[ADEQ Media] ADEQ Director Owens Announces $13, 000 Water Quality Improvement Grant to Coronado National Forest

[media@lists.azdeq.gov]

ADEQ Director Owens Announces $13,000 Water Quality Improvement Grant to
Coronado National Forest 

PHOENIX (June 20, 2008) - Arizona Department of Environmental Quality
Director Steve Owens today announced that the department has awarded a
$13,000 Water Quality Improvement Grant to Coronado National Forest to
protect the border area's watershed. 

"We are pleased to support this important effort to protect the Santa
Cruz River watershed," Director Owens said. "This grant will help reduce
sedimentation problems in the River."

The project will reduce sediment loading in the Santa Cruz River by
emphasizing better grazing management by building a 1-mile fence in a
strategic gap in Sycamore and Providencia canyons. That area contains
tributaries of the Santa Cruz River in the borderlands region of
Southern Arizona.

The fence will keep livestock out of the waterways and prevent
degradation of the riparian area caused by sedimentation. The
disturbance of riparian areas by cattle drinking from the water source
loosens the soil. That increases the sedimentation in the immediate area
and down river and can carry nutrients, fertilizer and micro-organisms
into the water.  

The fencing also will keep Off-Highway Vehicles from the waterways along
Sycamore Canyon, where their use is common.

The project is part of a larger private-public partnership in the
Sycamore and Providencia canyon areas to enhance water quality and
includes public education about protecting watersheds.  The project
covers nearly 55 square miles on the west side of the Patagonia
Mountains.

The ADEQ grant is the first in five years for a water improvement
project in Coronado National Forest. The grant is funded with federal
dollars provided to ADEQ under the Clean Water Act.

-30-

News media interested in additional information on this or any other
topic concerning the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality should
contact the Office of Communications at (602) 771-2215 or via email at
communications@azdeq.gov.

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