Customer asked:

Can CWC get grants from entities like the White Elephant, CWC is a not for profit.

You could step back and say--let Augusta furnish its own pipeline, and GV can find funds for a pipeline from state or county, but won't it be sensible that the combine resources and make a bigger pipeline. Emphasize the possibility for Augusta recharging water here instead of Marana even before they start pumping.

Dear Customer,

Community Water certainly appreciates your thoughts relative to grants and the observation that combining grants could be helpful. However, we have invested in some grant requests in the last few years and the results have not been productive. Generally Community Water is considered too large to qualify for most grant awards.

I realize that the White Elephant may have different standards, but we would prefer to offer our support to the many needy charitable organizations in Pima and Santa Cruz counties that are not in a position to be legitimately supported by a customer base.

I fail to see the value in having Augusta furnish its own pipeline in the present situation. Perhaps you can help us out. Community Water does not see why the taxpayers should be expected to provide the pipeline to enable water to be recharged by Augusta to replace the water Augusta plans to withdraw for their mining operation. This appears to be a typical result where the person causing a problem escapes from paying to fix the problem.

Put another way, this same result would be obtained if Augusta had not agreed to recharge water near where the planned water withdrawals are to be made, and then thirty years later, after the mine is closed, the community says that the Augusta pumped out all of that ground water from our aquifer and the only remedy available to us is to tax our county residents and seek federal and state funding to build a pipeline, buy CAP water (if its available) and recharge. This is then followed by the community holding meetings to insist that the government should do something so that we don't have to restore the environment after a mining operation is closed.

The next item that Community Water is puzzled by has to do with having Augusta build and own their pipeline and recharge facility. This would seem to put Augusta in the same situation of being accused that they are doing this is to persuade the community that they are doing a good thing. This time Augusta would run press releases in the newspapers. Again Augusta would receive a lot of free publicity about trying to convince the public that they are an environmentally concerned company.

Community Water believes that the responsible action to take is to have Augusta fund our water delivery system whether or not the Rosemont Mine is approved. o If the Rosemont Mine is not approved, we will have received funding for early construction of our water delivery system. If the Rosemont Mine is approved, we will have received funding to provide for local recharge of CAP water to offset the water with-drawls that the Rosemont Mine will make.

After all, the Federal Government is the responsible party for whether or not the Rosemont Mine is approved and is unlikely to be swayed by any public actions that Augusta takes as a good neighbor.

Sincerely,

Arturo Gabaldón

Community Water Company of Green Valley