The Goldwater Institute recently tipped me off to another tragedy brewing from the liberal practice of over-government and extreme bureaucracy.
The United States Government, by way of the National Forest Service, is trying to kill the city of Tombstone, Arizona.
What happened? Well...
Tombstone is a desert city that gets most of its water from pipelines running up into the Huachuca Mountains, which is Federally protected Park land. These water rights pre-date the existence of the U.S. Forest Service.
Tombstones pipelines were badly damaged recently and are in dire need of repair. A large fire -- The Monument Fire in 2011 -- stripped the hillsides of needed vegetation. The next seasons rains brought mudslides which exposed pipelines or damaged them through large boulders moving in these mudslides. Tombstone needs to send heavy equipment into the mountains to repair this damage.
Ahh... but there's the rub.
The Forest Service won't allow them to do this.
This is a crucial Tenth Amendment case and as such, the Goldwater Institute is following it very closely. I'm on the side of Tombstone in this matter. I believe in States Rights and I support the Goldwater Institute.
The Institutes quote on this issue says it all...
“If the Forest Service can effectively seize Tombstone’s 130-year-old water rights during a state of emergency – rights that the service recognized as valid in 1916 – no state or local government will be safe from the feds.”
