before us. Let your representative know your thoughts and concern. The technology is in our grasp.

S

Broadside Opinion about the Alternative Route Study

The City Council passed funding for another alternative route study last October 10th by a vote of five to two. The cost will be close to $80,000. The cost of the time the city manager will be dedicating to it was not disclosed. Considering that Mr. Levitt is the highest paid employee on the staff, those hours will add up fast.

Obviously he has already spent many hours pursuing this. I would guess that he would have to sacrifice other tasks that citizens expect of him and his staff. The way I see it, if Mr. Levitt has time to lavish on this sort of a shot in the dark, what important matters does he handle, anyway? Maybe he just doesn’t have enough to do, since he’s already spent so many hours on this “welfare for developers” study. I found it irksome the way Mr. Levitt made a five-minute summary of points advocating the study – right before the council voted. Not that it really had any affect, but with a public servant like him, who needs enemies? If I had my druthers, I’d prefer an administrator with a smattering of the conservationist in his/her outlook!

Of course everyone at the meeting understood that the mayor and the four of the six council members would approve the plan. Their positions were clear from their campaign rhetoric. Positions chiseled in granite, this group is a classic example of organizational groupthink as exemplified by JFK’s “Bay of Pigs” nearly disastrous fiasco. Inflexibility and ignorance invites disasters. A more diverse, open, and collaborative group might avert such an outcome by making changes as new knowledge and insight becomes available.

The primary advocate of the alternative route studies besides the usual real estate investors and developers is apparently the “Sedona 30” who had one of their members read the same letter they had read at and sent to the Fire District Board earlier this year. They more than likely have generously funded CFAR as well as the current “Sedona 5” council.

The Sedona 5 made many public statements presenting their opinions as facts. Thankfully Steve DeVol, who owned and operated Sedona’s #1 photography shop for years, recorded the meeting on video. I’ll see if I can get hold of a copy to do some analysis of the talking point stances of the Sedona five. That ought to be interesting.

The Mayor claims that the Coffee Pot/Mt. Shadows connector has made 89A much safer in case of an accident. Either she’s pulling the wool over ignorant voter’s eyes, or she really believes that a little subdivision road can handle traffic density that exceeds its capacity by 100x or so. In her dreams!

When I pointed out to Mr. Bradshaw after the meeting that there was no way of knowing whether putting a connector route to the Village with a bridge “somewhere” over Oak Creek would actually alleviate traffic congestion in West Sedona. I asked, “What if it doesn’t work after all the time and the expenditure of perhaps $50 million or more?" He assured me that he has all the information he needs to be confident that West Sedona’s traffic will be considerably reduced. But this topic needs to be brought to the forefront and kept there.

The public participation of 20 out of 22 speakers expressed heart-felt concerns about the expenditure of such a considerable sum of money for such a doubtful study. The dissenting two opinions included a representative of the Sedona 30, John Wesnitzer, and a local real estate agent, Ron Volkman. However, the public’s love for Sedona left me with a warm feeling. We came prove that the Sedona 5 does not represent many of us! Two of the councilmen were wisely in opposition, Harvey Stearn and Rob Adams. One thing everyone in the chambers understood that evening is that this project will never fly so long as the citizens of Sedona are in conflict over the alternative route issue. The $76,835 "Transportation Route Study" is really intended to serve as a taxpayer funded propaganda scheme for CFAR and the “Sedona 30” to keep the issue alive and to continue to promote it. I really don’t believe $76,835 will go all that far. Those of us who honor and seek to conserve what little untrammeled land is left, especially in the Oak Creek area, must do what we can to trivialize it whenever legally and reasonably possible.

We have the power to assertively dissent at every opportunity with civility, strength and flexibility. We still have the power to obstruct, and we must use it! Remember, those pushing for this project have failed so far, and the likelihood of success is no greater now than it ever was. So far, so good! Remember a few good people can still make a big difference in the world! But also, the more advocates of conservation we have working together, the better! Look, if I can keep up the faith for 17 years, it really can't be so bad. And there’s no bridge down there yet!

Patrick Hickey has lived in Sedona since March 1989, and has opposed a bridge over Red Rock Crossing since then. He has often spoken out and written letters to the editor over the years. He has also served on the 4Rs Admin team since the mid-‘90s

Please vote on November 7^th

Give some consideration to Liza Vernet who is running for the Sedona Fire District Board. Board. She is a certified rural firefighter from the state of Alaska where she

was involved in a rural volunteer fire department.